Jimmie Beans Fifo Cafe

Fast and convenient since it’s located in same building as my office. This is your typical on-​campus café with sandwiches, salads, and an espresso bar.
They recently started serving sushi… don’t get your hopes up, I would avoid raw fish from a cafeteria type place.

Standard fare for an evening MBA student at Haas. It’s open, fast with food, and allows you to order food to pickup during the evening MBA class break.
Could the food be better? Sure, but the convenience usually outweighs everything else. And they are damn fast with making their food. Really nice as a busy student where problems ordering food is the last thing on your mind.

Only had their falafel but seems pretty good. Its just convenient and healthier choice. Located downstairs of the Bank of America Forum hall.
They have breakfast and I love coming here for Noah’s bagel in the morning.
Nice air conditioned place to sit and meetings too.
Price is reasonable.
Same owner as Strada.

Oh, Fifo — how you used to be my go-​to place on campus when you still served hot rice bowls. But ever since you switched management, the variety of foods has gone downhill. And the prices have gone up. Now, I rarely visit unless I’m truly desperate for food and stuck in the building across the way. Out of everything that I’ve tried, only the breakfast burrito is decent: it’s crammed with cheese, egg, and chorizo. And if I’m really looking for a good cup o’ joe, I’d rather go to Strada’s instead (even though I know you’re supposed to be under the same management). Good try, Fifo.

I come to FIFO every single day since almost all of my classes happen at Haas and this is the only cafeteria in the area that I can frequent in between classes.
Maybe I have eaten here too much but the magic of FIFO is lost on me. I have ordered a couple things from here and while the food is not bad, it is definitely nothing amazing and a little overpriced. I usually wouldn’t get a meal here unless I had no time to go anywhere else and I was really hungry.
Food:
Parmesan crusted chicken sandwich. This is probably the best thing on the menu. The chicken is pretty moist on the inside and has a nice crisp on the outside and there is a really nice small side salad that I usually just add into the sandwich.
Avocado and hummus sandwich which is also really good since they don’t skimp on the avocado and the tomatoes go really well with everything. The whole wheat bread makes me feel extra healthy.
Breakfast burrito which I think is pretty standard (scrambled egg and chorizo) but I probably would not get it again since I felt really sick from al the chorizo and it lacked a lot of flavor.
Mushroom Quesadilla is good. It is pretty simple to make but the cheese goes really well with the mushroom, but it is always a little under-​seasoned for my tastes so I usually add the jalapeño sauce to it which makes it a lot better.
The food is made pretty fast, but I have had times when they have lost my order or have made me wait 10 minutes or more for my pickup order even if it was just a salad.
Most of the time when I come here, I just order a coffee (incredibly average) or pick up a pre-​made yogurt parfait or fruit cup since it is much faster.
There is a lot of seating here, but it is usually all taken up by students, but now that the new courtyard is finished there is more seating outside.

Spent $ 7 and im still starving.
The food is too healthy and organic and vegan for a SoCal foodie. I need more variety of food packed with calories! Also, more taste, PLEASE!
Don’t get me wrong — I love organic and vegan food; my family was raised on that stuff. But the bland sauces and the flavorless breads turned me off completely.
I can’t justify spending $ 9 on a «meal» that’ll leave me starving at the end.

I haven’t had their full menu, but there are a couple of things I really appreciate about FIFO Café:
1) They are VERY quick. They know most of the people ordering are students with tight schedules and need to get to their next class or work on an assignment. Whenever you order something, it usually takes AT MOST 6 minutes — I have never had something take that long.
2) Their coffee/​mochas are delicious. I order the White Chocolate Mocha quite often and it was is fantastic with a little bit of whipped cream indulgence. Their house blend is pretty good as well.
3) The staff there is really affable. They remember my order because I’m seriously there almost every day in the morning before class and I enjoy the homey environment.

I really like eating here because I usually have a lot of classes in Haas.
My usual drinks that I buy are iced tea and mocha. Love the iced tea.
I’ve tried a lot here:
seared chicken burger w/​fries: I really enjoyed this burger. The bun was really delicious and soft. The chicken has that grilled taste, and the fries are crispy!
seared ahi tuna sandwich: This was an interesting sandwich. The ingredients inside the sandwich appealed to me because it just sounded really healthy. Taste wise, it wasn’t so bad, it was interesting, not sure if I would get it again.
mongolian beef rice bowl: The beef was really tender when I tried it and it reminded me of Korean braised short ribs. Something I would get again if I was in the mood for rice + meat.
bbq chicken quesadilla: I think I like this bbq chicken quesadilla more than the one @ FSM.
breakfast burrito: Has chorizo, potatoes, eggs… really good. Looks a little gross but the eggs are really soft and the chorizo makes this breakfast burrito a burrito, w/​o it, it would just be a breakfast wrap to me. I drizzle a lot of tapatio and ketchup on this before every bite. It tastes just fine w/​o it but I like it better with those condiments.
falafel plate: the falafels are really good. I love the extra things that come with it!
soups: their soups are usually hearty and delicious. I really liked their vegetable soup with tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, barley? Wasn’t salty and was super tasty and healthy. The chicken gumbo was a bit salty and not very satisfying. Usually comes with a piece of bread.
I’m pretty sure I had more but can’t remember at the moment. I generally like all the items on the menu. I heard that the turkey avocado? something avocado sandwich was no bueno though. Haven’t tried it myself so can’t really judge, but after hearing that, I don’t think I’ll try it…

First time back since the renovation. Although I (like many) were sad to see the Asian rice bowls go, I really like the looks of the new menu. The first thing I saw was the new fried chicken sandwich and that pretty much ended my search.
It came out pretty fast, relative to before the renovation. Although to be fair, the semester is over now so the lunch rush was a lot quieter than it would have been a few weeks ago. The sandwich was pretty solid — chicken was moist and delicious, and although it was probably a little over done, the breading added some nice texture. The accompaniments («spicy kale slaw and aioli») were tasty, if a bit mild, and the bread (Acme torpedo) was fresh and chewy. It also came with a small salad of greens, which was nice to contrast with the sandwich.
Overall, for the money and speed, it was a very good lunch. I’ll definitely be back, to get the fried chicken again and also try out some other items on the revamped menu.

FIFO opened up recently and I was excited because the baristas are from Caffe Strada. It makes sense since they’re the same owner and it was nice to see their familiar faces. HOWEVER, I don’t think their coffee/​quality of service is as good.
I got their iced coffee, which I always get at Strada, and they skimped on the coffee): I literally got a plastic cup that was only 75% full. Next time, I got an iced mocha since I love it at Zeb, Strada and FSM, but they served it to me in a paper cup. Mmm. that is not cool.
Anyways, overall, this place is alright. I had their salad once and it was just Meh. The place is always filled with Haaskies, but I notice there is less traffic than the old place.
BTW, I don’t know how I feel about the expansion of the Strada café chain. FSM, Strada, Zeb, Fifo… I like being able to get my iced mocha at four different places now, but it kind of takes the fun out of it. Hmm.
TIP:
–Get their Café card if you go to any of those four cafes a lot and you’re like me and never have cash on you! Right now they’re having a promotion at Fifo and Zeb to give you a $ 5 reload coupon when you put $ 20 on you card.

PLEASE BRING BACK THE ASIAN BOWLS. Cheap, tasted great for the starving student, and fast.
Now the menu and café has been replaced by slow service (albeit they are really nice) and overpriced food that tastes bland and in pretty small portions. If I’m paying like $ 7 for some fancy shamncy sounding curry rice bowl thing I expect it to taste relatively good and not as if I completely wasted my money. Salads are mediocre at best as well. I usually just get their soup of the day which doesn’t taste bad and fill myself up with the piece of foccacia bread that comes with it. They’re pretty fast with all your drink orders though. And there’s plenty of seating so that’s a step up from before.

I like their lemon hibiscus tonic/​juice (?). But other than that, menu has no appeal.
They basically took out all the Asian food (as far as I could see), and substituted curry (which used to be more Korean) with Indian curry. I have nothing against Indian curry and I actually enjoy them, but I think it would’ve been nice to keep the other version too since it was so good! I guess they’re different caterers from the previous ones, but couldn’t they have just worked with the other caterers?
I hear a lot of people wanting the Asian bowls back, because they were just so good. I feel the same way. If it wasn’t for the lemon hibiscus tonic, I really wouldn’t buy a thing from this place.

FIFO @ Haas Café took over for the previous vendors in this space. They are owned by the same people as nearby Strada and Café Zeb in the law school. They are still tweaking their menu, as they were told to initially try and offer the various types of asian food as the previous vendors. They haven’t had much luck, and I would prefer they stick to what their other locations do well — hearty salads, soups, and sandwiches. I appreciate that they use fresh, organic when they can food — such an upgrade from the previous vendor!
Their feedback thus far for their rice bowls has been that it’s bland, but again, bland is better than the gross, fatty meat rice bowls that the previous vendor offered. I am giving them 3 stars until things settle down and they are able to figure out their permanent menu.
They DO have the best mocha biancas and espresso drinks around town though! And I love that there is no credit card minimum or surcharge. More one-​off lattes for me — yay!
Give them a chance to get up and running before giving them a negative review. They appreciate the feedback in that little clear box on-​site. Service is so much better and friendlier, too!