The best things I ate and drank in Santa Cruz County in January

January can feel like a record scratch after a festive December. The calendar flips to a new year, and the holiday tunes stop. The party’s over, get back to work. 

But Santa Cruzans are defiant, and this past month, with protests against humanitarian horrors breaking out almost weekly across the county, even more so. So no, the month was not dreary. Here, the winter dawned at its most dazzling, with sunny, beachlike weather that ended with staggering psychedelic sunsets.

I entered the 2026 with a determination to explore this place where I’ve lived for nearly two decades with fervor. My goal is to deepen my knowledge of the community and the people who live here the best way I know how: through food. The community delivered, as it always does, with bold and surprising experiences. 

Going forward in this monthly dispatch, I’ll share the best things I ate in the past four weeks while reporting on the food and beverage industry. For this inaugural edition, Santa Cruz County didn’t let me down: I tossed raw egg yolk into umami-packed brothless ramen, rediscovered a beloved Syrian pop-up, enjoyed family recipes passed down through generations and slurped up chewy homemade noodle soup. 

In December, Far East + Kitchen in Scotts Valley rebranded into Oreno Ramen. Although the owners are the same, the menu is completely different, and now offers a short list of traditional ramen and Korean donburi rice bowls. The tonkatsu and miso ramen are satisfying, but it was a soupless ramen, the maja soba ($19.95), that had me returning the next day for more. 

Maja soba is made with the same toothsome ramen noodles, but, without broth, it’s more like a pasta dish. At Oreno, they’re heaped with crispy ground pork mixed with green onion, and crowned with a raw egg yolk, which should be tossed into the dish while it’s still hot. Each bite is a silky, porky, herbaceous umami bomb.

I became a devoted fan of Syrian chef Fadi Dabs’ silky hummus, naturally leavened flatbreads and bright herbs drizzled with fragrant olive oil back in 2022 when his pop-up, Huda, had a stint in a downtown Santa Cruz kiosk. But Dabs is a bit of a rolling stone, and a few months after the pop-up opened, he closed up shop to travel and enjoy other pursuits.

You cannot imagine my excitement when I learned that, for the moment at least, Dabs pops up on Fridays for lunch from 11 a.m. to sell out outside of Alta Organic Coffee on the Westside in Santa Cruz. I slammed my money down on the table (metaphorically speaking, as Venmo is his preferred payment method) and gleefully bit into a falafel calzone ($15). The fragrant sourdough flatbread is chewy and slightly slick with olive oil, folded over an herbaceous falafel paste, then stuffed with more herbs, chopped cucumber and tomato, and drizzled with creamy tahini sauce. It was even better than I remembered. 

Capitola restaurant El Toro Bravo reopened last month after a yearlong closure due to an explosion and subsequent fire that severely damaged the 59-year-old eatery. Despite its standing as a long-running neighborhood favorite, I visited for the first time a few weeks ago, and was hit with major retroactive FOMO (fear of missing out) when I discovered the tacolada ($18.50). 

This taco-meets-burrito-meats-enchilada is one of the standout dishes at the family-run El Toro. The football-sized wrap is stuffed with meltingly tender shredded chicken, cheese, lettuce and pico de gallo, and smothered in homemade enchilada sauce, which is more like a gravy, made with homemade chicken stock rather than tomatoes or chiles. It’s current owner Kristie Baron’s great-grandmother’s recipe, and stands the test of time. 

I went on a soup hunt in January, and last week offered a list of eight bowls worth seeking out across Santa Cruz County. It’s impossible to choose a favorite – how do you pick among enormous anise-scented bowls of pho and rich, tangy carne en su jugo, let alone texturally delightful khao soi? But I have to give a special shout-out to the braised short ribs noodle soup ($18.95) at Noodle Time in Santa Cruz, not least because of its homemade wheat noodles. The springy texture stands up to the umami-rich broth, hunks of slow-simmered beef and vibrant bok choy. 

Co-owner Stacy Liu’s family previously operated Shun Feng in Santa Cruz before passing the torch to new owners in 2020. She and her husband learned how to make the noodles by hand before launching their own restaurant. All of the soups — except for the pho, made with store-bought rice noodles — include the housemade version, which elevates an already flavorful and complex dish to an indulgent level.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.