Sawasdee by the Sea

THE BUZZ ON SAWASDEE BY THE SEA

Happy Hour  Monday - Friday  3pm - 6:30pm

Well Drinks, house wine and beers $1.00 off, $5.00 Margaritas

Sawasdee by the Sea Wesite ____________________________________________________________________

Julies Review

Sawasdee by the Sea

Sawasdee by the Sea is a Thai restaurant located on Beach Street close to the Wharf in the old Casablanca Restaurant building. There are two Sawasdee restaurants, one in Soquel and this one which has been open about six months.  Their happy hour is 3:30 – 6:30 Monday – Friday.

One of the downsides of this location is the expensive parking – so bring lots of quarters when you come or park at Depot Park (the parking machine always seems out of order) and take a walk down.

Sawasdee is pronounced Sah-weed and means both hello and goodbye in Thai.  It is located in a two story beach front building with a restaurant upstairs and the bar and deck located downstairs.  The four tables on the deck were already filled, but Jo and I were happy to sit at the bar and talk with Chris the bartender.  The interior is brightly painted and cheerful.

 

 I was very excited to have a Thai Happy Hour because both Jo and I love Thai food.  The happy hour drink specials are a $1 off beer, wine and wells and $5 margaritas.  The big question on our lips was about the food specials, but Chris sadly informed us there are no happy hour food specials.  What??!!!! NO FOOD?  The disappointment expressed by Josephine and myself was clear.  Chris agreed and said that he was trying to tell his boss, they need some food specials.  Hopefully, this review will convince him!  You must have food specials for happy hour – cheap eats to feed the cheap drinks - as Jo said or something along those lines.

Our disappointment was allayed by the generous drinks that Chris made for us.  I had the margarita and Josephine had a vodka gimlet.  The glasses were large and my margarita was both tasty and strong – just the way I like it.  Chris was all you can ask for in a bartender – cute, friendly, attentive and he makes a good strong drink.  5 shots up for Chris!

We looked at the food menu since we were counting on hour happy hour being our dinner as well.  We decided to split an order of two appetizers:  fried calamari $8.95 and a prawns salad $9.95.  Ouch! Not happy hour prices, for sure.  In the meantime we had fun chatting with Chris and taking a few photos.

The food looked good when it arrived.  The calamari came with a sweet and sour sauce and a white sauce.  We asked Chris for extra sauces as it was served in an indentation in the plate and was hard to share.  He was quick to comply.  The calamari was just fair, even with the sauces.  Not enough flavor.  The prawn salad was delicious made with chili paste, onion, mint leaves, cilantro, chili and lemon dressing.  It was a wonderful mixture of tastes.  Our only complaint on the salad was that there were five prawns rather than an even six to split.  We both love prawns.

By this time the deck had cleared out so Jo and I moved to an outside table with a view of the wharf.  I decided to try a well bloody mary and Chris made it nice and spicy with Thai chili powder on the rim.  Nice garnish, large glass, good kick to it – I was very pleased.  We hung out and enjoyed the view, getting that nice happy hour buzz. 

So in sum, on the plus side Sawasdee’s happy hour starts early and lasts until 6:30, has a pleasant ambience with a beach view, the drinks are good and the service is excellent.  On the down side, no weekend happy hour, it’s fairly expensive without food specials, so if you are going for the happy hour make sure you eat first.  Say hi to Chris and tell him J & J sent you!

Julie’s rating: 3.5 shots

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Jo's Review
 

Sawasdee by the Sea 

It’s a 

beautiful October day in Santa Cruz. The kind you can really enjoy because most of the tourist are gone. I know we need them for our economy, but it’s nice to have Santa Cruz to ourselves for a change. I’m running a little late so I’m moving quickly down the wharf headed to the Casablanca Hotel near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The restaurant at the Casablanca has changed hands and is now known as Sawasdee by the Sea, a Thai restaurant.

I spot Julie who got there just before me and she’s busy snapping pictures of the outside.  We get the customary shots of the signage outside and head in for happy hour. The main level has a nice looking dining area but we are headed for the bar downstairs.   

The bar area is good sized, with a small bar, lots of tables and chairs and some corner booth type seating.  Straight ahead is the small patio with 4 or 5 tables overlooking the volleyball nets on the boardwalk beach, the wharf to the right, the boardwalk to the left, and of course the bay straight ahead. It’s a beautiful location to sit back and enjoy food and drink.

We hit up the bartender about happy hour and he proceeds to tell us that the drinks are $1.00 off, well drinks, beer and house wine which isn’t bad but we were hoping for something a little cheaper for happy hour.  O.K.so what about food, “Oh we don’t have any food specials for happy hour”.  Excuse me…………..pardonne-moi………….did I hear you correctly? No special prices for food! I couldn’t believe it.  They must be new at this. Our bartender Chris did say this was new for them so I’m sure they will come up with something soon food wise.  So it took me a while to recover and a few gulps from my Vodka Gimlet but we decided that we needed to order some food. After all you need to feed the booze.  So we ordered the fried calamari and a spicy prawn salad. 

While we are waiting on the food we are enjoying our generously poured drinks.  Julie got the margarita which is $5.00 for happy hour and she was pleased with the taste.  My gimlet was on the rocks which was nice but I prefer it martini style and it had quite a kick to it. Good and strong but I changed to beer after that. Julie tried the Bloody Mary next and that was in a tall glass with lots of spice in it, just the way she likes them.  I was surprised at the size of it, but it was good and spicy.

The food has arrived.  The calamari is lightly breaded and in large strips or wedges almost.   It has some tartar type sauce and a sweet dipping sauce.  I immediately ask for the chili sauce bowls that you usually get in Thai restaurants to add extra spice to your dish and I add it to the sweet sauce.  The calamari is a little tough and not much flavor in the breading but with the added zing in my dipping sauce it works. 

The spicy prawn salad was delicious.  The salad dressing had just the right amount of spice and flavor to it and the prawns were cooked just right. So we munched away and chatted it up with Chris and soon a table opened up outside so we headed out to enjoy the beautiful evening.  We laughed and talked and we’re feeling happy. Not too much traffic going by and we still had some hunks on the beach playing volleyball so it’s all good.

All in all Sawasdee by the Sea has a great location and a nice seating area, but they need to work on their happy hour.  The drink prices could come down a little more and please, please, please get some appetizer specials going on soon. It’s such a nice setting you need to get people to come by and stay for a while to enjoy it.

 

Jo’s rating: 3 shots!

Kianti’s Pizza & Pasta Bar

The Buzz on Kianti's Pizza & Pasta Bar

Hours - Mon -Fri: 3-6

$4 Homemade meatballs, spicy breadsticks, pizza rolls; $5 Chicken wings

$3 Drafts, $4 well cocktails and Kianti’s wine, $5 bloody marys, varied price featured cocktails

Kianti's Website

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 Julie’s Review

 

Kianti’s is located at the end of the Pacific Garden Mall on the corner of Pacific and Cathcart. It has both indoor and outdoor seating with heaters. Their happy hours are a standard mon-fri 3-6 p.m.  Their happy hour food  menu is pretty limited and pretty starchy – this is a pizza place after all – meatballs, breadsticks, pizza rolls ($4) and chicken wings ($5).  The drink menu was more varied $3 drafts, $4 wells and wines, $5 bloody mary and featured cocktails at various prices.

This was a special happy hour buzz because we were celebrating two birthdays -  Jo’s and  our friend Marky’s.  A group  of the girls planned to get together so we decided to combine it with a J&J Happy Hour Buzz review.

Josephine and her friend Colleen and I arrived at the same time.  We checked inside which had a nice warm interior, but happy hour seating is only in the bar area.  Since we were a large group our seating choices were limited.  We expected seven of us, so we decided to sit at a large table outside by a heater.  It was an over cast evening, so the heater was much appreciated.

Josephine, Colleen and I quickly got down to business and checked out the menu.  Our waitress Shaylin was very attentive and sweet.  Jo and I ordered bloody marys and Colleen had a margarita. We ordered the meatballs, pizza rolls and chicken wings to start. 
 

The bloody mary was a nice tall one, with good garnish – two olives! – but it wasn’t spicy enough for my taste and I couldn’t taste much alcohol in it.   Josephine opened her birthday presents and the food arrived shortly.  The meatballs were tasty – but I’m not a big marina fan.  The pizza roll was like a calzone cut into slices, but didn’t have quite enough filling. The plate of chicken wings was generous sized, interspersed with peppercinis, which I thought was in interesting touch.  Tasty but not outstanding.  However, we were hungry so we had no problem polishing off all the food.

Teresa had arrived by this time and ordered wine.  Shaylin was kind enough to tell us it was almost 6:00 and we would all turn into pumpkins, er, I mean happy hour was ending.  I ordered a margarita and Jo got a beer.  Laura arrived and ordered another order of meatballs with some cheesy bread.

 

By the time we had finished,  happy hour had ended and we were ready to move on. Then Sue and the other birthday girl Marky arrived.  We decided to stay and ordered non-Happy Hour drinks.  More visiting and catching up with everyone.  It was getting cold so I asked the waiter to light the second heater next to us, which he did obligingly.  We all enjoyed the nice big flame.  It added to both the warmth and the ambience on the patio.

Shaylin very sweetly brought ice cream and cookies with candles for the two birthday girls.  We sang “God Danced” (our version of happy birthday) and candles were extinguished and deserts shared.

There was much laughter until the bill arrived.  Then there were major mathematical equations trying to divide it between the various folks, cards and cash.  Shaylin was patient through it all.  

With that settled we bid adieu and went to El Palomar for margaritas since it was happy hour there until 9:00 p.m.

So, in sum, the service was very thoughtful and attentive at Kianti’s.  The interior is pleasant and the heaters on the patio made it nice.  We saw several folks we know walking by, so that was fun.  The regular menu seems a bit pricy.  I also would have liked to see a healthier choice like the Kianti’s Caprese on the happy hour menu.  With the short weekday only happy hours, this is a happy hour that you have to work to get too.  So though pleasant, I think my happy hour dollars will be spent elsewhere.

Julie’s Ratings: 3.5

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Jo's Review

Kianti’s Pizza & Pasta Bar is a bright orange building located on the corner of Pacific Ave. and Cathcart. The place has an open kitchen area with a bistro bar in front of it. The floor plan is open with tile floors and 2 outdoor seating areas.

We were celebrating my birthday and we figured we could kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak, so happy hour it is.  Happy hour here is Monday – Friday from 3pm – 6pm, and all night on Thursdays. They have some but not all of the appetizers at a special price of $4.00 - $5.00.  Well drinks and house wines are $4.00, Bloody Marys and specialty drinks are $5.00 and draft beers are $3.00.

Of course we had a number of friends joining us this time around and the bar area, which is where you get the happy hour prices and service was a bit full so we decided to sit outside. 

 It was a gloomy day, the sun never came out and it was a bit chilly but they have some nice heated lanterns outside to enjoy.

I decide to start with a bloody Mary and so did Julie.   Colleen had a margarita, and Teresa and Laura opted for wine. For eats we get chicken wings (of course), meatballs in meat sauce and the pizza rolls.  The meatballs arrived and they were swimming in a lovey tomato sauce that was asking for bread. They did not have just bread to dip so we ordered some cheesy bread to dip. It was good but I would of preferred plain Italian bread. 

The pizza roll didn’t seem to have much in it and was just O.K. I must admit I’m not a big fan of pizza to begin with so rolling it up wasn’t doing it for me. I am a chicken wings fan though and when they arrived I was a bit dis-appointed. They were breaded wings coated in a spicy sauce. Breaded wings are O.K. but not my favorite. The sauce was mild but had good flavor. The bloody marys came in a pint size glass with all the proper garnish on them. I like my bloody marys spicy and these were a little weak but the tomato juice tasted fresh.

As we ate and drank the rest of the party showed up, Sue and Marky. Marky’s birthday is the following day so we got her in on the celebration as well. We hugged and laughed and ordered more drinks of course. I moved on to beer and Julie changed to margaritas while Marky and Sue went with beer. It was great having all of my friends there to share in the birthday festivities. By the third drink were pretty happy and laughing it up. Since the waitress realized it was my birthday and Markys they brought out two cup with 2 chocolate chip cookies with ice cream and a candle on top.  We sang the traditional birthday song and the other not as traditional song and everyone munched on the cookies and ice cream.

So Kianti’s was an O.K. place for happy hour.  Nothing special, just O.K. I had a wonderful time with my friends though and enjoyed my birthday very much.

Jo’s rating: 3 shots

 

Severinos

THE BUZZ ON SEVERINO’S

Seven days a week 3-6, Sunday and Monday 3-9  

$6 appetizers: chicken quesadillas, cheeseburger with fries, chicken Caesar salad, calamari, ceviche, carnitas nachos and Buffalo wings

$2 Coors light draft; $3 wells and premium draft beer; $4 margaritas, house wine, well martinis and well manhattans

Severino's Website

Julie’s Review

One good thing about being part of the “Buzz” is that it encourages us to boldly go where we haven’t been before.  That is the case, for me, for Severino’s.  Severino’s is the restaurant at the Best Western Inn on Seacliff Drive in Aptos. This is not my usual neck of the woods.

Fortunately, their generous happy hours:  seven days a week – 3-6, Sunday and Monday 3-9, made this a perfect spot for a Sunday rendezvous.  For a hotel restaurant, Severino’s is a lot of fun.  In fact one of the elements I liked was the mix of locals and hotel guests from out of town.

Severino’s is a nice restaurant with a dance floor that has live music on weekends.  The best part of the bar is the windows overlooking a lovely waterfall and pond.  There is seating outside with heaters.  It was rather chilly that day, so although they offered to turn on the heaters – we chose to sit inside by the windows to enjoy the view.

We arrived at 4:30 so there were plenty of seats (always important to me, as our regular readers know).  Our waitress Emmy quickly came over to take our order. 

The happy hour drink specials are a great value:   $2 Coors light draft; $3 wells and premium draft beer; $4 margaritas, house wine, well martinis and well manhattans.  My husband Bill would have liked the $2 draft beer.  They have Guinness on tap – where can you get a Guinness for three bucks?  These are cheapest well drinks we’ve come across, except for the Jury Room for goodness sake!  The well drinks are straight mixed drinks with well alcohol– no bloody marys or frou frou drinks.

Jo ordered the margarita and I ordered a vodka gimlet so we would have different drinks for the pictures.  Ironically, they looked exactly the same.

There is a good happy hour food selection here: chicken quesadillas, cheeseburger with fries, chicken Caesar salad, calamari, ceviche, carnitas nachos and Buffalo wings all for $6.  Jo wanted wings, being a wing connoisseur, and especially since she was getting ready to head to upstate New York, the home of Buffalo wings.  I wanted the calamari, of course and we decided to try the carnitas nachos, as well.

We were joined this happy hour by Lysa.  She has been to Severino’s often as she has lived in this neighborhood before.  She likes the food, drinks and ambience at Severino’s.

The service was excellent.  Emmy kept us plied with water and drinks and our bar busser, Nevada, kept our table cleared.

As we sat and enjoyed our drinks and the view, we noticed a fly flying around our table.  We joked that we needed my cat, Eddie – the fly hunter – to come get that fly.  I’m not big on flies in a bar, even if I am a bit of a barfly myself! Lol.

Our food arrived – first the wings and calamari.  The food was tasty, but not outstanding.  The calamari was cut into strips so they almost looked like French fries.  No tentacles here!  We joked that it was “tame” calamari – well groomed.  I like a crispier flash fried coating, as well, though this didn’t stop us from polishing off the plate in no time.

The wings were good, but again not outstanding.  Josephine our wing expert thought there was an odd taste to them. I love almost any chicken wings – so as long as I get my ranch dressing (which Emmy quickly brought) I am happy.

The carnitas nachos were tasty, but a bit of a disappointment because they were soggy underneath from the meat juice.   They were a little difficult to eat because the chips fell apart.  I’m not used to eating nachos with a fork, but will do what’s necessary to get the job done.

I went and talked with the women at the next table, who are regulars.  They live nearby and think Severino’s is one of the best deals around.  While we were chatting my friend Harry came over.  He lives in Lompico, like I do, so what are the chances we would run into each other in Aptos!  By this time almost every table was filled and the place was happening.

As I said earlier I liked the mix of locals and out of town visitors.  I changed to my standard rum and diet coke at this point and Josephine had a beer.  We chatted and talked and felt that nice happy hour buzz feeling. 

In sum, I liked Severino’s.   The service was good – Emmy and Nevada took good care of us, the hours get a five shot rating – seven days a week – starting at 3:00 and having Sundays until 9:00 is great.  The drink value is impressive, ($3 Guinness and wells).  On the down side, I would have liked to have the appetizers a little cheaper - $5 for appetizers would seem more in line for happy hour.  The food was good, the ambience was pleasant with the view and windows.  Nice people, a happening atmosphere, and with the $2 Coors Light draft I will be definitely be bringing my husband next time.  I will be coming back here – it is worth the drive!

Julie’s rating:  4 Shots

Jo’s Review

Severino’s Bar and Grill is located at the Best Western Plus Seacliff Inn in Aptos. This specialty Best Western Inn is located just minutes from the beach on some lovely landscaped grounds with a Koa pond and small waterfall.  They have a formal dining area, some outdoor seating right by the pond, and a large bar area with plenty of seating and a dance floor. After all it is a hotel bar and you have to keep the guests entertained. They have an event calendar that lists live bands Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

One of the main things we look for in a happy hour is timing so when you see Happy Hour every day from 3pm – 6pm, well they are already off to a good start and on Sundays and Mondays the times are 3pm – 9pm. Gotta love it. Julie and I immediately pop in and start snapping pictures left and right of the place and we receive the usual strange glances.  The patio with the Koa pond is beautiful, but a little chilly today and even though they have heaters for the patio we opt to sit inside.

The waitress is Johnny on the spot, actually her name is Emmy, and she gives us the low down on the Happy-tizers. All the food items are $6.00 with $3.00 well drinks, $4.00 Well Margaritas, Well Manhattans, and house wines, $3.00 draft beers (this includes Guinness) and $2.00 Coors lights drafts. The drink prices are sitting well with me too. So we start off with a Margarita for me and a well Vodka gimlet for Julie. 

For food we decide on the Buffalo wings (no brainer) and the fried calamari.  We are expecting my friend Lysah to come by so we decide to get the Carnita’s Nachos as well. Who are we kidding we would of ordered the nachos whether or not Lysah was coming by, but this gives us an excuse not to look like pigs. The drinks arrive and because Julies Gimlet is on the rocks our drinks look very similar.  Both are tasty though and not far behind our wings and calamari show up. We start right in munching away and Lysah shows up too.  She decides on a Vodka cranberry and she leans back in awe at our speed and agility at attacking the food. 

The wings are juicy and tangy. I thought they were a little on the mild side but they have good flavor, and we had lots of blue cheese dressing for them. The calamari was served in strips, lightly breaded and very tender.  No tentacles were served though just the steak strips and we had plenty of tartar and cocktail sauce for dipping.  The drinks are going down fast as well and I’m ready for another.  I decide to move to beer and get a Sierra Nevada, pint size draft while Julie goes for her rum and diet coke. 









Then the nachos arrived. We dove right in before we could get pictures.  We managed to arrange it back so it looks good for the pic.  They were tasty, yummy pulled pork smothered in cheese with Pico de Gallo, lots of guacamole and jalapenos on top.  Of course we opted for extra jalapenos which came on the side.  Well let’s just say between the food and the drinks we are starting to get happy.

Julie who does the PR for us starts chatting it up with the waitress Emmy and the Bar Bus Boy (say that 3 times fast) Nevada and they agree to a picture.  Emmy has been very attentive making sure we have full glasses of water and of course the other drinks. Nevada got to the empty plates before we could say, “wait leave the dipping sauce”, we probably didn’t need it anyways there wasn’t much left to dip.  We are eating, drinking and have a good time. 

Lysah leaves us and Julie and I settle in for some gab time.  I’m going on vacation soon and won’t be making  any happy hour runs in town for a while (notice I said in town, I’m sure there will be a happy hour or two in the town I’ll be visiting, stay tuned). While were talking it up we see all these other items on the menu that we didn’t get and boy, it all looks good.  I had to get a shot of the Ceviche and chips, next time and there will be a next time.

All in all this was a fun happy hour.  On our way out we start looking around and find some interesting décor in the foyer. We left the place in full swing, lots of folks also eating and drinking and have a good time at a nice homey laid back bar with a touch of class.

 Jo’s rating: 4 shots!