During a recent visit to Santa Cruz, I stopped in at Cafe Gratitude, an excellent vegan restaurant. If you’re in the area, it is well worth a visit. Warning: This post may make you uncomfortably hungry. Let’s dive in!
Tacos with additional avocado and a vegan ceasar salad. These were fantastic but very messy to eat.
Closeup of the tacos. A great mix of flavors with a good tomatillo sauce.
Vegan BLT with a side of potatoes. This was really quite good. The side of potatoes managed to satisfy my father, who is has very high standards when it comes to fried potatoes.
The “I Am Fulfilled” salad with mixed greens, carrots, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, sprouts, almond-sunflower parmesan, and spiced almond garnish. This was good but much less substantial than the BLT or the tacos.
A key lime pie. This was quite good although I would’ve liked the crust at the bottom to be just slightly crisper.
The founders of the restaurant, on the wall. Her son now owns the Santa Cruz location which is operated separately from the LA/San Diego locations (which share some, but not all, menu items). While the Southern California locations do also have vegan cuisine, they seem much less hippy and earthy than the Santa Cruz location which seems to be less glam. 
The interior of the cafe. 
A view of the entrance in downtown Santa Cruz. 
A selection of their desserts. We had the chocolate spice cake, and one of the chocolate and seed balls on the bottom shelf.
Cafe Gratitude has a great selection of tasty vegan dishes. I particularly loved the tacos, and the BLT was good as well. The deserts had that vegan dessert feeling of being tasty yet not overly sugary or unhealthy. If you’re in the area, Cafe Gratitude Santa Cruz is a worthwhile visit.
If you’re traveling around the world check out our guides to the best vegetarian restaurants in Hong Kong, Stockholm, Seoul, and Auckland.
