Manuel's Mexican Restaurant

A fantastic restaraunt and one of my favorites. The food is fantastic, as is the service; despite them always being busy, there's always plenty of fresh made chips and salsa supplied to the table, and water is always topped off. Everyone who works here is friendly, smiling and welcoming.
Saturdays tend to be busy but the Saturday special is my absolute favorite; basically some juicy, delicious bacon wrapped shrimp in a taco bowl with rice and beans. It comes with a small salad (with guacamole, so if you love avocados it's with a try), tea or coffee, and dessert (my favorite being the Mexican chocolate ice cream.)
It's also open later than most places in Santa Cruz.
I've been here plenty of times over the years and never had a bad experience. It's good and consistent and I definitely recommend it.
There are only two down sides: it can get very busy, (unsurprising considering how good it is) so you'll probably want reservations, especially over weekends. Also because it's so busy it can get crowded and loud. Not much they can do about it, but is you're bothered by that you probably want to try coming by earlier or later. It's still very much worth a visit!

Lively and fun atmosphere. And the staff is on top of their game. Fast, efficient and still polite and professional. Snapper was perfect.

Good food, small place, nice staff. The salsa and chips were great. The menu is a little limited and I'm surprised they didn't serve fajitas. The Chili Colorado was great.

Good service and amazing food! The food came out unbelievably quick. Will definitely be returning. ????????

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful food and service! Each meal is consistent and perfect! Chili Colorado is outstanding! Cooks overnight and is tender, tender, tender!! Service is outstanding and they treat everyone like family!!