Gigi’s Bakery & Cafe

CLOSED! 4÷3÷11

$ 9.00 for a sandwich, inedible potatoes, and a drink. I had eaten here before and thought it was pretty good, but today’s experience was completely different. Very few people there at lunch time, but I was hungry and chose this over the Chinese restaurant in this shopping center. I watched person after person attempt to get into the restroom with the key they had to ask for. The sandwich was a «special» with canned artichoke hearts, cheese, tomatoes and spinach. It was very lackluster. The potatoes were cold, rubbery, and seemed like they had been sitting on the plate waiting for the sandwich, which took a very long time. This also came with salad on the plate with awful dressing. I wish I would have stopped for fast food since it would have been just as good as this experience. Never again Gigi’s.

I have never met a Gigi’s sandwich I didn’t like. I think my favorite is the Santa Cruz Classic on their house made ciabatta roll. I’m also a big big fan of their $ 5 breakfast burrito. I have been eating here for about six years and I never tire of their food. Gigi’s offers a huge selection of high quality baked goods as well. The ambience of the place is a little weird so if homeless coffee dwellers bother you I advise you to place your order to go.
Side note: I also use Gigi’s consistently for work lunch catering (they deliver which is a huge plus!).

Free internet, lots of space and natural light, and some of the most ultra-​retarded, short bus, «someone-​for-​the-​love-​of-​God-​help-​them» service. The sandwiches are good, the soups are really a great option for some quick comfort food, but the service is so slow that I think I once I suffered a small mental collapse while waiting in line.
Overall, a nice place to study and grab a quick bite without all the hustle and bustle of Lulu’s or other spots around downtown (free refills on soda = bonus).
(Try the chicken with wild rice soup. And I agree with Stacy C… The Chicken Pesto sandwich is pretty jammin.)

the food is very good here regardless of lunch or breakfast. it’s a nice place to come on a sunday morning with family and get something to eat whether it is breakfast or baked goods they got the good stuff.
their service is nice and they seem to know some of the usuals that come in here. they also donate to certain causes throughout the year which is good too.
be sure to come by here!

Very good soup served here as well as excellent coffee drinks. Big selection of sandwiches to satisfy any appetite. Lack of power outlet is bad though since I like to do computer work while I eat. I like to come here for business meetings and the lack of power can be a handicap.

Hungry for a sandwich… where to go? Well, what area of town are you going to?
Since we were going to Cost Plus, Gigi’s was the place. I usually go for cold sandwiches, which looked pretty tasty, until I read the hot sandwiches and those looked awesome! I go the un-​Club and was not disappointed, it was quite tasty. My boyfriend got the tri-​tip sammy and he enjoyed it. The menu said something about potatoes and we got a bag of chips — huh? We overheard the gals in the back say something about the potatoes not being ready, so that was a bit disappointing because house potatoes would have probably been better than plain old chips. The salad was a nice touch too.
The place is big, but the atmosphere is dull. They need window treatments to liven up the place and a better décor than photos of athletic teams.
I didn’t think the prices were too bad, especially since you get the sides. I also like that they have a «sandwich club card». I don’t know how often I’d visit this place; but I’d get the un-​club again.

I think I have breakfast at Gigi’s bakery more often than I have it at my own house. If Café Brasil is my breakfast of choice after a weekend surf session where I have time to lounge and enjoy the day, then Gigi’s is definitely my run in, order, run out, hair still dripping weekday one.
I usually don’t have the hot food, because the 8 minutes it takes to make a scramble or breakfast sandwich would make me late to work, but the bagels, danishes, croissants are all really good. Mostly after a solid morning paddle. If it wasn’t on my way out of Santa Cruz, I probably wouldn’t come so often, but it’s a solid bakery that never lets me down Monday through Friday.

The owner must treat his staff well because the same nice people have been there for 4 — 5 years now. Food is good and prices ok. What the owner, who really seems to care and is very hard working misses is the INTERNET café concept. He has one plug available, sort of hides it and ask that you not use his electricity for more than 10 minutes.
The restaurant is big with lots of space and light. He could improve business by being electricity friendly. He offers wireless so why not go all the way add some electrical ourlets like other cafes?

This place totally capitalizes on the fact that it is in a busy shopping center with no other place to eat. The food was mediocre, and I’m being generous. I ordered a kids turkey sandwich for my daughter, which consisted of two piece of bread, some mayo, and a few thin slices of processed (?) turkey meat. No cheese, lettuce, nothing else. My Southwestern tri tip burrito with guacamole and sour cream was so dry I could hardly eat it. They are so skimpy with ingredients and it showed in all 3 lunch orders we placed. The guac was two thin slices of avocado, and there was maybe a teaspoon of sour cream. The tri tip was little cut up cubes of meat. Maybe they are better known for their bakery, but I would never eat a meal here again. What a disappointment for Santa Cruz.

Maybe its more of a deli that happens to bake their own bread?
Selection of baked goods was totally uninspired. They had a few odd loafs of bread and a few really basic sweet treats.

The downside: Their moderately priced sandwiches are only moderately tolerable. I just paid $ 7.00 for a small, bland sandwich covered in limp lettuce. It became tolerable once I slathered it in mustard, but I credit that to the ability of a good spicy mustard to transform almost any dish.
The upside: The mocha I ordered while waiting for the food was served promptly and was pretty freakin tasty. The soup was hot and delicious. The baked goods were divine. I wanted to marry my sugar cookie. Or at least take it on a tropical vacation. And finally, the staff was lovely, especially for Santa Cruz. They were smiling and friendly, with none of the usual snot-​nosed superiority complexes you so often find in food service in this town.
I’d go back. But I’d order the soup. And the baked goods.

Gigi’s is pretty pricey. I go there when I’m in the mood for a good bowl of soup. They usually have a Basil Cheese Ravioli Soup or a good Beef and Vegetable Barley Soup. Today I went there and ordered a bowl of the barley soup, which comes with a sourdough roll, along with a Nantucket Nectars juice and a bag of potato chips… and the total cost was just over 8 bucks. It’s alright, but you can get a solid lunch for a much better deal elsewhere. I just went there today because it’s conveniently located off Rte. 1, near Ross, Cost Plus, Office Depot and PetSmart. Convenience is what brings me back to Gigi’s, time and again.

I love Gigi’s. The people who work here are all really nice, the food is good, and I like that it is in a shopping complex with Ross and Costplus World Market – two of my favorite stores. My favorite thing to get at Gigi’s is the harvest salad. I really want to try their chorizo burrito, but the harvest salad is so good, that its so hard not to order it. I’ve had their breakfast, which was good and filling and have also tried some of their soups and sandwiches, all of which were pretty good. This is a great place to go in the late afternoon and get work done. Its pretty quiet at that time and they more pretty good coffee. I come here almost every time I want to get out of the house when studying for midterms and finals.

I almost always come here when I’m in town to shop at the Patagonia Outlet. Good sandwiches (Cuban melt was delicious!) and baked goodies. Espresso was not bad either! It’s conveniently across the street from the outlet store. Seems like a good place to hang out too, as usually there are people there with books, laptops, etc.
For all you dirtbags out there, here’s some key beta: Look for the «day-​old» goodies in a basket opposite the coffee bar. Load up on sending fuel before you head out to the crag! :)

I just visited Gigi’s Bakery + Café today with my sister and I can’t say we were incredibly satisfied. The food was okay. I had the Un-​Club sandwich while my sister had the Pesto Chicken sandwich. The home-​fries styled potatoes were a nice change from what I’ve seen at most sandwich places, which is almost always potato chips. The potatoes, coupled with the salad were alright. They weren’t amazing. The sandwiches themselves were similar: just alright. My sister ended up getting a large serving of chicken with her sandwich even after she asked them to reduce it to half the normal portion. My sandwich was ok. The melted cheddar cheese seeped into my tomato and turned into some unpalatable mush that I ended up picking out. Overall the meal was ok.
The ambience is another matter. I could have done without the dentist jazz and the unusually warm temperature inside. We ended up sitting outside but that wasn’t much of an improvement since we could still hear the traffic on River Street, which is just on the other side of the hedges.
Gigi’s is better than another sandwich establishment in Santa Cruz but I’d say they are on par with each other. Oh yeah, and it’s overpriced. Booo.

I’ve never been to this location or paid for any of the food because my work always gets food catered from them. The boxed lunches I’ve had have ranged from decent to decent to mediocre. Their fruit salads leave a lot to be desired and the sandwiches are sometimes too filling. Fortunately, the sweets (like the mandarin orange muffin) make up for a lot of lost calories from their other items.

This place has quality. I think their baguettes have nearly perfect texture, and it’s kind of hard to find a good one in town. I’ve had the Un-​club and pesto chicken sandwiches. The Un-​club had better flavor, but the pesto chicken was on that baguette I love. Comes with about the right amount of potatoes and salad for a medium-​big lunch. It hit the spot.

The best item in the bakery case is the Mandarin Orange muffin. It melts in your mouth. The sandwiches are made with fresh baked bread and there are many unusual varieties available as well as favorites that you can find at other deli type shops. It’s a great place to go for a quiet breakfast or lunch. The workers are friendly.