Crown Cafe Catering

I generally really like this place. I have never had a bad sandwich or bad customer service. I hate that I’m even having to write this Unilocal and only giving them 3 stars, but today I felt so uncomfortable. I went in and tried ordering two different types of panini and they didn’t have the meat for either, one which is totally fine, I could order any sandwich and be happy. What made me leave was the way that the woman making the sandwiches was talking to the girl trying to cashier. From when I arrived she was belittling the cashier, speaking down on her basically treating her like garbage and all she was trying so was her job. I ended up leaving without ordering anything because there was no way I wanted to eat a sandwich made with hate for lunch.

I’ve eaten here before, and been to events they have catered, and everything seemed fine. What has changed? Today I stopped in for lunch, was greeted in a very friendly manner, ordered a Cobb Salad. It appeared to be a generous and nicely arranged portion of greens, chicken, bacon, cucumber, hardboiled egg. Unfortunately the cubes of chicken were like little bricks: dry and tough. Then, I spent most of my lunch hour picking garbage out of the greens: globs of rotten lettuce, wilted pieces of lettuce with brown ends, crushed lettuce leaves with no life left in them. This is one of my pet peeves, now that restaurants can get pre-​washed and bagged greens, they’ve become too lazy to prepare salads properly, just open the bag and dump it onto a plate. A lot of times the greens are well past their prime. I gave up on the greens, ate the bacon, cucumber, and hardboiled egg, and called it a day. When I drew the staff’s attention to the large pile of inedible greens I had removed from my plate, they just said, gee, sorry about that. I suggested if they were going to use bagged salad greens they might want to look them over, and I was told they don’t have time to go through all their greens before serving them. Yuck. Won’t be eating here again!

I lov the tri tip sanwich here absolutely favororite I go every other week and have the Market tri tip. Customer service is always amazing the gentlemen who used to mange it here Andrew is amazing… However I went yesterday and came to find out there is a new manager Journey who was completly rude. I asked for my usual and sons plain turkey and cheese sandwich. She swept trash and picked it up left me waiting for awhile… then with her dirty gloves went to grab turkey and prepare to make a sandwich but before she could start she droped mayo and smeered it on the stainless steel surface (i could see the streak marks of mayo) with a napkin leaving the surface dirty and full of mayo totally gross. Then she accidentally added tomatoes and lettice in my sons panini sandwich and decided it was best to pick all the soggy tomatoes/​lettice off rather than make a new one… and when I told her im sorry my son isnt gonna eat that hes gonna see the tomatoe juice and soggy lettice that stayed stuck in the melted cheese she got really defensive and said well they come already premade with tomatoes? I said im sorry but I come here all the time and Andrew makes my sons sandwich everytime… She replied well «He Not The Manager Here I Am Now» compleatly rude !! I will never eat here and would recomend any potential customers make sure she grabs clean GLOVES.

We have used Crown Café Catering on several occasions, and they are the best! The tri-​tip is a hit every time! Mikey and Ron and catering staff are great to work with. We are so lucky to have them in our area.
I used another caterer from Santa Cruz, and they were extremely expensive and the service was NOT FRIENDLY! We had to use them due to the fact that they were on the venues «list of approved caterers» :((((

This place has the best meat you’ll find at a sandwich spot, and they BBQ the tri tip out front. Also have great service and pretty good price

I read some of the Unilocal reviews here that said that the food wasn’t that good, but we gave it a try! I had the veggie panini, with eggplant, peppers, and mozzarella, and I thought it was very nicely made! The restaurant has a very casual and diner-​like feeling to it.

Both times I went the service was ridiculously slow. I ordered the tri top sandwich and no exaggeration it took 30 mins to get (keep in mind there were only 4 other people in the place) and then when I finally got it the tri tip was cold and it just seemed like they toasted hero bread with cheese to finish it off. Very disappointed. Overall the food is ok –not bad quality but the service is poor.

When I read some of the Unilocal reviews I thought, «Are we all talking about the same place?»
«Food is terrible…» «…the worst sandwich I have ever had…» «sandwiches aren’t very good»
Wow, I really am sorry for those people’s experiences, that’s no fun. HOWEVER, I have to say that has never been my experience… I think the food is really good and the guy working there (Andrew) is great with customers. I’ve never been at lunch time, it’s always been around 6pm or so when I go — he is personable, friendly, professional & the food has been really good every time.
I’m glad the store is in Capitola!

This is the worst sandwich I have ever had I think. I got the Rustic Chicken Panini, which has tender rotisserie chicken, garlic, olive oil, basil and sundried tomatoes according to the menu.
What I received was dried out chicken, to the point the edges were hard, no garlic, no olive oil and 3 wilted tiny basil leaves. Ick. I did order it without the sundried tomatoes so maybe that is where the garlic and olive oil were too. I ended up just eating a bread and cheese sandwich for $ 7.50.
I won’t be back. There are too many other sandwich places around to eat this stuff.

Food here is terrible now. It wasn’t always this way. The only reason this place gets 2 stars is because the staff is friendly and they want to please. I know it’s not their fault that they are getting shitty produce and meat from Ben Lomond. It’s like this place is an after thought to the Ben Lomond market.
When the food use to be good, they had an amazing staff line up. Once they sort of changed that around, I saw a lot of newbies whom weren’t too concerned or didn’t know about quality control. It is sad to see how far it has fallen.

Food was on par with that of Subway, but half the size and twice the price.
I ordered a meatball sub to go. It took them 20 minutes to get it to me. While I was waiting I noticed there were 6 employees on hand but only 3 were doing anything. They were making food for an ordered that was called in before I got there, which is understandable. However the 3 employees standing around is not. The three employees making food worked with the speed of a sedated hippo. Two other customers came in, ordered, and got their food before I did.
Meanwhile I was offered 3 different sandwiches that were not mine. The employees have 0 communication skills between each other and between customers.
⁷⁄₁₀ for the food
²⁄₁₀ for the service
²⁄₁₀ for the price

Food is great and they have the best gluten free bread I have ever tasted. I highly recommend the smoke stack.
Service is friendly but tends to be very slow, even when they’re not very busy.
Price is on the high side.

Best sandwich place in Capitola. I always get the smoke stack and I am never disappointed. Great value at a great price! Even my EXTREMELY picky girlfriend enjoyed her sandwich! That is a big score for this place! She pretty much hates every other sandwich spot around town! If you haven’t been here yet, definitely give it a try! You won’t be disappointed!

The food is delicious, if they remember to put everything in your «to go order». If not, it’s your fault for not reminding them of the items you’ve ordered, upon arrival. I’m so glad it’s my job to babysit the workers of this shop, in order to get my food. I was unaware of such, until yesterday. Sorry folks, it’s my fault!

HATE THIS PLACE. Been here 3 times now and I always bothered by the lack of vegetarian options-​unless you want to eat just a salad, but my husband loves the place so it’s a compromise. The last time we went (last Sunday) was the last straw. After driving up from SLO I was starving and we decided to stop at Crown. From the time we ordered till we got our food was 15 minutes– we ordered 2 cold sandwiches. 15 minutes is ridiculous, especially when there’s only one customer sitting in the place. I’m pretty sure the dude with the braces is 100% stoned while on the job cause has was slow as shit. I ordered the hummus/​avo sandwich in a wrap. I got a lettuce wrap– not what I asked for, never did I mention lettuce. When I made a comment I was told «well a lot of people are ordering lettuce wraps these days». Umm I don’t fucking care what ‘people’ order, that’s not what I asked/​paid for. My lap was full of olives and I got hummus in my finger nails as the whole situation was falling apart. I made it halfway through the second half before I just gave up. Will never return!

Deliciousness wrapped up. WOW ~ seriously one of the best sandwich places! The hubster and I shared a Smoked Turkey with Swiss, lettuce and cream cheese. A must stop if you’re ever here in Santa Cruz! Service was friendly and fast. Score!

I swear to the almighty this masterpiece café is a diamond!!! I don’t hand out 5 stars easily but thi s place is well deserved.
I had the pulled pork sandwich absolutely amazing.
For 8 bucks specially. I w op uld probably pay a whole lot more.
Service was genuinely positive.
This is a must try! After you eat spread the word

My reward meal after being stuck at home for 3 whole days even though the fridge at home was well stocked. I did the mission impossible. I took 4 kids to the mall and to here before making our way back to the park (which is a block away from home).
Known for their catering services w/​about 7 different package plans to choose from, this place is also a deli that serves hot and cold sandwiches, wraps, paninis, and salads hence the «café» in the name.
W/​so many choices on the menu, I decided to ask the guy at the register to recommend a sandwich for me. He immediately said, «Smoke Stack» w/​o any hesitation. The moment he mentioned that there is pesto, I was sold. For $ 6.99, I was pretty happy w/​the price alone.
A very large café w/​chips and baked goods to entice you but thankfully, I wasn’t enticed. I saw samples of the pastrami and smoked cheddar and nabbed it. It was good but too bad I learned that they do not make their pastrami in house.
Service was friendly and speed was fast. Instead of calling out my #, the girl that made my sandwich came out of the production area to hand me my sandwich. I loved that… when I finally got to the park, I excitedly unwrapped one half of my sandwich. I could not taste the smoke in my turkey but the pesto, the crispy lettuce, and the fresh tomatoes made up for it. I thoroughly enjoyed my sandwich!
I brought the other half home due to the painful practice of portion control.

Wife has come here a couple times and said it was really good so decided to try it on a Sunday afternoon. Asked for a sandwich with no onion rings or onions since I’m allergic. Get the sandwich and it has both! Send it back and instead of making me a new sandwich, the guy picks out the onions and brings it back to me. I check it again and there are still onions!!! I ask for refund which he does with no issue so thank you for that.
It was also really annoying that one of the employees boyfriend or friend was there talking loudly and being childish. Not a good first experience. Probably the only experience here.

)= We used to be addicted to crown… Seriously… Until this:
We gotta Cobb salad. Got home… Started eating it… And once we got into the chicken… One of us smelled some serious egg.)= so we topped eating it– but one of us got some MEAN food poisoning…)= spent the whole night yukimoting.)= this was such a bummmer… Cuz we really Loved this place. Haven’t been back since.