Jocelyn L.
Yelp
I'm not a vegan or vegetarian, but once we saw that the chef from Sons and Daughters had come down to Santa Cruz and opened this restaurant, we were open to trying it. Reviews were great too.
I got the Tofu Banh Mi, which was decent, but very small. It was $13, and it seemed like a small kid's portion. The house cut French Fries were really great, probably our favorite item. My husband got the California Burger, which had all the regular fixings of a real burger, but just having this black bean patty, which did taste strange to us. I'm one of those believers that food should taste how it comes in life - i.e. if it's black beans, we should eat them as black beans, not some weird constructed patty. But that's just me. Going back to the burger - I think that if it had been a regular meat patty, I would have really enjoyed it. We also got these green beans appetizer to get some greens in, and they were not cooked enough - way too raw. Also, they were too lemony - the flavor wasn't right ont hat either.
The ambiance is kind of cute, a to-go style cafe where you order at the front, then find your table. I liked the bold colors and design. The menu is on the wall, and although it looks cute, is actually quite hard to read with the all caps and cut out letters - not my preference. I also find the restaurant name to be quite hard to remember "Pretty Good Advice" is a mouthful and just a phrase that doesn't stick.
I think if I had vegan/vegetarian friends that needed a place to eat, we could take them here? Honestly, I don't have any vegan or vegetarian friends, and even if I did, I still wouldn't really want to return here. Just an average, and therefore disappointing meal.