UCSD Dining Part 2 - ERC, Warren, Sixth, Other

Sorry for the late post, I've been caught up the past couple of days with the Sun God festivities, but I'll talk about those experiences in another post =). Here's the rest of my opinions on the rest of the dining halls at UCSD in addition to some other places to eat.

Eleanor Roosevelt - Cafe Ventanas
This is probably the classiest looking dining hall on campus. The structure of the building and interior just makes it feel like you're in a higher-end restaurant as opposed to a school dining hall. Like most of the other dining halls, with OVT being an exception, they also close at 8pm. Cafe Ventanas is probably the only place where you can find Mochi ice cream on campus. So if you're living at ERC or relatively close to it and have a craving for some Mochi, there's no need to drive out to Trader Joe's, just go out to Cafe Ventanas! Similar to OVT, Cafe Ventanas has cultural themes for their variety of food. Cafe Ventanas is also the only place that makes fresh sushi in front of you, so you're not stuck with generic, already-packaged sushi that tastes kind of sour sometimes. Anyways, I haven't actually eaten here very often so I will skip the recommendations part and ask some of my colleagues to see what they recommend from here.

My (Friends') recommendations: TO BE POSTED LATER

Warren College - Canyon Vista/Earl's Place
This is the dining hall that I have eaten at the most next to Plaza Cafe at Revelle because I lived in Warren College during my second undergraduate year. When we first went here, I thought that the food was amazing because I was so used to Revelle food. But later in the year, I got sick of all the selections and the lack of variety didn't help much either. But anyways, the food here is pretty decent. Don't try the lobster burrito...the "lobster" tastes like rubber. Their pizza and sandwiches are pretty good, but I mainly got food from the rotisserie-ish area where they usually served an entree with two sides. One memorable dish that I had from CV were the scalloped potatoes/Au Gratin potatoes (or "death potatoes" as my friends and I call it because you feel like crap after eating it, although they taste amazing). They also have this side dish at Plaza Cafe as well, so get your fill of death potatoes while you can! I wish I had some right now actually...Anyways, when I ran out of things to eat at CV, I resorted to the grill, which had things like chili dogs, or chicken nuggets that were pretty good choices when there was nothing to eat at all. Oh, and I don't know if more were installed in other dining halls, but Canyon Vista and Plaza were the only dining halls with ICEE machines.

Earl's Place is more of a convenient store than an actual dining hall. I just included it in the list because it is a late night meal option for those like me who lag on getting dinner before 8pm. Earl's Place is great because it is a convenient store like 7-11 that takes meal points. So if you don't eat very much and you have like a thousand meal points left before the school year ends, you can go to Earl's Place and buy a bunch of cool stuff like lighters and stereos or something. But as for food at Earl's, they have like chips, cold sandwiches, TV dinners, frozen foods, and pastries at the Cafe. If you love coffee, you'll love Earl's because they brew Starbuck's Coffee AND you can pay for them with your meal points! So if it's 12:35 AM and you're screwed because there's a final tomorrow at 8 AM and need to pull an all nighter, head to Earl's before 12:40 - 12:45 AM because that's the last call for coffee.

My recommendations: For Canyon Vista, I'd recommend getting whatever special they have at the rotisserie/grill area. Otherwise, the chicken nuggets or pizza will suffice. And get a cherry ICEE on your way out too. For Earl's place, there's no food that I would really recommend since it's just a bunch of cold sandwiches and stuff. But for coffee, I will suggest to get the Caramel Macchiato, either hot or cold, and if you're feeling extra bold (or screwed) get an extra shot of espresso added to it.

Sixth College - Foodworx
This is probably the smallest dining hall at UCSD, if you even want to call it a dining hall. It's more of a shack that has food that has been shipped over from Plaza Cafe. I have never personally been here to eat, but I've seen it before and man, is it small. My friends have told me that the food is decent, but if I lived in Sixth college, I would have just walked to Warren to Canyon Vista to get some food. They barely have any seating (a few chairs and tables outside), so I think if you want to grab lunch with some friends, you would need to eat it at someone's apartment or dorm room. Again, I didn't go here very often, so I will skip the recommendations again until I ask a few friends about it.

My (Friends') recommendations: A friend told me that their variety of food is very limited, but is just like the rest of the dining halls and that you learn to cope with it after a while. He suggested that the salads and the pizzas were the best selections at Foodworx. So give those a shot if you happen to live at or around Sixth College, or if you have a car, head somewhere better like Phil's BBQ or something =D.

Other Food Choices on Campus
Price Center Restaurants -
Bombay Coast Indian Tandoor and Curry Express, Burger King, Tapioca Express, Santorini Greek Island Grill, Yogurtland, Panda Express, Tacone, Rubio's Baja Grill, Subway, Round Table Pizza, and Shogun Sushi and Japanese Food

You can probably find reviews for these places on Yelp.com actually, but I will give you where I would go if I was hungry and at Price Center. If I wanted something cheap, I'd just go to Burger King or Subway, but if I wanted something better at a higher price, I would probably head over to Shogun Sushi because they have some pretty good bento boxes and combos.

Hi-Thai Asian Cuisine -
This is a Thai restaurant located in between Muir and Revelle, right across from Main Gym. Their food doesn't really taste like authentic Thai cuisine, but other than that, it has some pretty good dishes. I used to go there, twice a week between classes when I had a break. Their Pad-Thai is pretty good, although their chicken may look a bit questionable sometimes. My favorite dish from here are the drunken noodles with chicken because it has so much flavor, but the quality of it will probably vary from time to time. But the main reason why I go to Hi-Thai is for the Thai Iced Tea, because regardless of who makes it or whenever you go, it still tastes awesome.

I hope this gives you guys some insight on how to gain the Freshman 15 more efficiently =).