Tam's Restaurant in Santa Cruz

I’m a little concerned about how food is being handled in the back kitchen. This place has poor hygiene. I will not be returning.

Good take out but not great dine in.

Consistent quality and taste. Lunch specials daily until 3:00. Lunch for two with hot tea and tip $27.00.

The price was relatively low and the quantity was okay but the quality is not good. The food doesnt taste very good. I know this is in Santa Cruz but they really cant compete with restaurants in the Bay Area. Id actually go to panda before this place even though Id rather support small local businesses.

Been coming here for years. Even after moving to Capitola I still drive over for takeout.

Deceptive pricing when ordering online for pick up and small portions. I rarely leave a negative review, especially when you love supporting local restaurants and shops. When I brought my pricing concerns to the lady at the front, she didn’t care at all. Awful experience and I felt ripped off. Never again with this place and lesson learned for me. As for the taste of the food, it as overly salty for my taste. But maybe I already had a bad taste in my mouth due to my experience.

Egg foo young slapsChow mein is mid

Best Chinese restaurant in Santa Cruz, and great prices.

We had Kung pow and garlic chicken. Tasty nice mix of vegetables and meat with pork, fried rice and hot tea Service was good. Food was fresh. Not super high-end but good day in day out Chinese food. Thank you

Pretty good Cantonese style food. They have free delivery within a 3 mile radius. Huge parking lot in the back. We mostly order delivery but sometimes we go to the restaurant. They have outdoor seating. Friendly staff and fast service.

I ordered uber eats from here, deep fried tofu and walnut shrimp, tofu was really gross and dry, no flavor at all.... The sauce was the only thing that made it edible, then the walnut shrimp was just GROSS, had to toss it out because I didnt want to throw up....... I am normally not one to put out 1 star reviews but I am disappointed. Paid too much for this order and the portion size was really tiny considering how pricey the items were... not recommended.

Very friendly staff. Good food. Staff wear masks which is appreciated 👍

I was there to get some food, it was delicious and when I go to my car I saw this beautiful mural before my eyes WOW 😲!!

The woman on the phone was very nice and professional. The delivery was quick and the food is always hot and excellent.

Spanish-speaking small family style eatery. Good food.

One of the best Chinese restaurants at Santa Cruz. 👍👍

Love the fish with black bean sauce(and combos derived from it). The rest is pretty standard Chinese food: nothing more, nothing less.

Great value lunch specials, even on Sundays! Dine-in available in spacious shaded patio area. Plenty of free parking!

Extensive menu. Tried the appetizer platter, beef with pineapple, and the combination chow main.The appetizers were ok. The paper-wrapped chicken didnt have the juiciness we are used to.The beef was very juicy and flavorful.The noodles were a surprise. We were expecting the soft noodles, and for the proteins to be stirred into the noodles. We got the hard noodles with everything on top. So none of it was mixed together. The sauce was too mild and bland. The chicken, flavorless. The shrimp was good.Service was decent. Not particularly friendly.

$11.23 for a large Wor Won Ton Soup that barely made 3 servings seems excessive and the whole thing was tasteless and I dont have COVID-19.

Tams has the best food for the right price. Everything tastes so fresh. Ive been eating here for over 10 years.

My second time trying this place out. I got introduced to the beef noodle soup they have here and its pretty darn delicious. Definitely recommend it during this cold weather.

Food was great and affordable, got the family dinner special 1 for two people and got so much tasty food, enough for my boyfriend and I to each eat twice. Great place 10/10

The food was great! I usually order meat dishes as a main item, but I went for the tofu instead. My only complaint was, that I like the firm tofu, and theirs was soft. Otherwise, it was great basic Chinese. You can go honky style, or more authentic, the menu covers both.

Best Kung pow chicken with fried rice. If you like Kung pow sauced up and strong this is the place. Go for lunch specials - very cheap and quality (hotfood.

Just OK Chinese food. Service is best described as cold. Theres a lot better Chinese food in Santa Cruz.2019 Update: Well, there used to be, but I cant currently think of a place Id take my wife for dinner. If I want any Chinese cuisine, weve got to head to Silicon Valley or SF. Santa Cruz is a Chinese food desert.

Its good , except i dont like the fact that when I order the black mushroom with botchoy,they chop up it up and slice the black mushroom and gave me a little portion, vegetables are cheap .

Great Chinese food but it wasnt very authentic. It was very tasty though so I didnt think it was big deal.

Cheap, good Chinese food. I come here when I dont want to wait any time to get a decent meal for cheap. Its not the best food, plenty of other places in SC if you want that. But at the price they sell at, and the fact they deliver for free on orders over 25$, I end up here more than anywhere else.

Nice family owned restaurant. We tried some new things there. We liked the fried sesame balls and the sizzling vegetables.

This is a super mediocre place. If I’m looking for tasty fresh food this is not the place I go to. To be honest, tam’s has some good dishes. And I give 3 star because of those dishes. But most of their dish is watery for no reason, the seasoning is also very pointless.

Food was bad. Came with a friend, I opted for this place and really regretted it. Ate because we were hecka hungry after a very long bike ride. But left half of the food there.Ive eaten here before but not sure if they changed management or Cooks or whatever but will not go back. By the way service is terrible.

It was Great as usual! We are Truck drivers from Tennessee and we always love coming there. Food is always very fresh. Great tasting and service is really great too.

Very delicious. This place is a local landmark for families and loyal customers whove been coming here for years. Eat in and take out at this classic cozy Chinese spot . All the favorites done well and some nice specials. Orange chicken is spicy and just right! Best kept secret is this restaurant. My kid grew up on this place and its a very friendly atmosphere. Online ordering is easy as a bonus. Enjoy!

Best priced Chinese food in the area!! Place is clean and food is served fast :would highly recommend and free delivery to ucsc campus!

Waitress is not enthusiastic. Dishes are bland. Only reason I gave it a 3 was because the prices are affordable for this area.

A new spot on our journey! Great food and a awesome atmosphere. We have made this our new go to place for our celebration meal when we make another successful run!

Ordered delivery, should have ordered pizza instead. Not hating but food was inedible even steamed rice smelled like mice had crawled over it. Do yourself a favor and dont put yourself through this place.

I just completely wasted $37. What’s the deal with this place? 3 spareribs for almost $9? Not even a full container of extremely bland shrimp for almost $13? Total rip off. You can’t even choose what size you want to order of the items, and none of the items on the menu have a description. I will not be ordering from here again, that’s for sure.

Complete waste of $30. My 3 pathetic spare ribs were dried out and basically burned. The walnut shrimp was flavorless. The fried rice was ok at best. This place is a scam, just go to Panda Express. If i could give negative stars , i would. They have to be trying to be this bad there is no other explanation.

Do not order takeout using Yelp or the Eat24 app. Tams probably wont read any instructions that you give them. Its sad, Ive eaten here 16 times and they have botched the order in one way or another about ¼ of the time. If you need a slight variation due to dietary restriction it can be a challenge.In my case Im vegan and I asked in the notes on Eat24/Yelp in-app ordering, in very large type, please make sure that this is vegan/vegetarian with no egg and no animal products whatsoever. The dish that I came home with had egg and pork and Im guessing beef or something. Cooked animal muscle is sad and disgusting. its frustrating that they cant get this right. Its not the first time this is come through with egg and meat product in it. We order takeout to save time. Having to return a meat laden dish both wastes the food and wastes time.I wish we had a vegetarian restaurant on the west side.

Amazing food, not the best service. If you want some cheap and good food with outstanding taste. Takeout is also a great option from this place.

Ordered delivery, was delivered on time. The quantity of food is absurd, meal deal for three is several pounds of food, probably enough for 5-6.. if only it was edible.The food wasnt good: Sweet and sour pork was cold and chewy, beef & broccoli tasted like sea food. Loads of food left over and no one wants to eat it here, just not good.Skip this one, were throwing this stuff out and looking for something else for dinner. $44 bucks down the drain!

This place used to be my favorite Chinese restaurant until they gave me my food cold not once but TWICE! I kept going because I really liked the food but after getting rude responses from the waitress after complaining about my food, i decided not to go anymore.

10 years ago when i was a student at UCSC there werent many good asian restaurants in town. Being an overseas student Tams saved me on many occasions. It became my comfort food far from home. General chicken, mongolian beef, beef chaow fun with garlic sauce and it goes on. The prices were very resonable, lunch sets would sometimes last me two meals.

I really love this place and feel that it is very underrated. Clean, friendly service, consistently good food, great prices (especially lunch specials). Great hot and sour soup, orange chicken. WAY less greasy then everywhere else and great flavor in every dish. You really cant go wrong here.

Good food, good prices, and free delivery with a minimum order. If you want it spicy, make sure to order "extra spicy". I got the kung pao chicken a few times, and didnt think "spicy" was spicy enough, but extra spicy was fine. Also, the fried rice with yellow curry sauce and pineapple was awesome! I ordered it by accident once, and now I get it every time.

This place is my life saver. Im a broke college student and when Im low on money, Tams always comes to the rescue.I cannot believe people compare this place to Panda Express. Yes, they are both CHEAP, but the food at Tams tastes so much better. I bet that person who compared them never ordered anything but orange chicken. Well, you guys might be surprised, but the other stuff on the menu are delicious as well.Some of my FAVORITES include Fish Fillet with black bean sauce (10 stars!!! best tasting dish ever), General Chicken (crispy and tasty to perfection), and on a lighter day even the Green Beans with Pork tastes great! Just try everything! Oh one more thing, the House Chicken is so good and crispy, you just have to try it as well!

Still happy with the service and food after 22 years! Just had a big family dinner and since I work 6 days a week now I didnt want to cook Everyone was so happy that I didnt.. and that is rare!! Yummy food.

As Santa Cruz goes, this is the best chinese restaurant in town. Owned by a nice family and we always get great service here. I love their shredded pork with garlic sauce and spicy shrimp with tomato sauce.