The Point Chop House & Lounge

My girlfriend and I eat out often. We are always looking for new restaurants to enjoy. She bought a coupon book with a bunch of restaurants in it, so we’ve been trying new restaurants. One of the coupons was for the Point Chop House.
We arrived at 7 PM and were told that there was a 20 minute wait by the hostess, so we put our name in and proceeded to the bar. My girlfriend and I ordered a glass of wine and the fish taco appetizer as soon as we got to the bar. We got our glasses of wine right away and they were fine but never received the appetizer. Forty-​five minutes later I asked about the appetizer and when is our table going to be ready. A few minutes later they came back saying our table is ready, at 8:10 they finally bring the appetizer. It took 70 minutes to get the appetizer! We were both disappointed that they were these 3 tiny taco shells (less than 3.5 inches) with not very much fish or filling for $ 13. Served open face.
The service from our waitress Michelle was horrible. She never came back to check on us. I always had to flag her down when we needed something. We ordered more wine, after 10 minutes and no wine coming, I had to flag her down again. She went to check on our wine and came back saying they’re working on it! I had the ribeye steak ($ 28) which was tough and gristly. Nothing like what a ribeye steak should be like. My girlfriend had the fish special ($ 25) and because of that they wouldn’t honor our coupon from our coupon book for $ 12 off. So at the end of the evening the manager came over and said they don’t accept coupons when you order a special. Instead of splitting the difference with me or offering to take anything off the bill despite the horrible service and the poor quality of the food. His solution was for us to order another meal and he would honor the coupon for that. I had to pay the entire $ 120 bill for our meal. I told them we would never come back again. Four glasses of wine, the worst fish taco appetizer ever (Olitas Cantina & Grille is my standard), and literally the worst ribeye steak I have ever had in 50 years. My girlfriend enjoyed her fish which was OK because I had a couple bites.
The next night my girlfriend and I went to the Capitola diner and for $ 32 we both had an entrée with salads with great service. I had a ribeye steak which was far better than the one I had at the Point Chop House.

Every Monday evening I attend my Toastmasters meeting in Live Oak. The meeting gets me out and into a social state of mind! After the meeting I almost always head over to The POINT on Portola Dr. with one or more Toastmaster friends.
We like this place because it offers a quiet environment (we like to swap stories) and food up until 9 pm.
I usually order one of two optional drinks and they have not disappointed. It’s a full bar, well staffed and clean.
The menu offers standard chop house fare with some inviting sides and appetizers like coconut prawns, cheese plate and ahi stack.
A quiet, comfortable well staffed restaurant that serves food until 9 pm. Second only to the Shadowbrook in Capitola!

This place is awesome. Best food for the price. Especially the burger and a brew deal. Not the portola house but not at all bad.

Came back for SCRW. I called to make a last minute reservation and was told there shouldn’t be a problem for 2. So when we got there, there was plenty of space. We were seated in the lounge area, so I don’t know how full the other side was.
The service was great. She was very pleasant. My beer was flat and tasted weird, she brought me something else with no issues.
For SCRW, I got the ceasar salad. Nothing special and very lightly dressed. The BF got the lamb meatballs. The meat itself was tasty. There were three of them atop saffron rice. The rice was a bit bland and it would’ve been better with a light drizzle of sauce.
Entrée:
I ordered the almond crusted snapper with forbidden rice and asparagus. The snapper had a pineapple burre rogue and I thought it would be super sweet — it wasnt’! The bite I gave BF apparently was way nutty and he didn’t taste the fish. oh well. The rice was a bit bland, added some butter and ate it with everything else and it was all good.
He got the steak with sun-​dried tomato goat cheese atop with smashed potatoes and asparagus.
The potatoes were a bit tough and the bite of steak I got was okay; but I’m glad I didn’t order it. I would’ve gotten sick of the tomato cheese. It was okay, just a little too rich for me. He said towards the end it was too much and blue cheese would’ve been a better choice.
Well, it was something different for a change and that’s the whole point.
The tiramisu was amazing and different. A strawberry and whipped cream were on top, which is almost a separate dessert in itself. The tiramisu was different in that it seemed to have a custard layer to it. It was super good!
You could be completely stuffed and still be able to eat this — so yummy!
Overall a very pleasant experience. We like The Point.

Great wine list! Great food! Had a really nice time. Atmosphere was really nice and relaxing.

I’ve been there many times.
Suffice to say the negative reviews are smack dab on!
The positive reviews have some truth but most seem to be written by friends. The ones who get the attention some of the Unilocal reviewers were referring to.

My favorite breakfast place! The chorizo breakfast quesadilla is amazing, and the stuffed potato skins are delicious as well. The dinner menu is great too-​I love the chicken salad with blue cheese.
Comfy booths to sit in, and friendly waitstaff. Will be back for sure!

Amazing breakfast! This place never disappoints! They pay such great attention to every detail of your plate. Everything is fresh and delicious! My favorite breakfast place in Capitola. Gonna have to try dinner here one day!

Nice, friendly and competent service from the waiter but the restaurant has bland food, and despite the pleasant décor and lighting, is conflicted with giant TVs playing muted sports in all directions.
Anyways the food was very underwhelming. My group and I all agreed that we would never be back.
The seared Ahi tuna was overcooked and is rolled in an insanely thick crust of sesame seeds that were burned and bitter. You can’t taste the tuna, just burned sesame seeds. Horrible. No one likes this. The burning smell from the kitchen while they made this carried all over the place.
The tomatoes in the salads were utterly flavorless, something you might expect at a generic 1990’s fast food restaurant. Here we are in the middle of tomato season in the Bay Area, and this restaurant is buying crappy, generic institutional food. It makes no sense. Worst, most uninspiring salad ever. The blue cheese dressing was equally bland and institutional tasting. Any, and I mean any chain restaurant will get you a much better salad. A real fine dining restaurant will delight you with its salad. The fact that they are using terrible tomatoes is very telling to me. We are at the height of amazing local tomato season!
The vegetables that accompanied the mains were undercooked and bland. Hospital food but crunchier.
One of the people at the table had to get their steak sent back over 3 times to get a medium rare $ 27 steak done right. This should have been taken off the bill. Fiasco. For a place called a «Chophouse» it only had a few types of steaks and no chops. My steak was sloppily prepared and looked terrible on the plate. Parts of it were rare and parts were very well done. I had wanted medium rare. None of us wanted to see a dessert menu. This restaurant could be so much more.

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The Point Chop House & Lounge is probably the nicest lounge and bar on this part of town in Santa Cruz. It’s a big and long dining room with bar can sit up to 10 – 12 people.
The Point Chophouse & Lounge is a neighborhood restaurant and bar where generations of local families and friends meet to celebrate with our selection of good food, draft & bottle beer, local wines and cocktails.
«THE POINT» pays homage to the Pleasure Point area of Santa Cruz in which we are located. A landmark for over 35 years (formerly portola house) has been reborn into great neighborhood restaurant & bar. A steak house primarily with a emphasis on comfort food, local sustainable food services and vendors and they use only USDA Prime Aged 100% Black Angus.
— Steamed Clams garlic, clam broth, butter, white wine, green onion was good.
— New York Steak, 12oz, strip loin, cabernet demiglace, gorgonzola butter with green was OK.
— Crispy Calamari, lighty breaded, cocktail tarter sauce was good.
— Buttermilk Fried Chicken, crispy herb encrusted, buttermilk dipped, this was our favorite.
They also offer HAPPY HOUR daily. Price point is very reasonable for Santa Cruz. There’s a few TVs showing sport. I can see this place will be popular during football season.
Good service by the bartender while we were here on an early Sunday evening.

A major disappointment at best! If there was an option to give negative stars I would give three! First off, this was not my first time, I had a very good experience the first time around! However this time was so bad that I will NEVER go back!
There was no hostess to great us at the door upon which we waited at a sign that read“please wait to be seated”. After what seamed like forever we were «greeted» by a blonde girl who merely said «how many» and then dropped menus down on a table that we assumed was for us and then walked away!!! Terrible!!!
After waiting for 15min with no service another table was sat and given their drinks before we even got water!!! Finally our waiter came and took both our drink and our food order, Que frustration and total irritation, cause the next time we saw our waiter or our food was 55 minutes later, FOR BREAKFAST! I could have gone to the farm and got my own eggs and bacon and made breakfast faster. Not to mention two other tables that came after us received there food before us!
Finally our food came and the let down continued. My pancakes– BURNT, toast –BURNT, Bacon– BURNT. I’ll give you one guess as to the state of my husbands eggs Benedict… yup BURNT!!!
Over all I would not recommend this place to anyone and I’ll never go back!
Terrible service, terrible food, and sub par environment = no thanks.

I wanted to give this place a 4 – 5 stars, but couldn’t. service totally sucked! we were greeted by the young blond host who never said anthing to us except «how many?» which with that he was hard to hear. absolutley no personality what so ever. our server came and got our drink order and promptly took our order. our calamari appetizer wss wonderful! our caesar salads were a waste of money. no flavor at all, no croutons like a caesar should have and no flavor of anchovie like it should have. dressing was flavorless and watery tasting. our dinners were very good. flat iron steak with avocado salsa was perfect. the spinach it sat on wss overly oily and flavorless though. the pot roast dinner my partner got was really good also. never once did the server, tall blond female ask about our meal. she was also very laxed about drink refills. she seemed to focus on tables where she knew the patrons. there was another young man walking around by the host stand and kept going into a room nearby. to me, he was a total useless employee. he would keep walking by the tables and not do anything. he could have assisted the server with drink refills. the food was wondefful fir the most part and again the staff was less than desirable. if the staff worked together as a team, it would have been so much better

Great food, friendly service and a cool old school vibe. Thumbs up on the burgers, meatloaf and pulled pork sliders.

Zero stars if I could. This review is long overdue, i left it to be finished later about a year ago, but it still sticks out so here goes…
My birthday dinner: The reviews here are all over the place but mine will sort it all out. Food, gross. Service, fine. Atmosphere, eh. Calamari like fried rubber. Baked horseradish salmon was dry and crunchy outside but still medium cooked inside. How does that happen? Spinach served with the dish had no flavor. Ever heard of a lemon butter sauce? Instead they serve this dish with 2 large wedges of lemon… I used both and wish I had more to give this not very horseradishy dish some flavor. Rice pilaf was poorly made, cold and just gross. My boyfriend got the peppercorn ribeye, said it sucked. Too much sauce, over cooked and def not worth the price! We skipped dessert cause I was scared it would suck too. Best thing of the whole experience was our bottle of Malbec. Def will not go back. For spending $ 110, I expect WAY better than that crap. Sorry for the intensity but I no likey!!! First and last time dining here and I’m from the area… Says a lot. And it’s 6 AM the morning after and my boyfriend is puking. No joke. Swear on my life.

Okay. This is my second Thursday eating at the bars after my last review. Great food and service! I had the 10 ounce Prime Rib (rare) with a baked potato and veggies. The PR was outstanding. Cooked and seasoned perfectly. The BP was fine too. All the needed accompanists.)This review is only valid for rare prime rib– well done is not in my purview.
My friends had the hamburger and wedge salad. They loved it. A really good experience. Thanks Alex for the great service !

I stopped in for a brew and burger and saw a new entry on the food menue: Korean marinated pot roast tacos with Sirracha sauce. Now, I cannot say if the owners of the restaurant visited Roy Kogi’s taco trucks in LA but I can say this: these tacos rivaled the food maven of Korean Town, LA. The meat was juicy, packed a punch with the Sirracha sauce and just went well with my full bodied red blend wine from Cinnabar. I could not drink wine legally at Kogi’s trucks so my experience here was better. I love the Toco trucks but you cannot have a brew or wine legally at the spots they stop at to serve. I will take an established standing restaurant over a truck any day if the food of the restaurant beats the truck. Here at the Point Chop House, the tacos beat out Kogi’s Korean trucks.

Went here for my boyfriend’s birthday dinner the other night because he was craving steak for his special meal. There were a few good things about this place. The waitress was very attentive and pleasing. We ordered the calamari for an appetizer which was relatively good. However, the main meal was a complete let down. My boyfriend asked for his steak medium-​rare and received a well-​done steak. Kind of disappointing for a restaurant that advertises itself as a steakhouse. I ordered the Fettuccine Gorgonzola thinking it would embody the rich flavor of Gorgonzola but found it to taste like any other mediocre fettuccine alfredo I’ve ever had. I don’t think I’ll find myself going back anytime soon.

We went on a groupon dinner for two. Service was good, waiter was very nice and attentive, but food was sub par. Coconut prawn appetizer was decent while the NY strip and salmon entrée were not really good at all. Under cooked potatoe and green beans, mushy rice, and the salmon and steak were way less than stellar.
And my stomach started hurting mid way through the meal and feel nauseated the next morning! Will not ever eat their food again.

We stopped in for a family dinner and I for one, was not impressed. First off, if no hostess is scheduled to work that night you should somehow make your arriving guests aware of this. We came in, saw the «wait to be seated» sign, and eventually seated ourselves while one of our party found someone to bring us menus etc. The Point’s menu had some delicious sounding dishes and we all decided on our entrees and an appetizer of bacon wrapped figs. As one reviewer mentioned previously, our appetizer was slightly, shall we say, «overcooked.» Not burnt to a crisp but not too far off from that status either. Shortly after that, our meals arrived and we proceeded to dig in. Speaking for myself only, I was completely underwhelmed. I had the Masala chicken which was served with the blandest heap of pale looking Brussels sprouts and a smashed flat rectangle of polenta. The sprouts were just not good. The polenta had good flavor but it’s appearance was pretty awful. While I had a thin flat rectangle of it, another guest with us had a huge, thick slab of it. The «mushroom gravy» that smothered my chicken had the «dry mix from an envelope» taste and I had exactly 2.5 mushrooms on my plate. Yes, I counted. Aside from the food, we had some service blips that I found quite odd. Someone ordered a salad with balsamic dressing and while the order was being taken I noticed we had not only a waiter but also a curious looking lady that was standing by watching everything. She heard the order for balsamic dressing and then came back a while later to let us know that they don’t have balsamic dressing, only balsamic reduction sauce. Why not just interject while it was being ordered to let us know? We had an issue with a steak being overcooked as well as a communication error on sides that were ordered. The last part of the evening came when I placed my credit card in the book for payment and they looked at it strangely, took it and immediately brought it back saying they don’t accept Discover. I found it odd that they aren’t aware of which cards they do and don’t accept.
In the end, with a few tweaks this place could shine. The interior is really beautiful and while nice enough, the service staff needs to be more on point (hmm) with the little things here and there. I would be willing to give it a second chance if these issues were addressed.

Been our least favorite place lately, we used to love it.
1. The owner should not walk by every time and not socialize to meet patrons.
2. If your not going to make a martini fill the glass more the half way, use smaller glasses.
3. Quit burning appetizers.