Cafe Ventanas

Won’t it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.
Maya Angelou
Scent of fried chicken is irresistible. I bite into a drumstick and am reminded of the old days when I was invited to my kid’s mom’s family bbq’s. Fried chicken has that homemade flavor. Same with the bbq ribs. Sweet bbq sauce and the finished on the grill ribs taste like the past. How I miss those delicious meats and the made from scratch 7-​Up cake. Red velvet cupcake was moist and I loved the mix of flavors from the cake and the sweet vanilla frosting. :-)
Outside they had a tent setup for the entertainment. Dance groups performed while I was there. This was the Black History month lunch celebration.
On my previous visit I had a bacon burger cooked to order. Watched as the cook put the beef paddy over the grill. Flavor from the beef, bacon, lettuce and tomato was good. Much better than Burger King but not as good as In-​N-​Out. Noticed some of the lettuce had been sitting out too long.
Chicken tenders were big pieces of breast meat fried in a light batter. Flavor was quite good. I’d take them over what you will find at any fast food place.
Pineapple turnover was a mystery turnover. Wish they had signs that stated what it was. Not a big fan of the canned pineapple filling. The pastry part was very dry and not edible unless you have enough pineapple filling to go with it.
Compared to other food options at UCSD I’d rate Café Ventanas as better than Burger King or Panda Express but not as good as The Bistro or 64 North. Menu changes daily so you should visit when they are cooking something interesting like fried chicken and bbq ribs.

None of the photos are even close to what you really get! I’m willing to bet they stole those stock photos off of google or something. Keep in mind that every year, there could be a different chef so this review is just for the school year of 2014 – 2015.
For Students:
It offers the same as every other dining hall for breakfast except it has the stupid waffle menu which was good only for the first two times you eat it. Then you get sick of it. Most of the food sucks here. They got rid of meatless mondays this year so they have that going for them and they finally brought back the grill because who the hell wants to eat waffles all day. Seriously, the guy/​girl who thought that would be a good idea should be fired. The only thing I really eat here is the eggs and sausages in the morning and the salad and the burgers for lunch or dinner. I wish I lived closer to Pines or 64 degrees b/​c they have better food but since I live in the village and this is more convenient, it’s the only reason why I go here.
For everyone else:
If you’re absolutely starving, have no money and someone offered you a plate from Café Ventanas, then I guess it’s pretty good. But if you’re going to spend money, go across the street to the Bistro if it’s open. It’s only a 2 minute walk and has way better food for only a couple of bucks more. Or if the shuttle is running, check out 64 degrees in Revelle or Pines in Muir college. However, they are also dining halls and are not going to be that much better than the bistro. If you’re not strapped for time, you can also go to Price center which has a little better selection (Subways, Roundtable, etc). Club med is also on campus but it closes at 2pm.
Even if you have a car, you’ll soon find out that this part of La Jolla has crappy food. Check out downtown La Jolla, Convoy, or PB for better food.

What can I say, if you go to UCSD and having dinning dollars, you have probably visited Café V. As we all know everything is over priced when we are using our dinning dollars, but that is expected. Living in the village and of course being too lazy to cook, Café V was always a great option. Sadly they lack a lot of variety and their food is very basic, so it is very easy to go through the selection of meals they offer in a short amount of time. The food is, how do you say, not the best. Although, it wont kill you, it certainly won’t have you leaving thinking «This is the best meal I have had».
For dining dollars, I would recommend Café V, because the staff was friendly and the interior is nicely done. Although, if you were hungry and did not have dining dollars, I would say avoid paying real money and just go to Belle Vista across the street or price center. A small walk to either one, but well worth it.

Back to school again! And what does that mean? Overpriced food and not much variety.
Café V is your standard dining hall, except that it looks like an opera house from the outside. It’s located right next to a green lawn, so if you ever want to take your lunch outside, feel free to do so! (But return the plates after…)
The salad bar here has a bigger selection than other dining halls, except I am surprised there is no chicken breast chunks. There is also a good selection of parfait making stuff-​fruits, yogurts, toppings.
The hot entrees here are pretty impressive compared to other places, and now this year, (2015) they are sticking to grilled chicken breasts to all the body builders in this area! ($ 3.25 for one piece though?)
Cashiers are super nice, and they like to strike a conversation!
Not the best food ever, but they try! But I do like their steamed vegetables… so I’ll be coming back for that.

If Café Ventanas was not a dining hall, it would be relegated to the realm of aquarium/​museum cafes. Somewhat edible, good view, themed, yet overall: forgettable.
However, as UCSD students, Café V is the the hallmark of campus dining and the epitome of culinary culture. It is the 5-​star restaurant to OVT’s dive bar of quesadillas and burritos. They offer the beloved Mac n’ Cheese bowls, as well as the less-​beloved ramen bowls (…which I prefer). Although they lack the sushi of the also up-​scale Pines, they offer other, equally mediocre amenities.
If one is lucky enough to live relatively close to Café V, eat here. It’s the best you’re going to get.

Last year, I really did notice café v all that much. I had gotten food that was cold and undercooked, been overcharged for already overpriced food, and had the worst sandwiches made for me here.
However, since the 2012 – 13 school year ended, I think they have hired better student staff members. They are definitely more friendly this year and I can’t say I can complain about the food that much anymore. At the end of the day, it can’t be 5 star cause it’s a dining hall on a college campus, but I’m happy with the changes that have been made.
New items in the 2013 – 14 school year:
–about 7 new fruit options in the salad bar
–burgers made on sourdough
–ramen (mostly on Mondays)
I used to rather go to Pines last year, but the tables have turned this year. Now, V has the upper hand over Pines! Which is fine by me cause I live closer to V!
Things are looking up!

Out of all the dining halls on campus, Café V and Pines would probably be the best ones. The inside of Café V is very spacious and the seating area is designed beautifully. There are huge windows that allow you to eat your meal while enjoying the view outside. The food here isn’t too bad. There’s always an «healthy» option, burgers, pasta, pizza, fruit and yogurt bar, some kind of special entrée, soups, and the salad bar. Now, the only reason I actually go to Café V is because I live at the Village, and Café V is the closest dining hall to us. I don’t usually get anything there except salad from the salad bar. But, I would have to say that Café V does have one of the better salad bars compared to other dining halls on campus. They’ve also recently (I think last school year) added two soft-​serve ice cream machines! The soft serves are actually really good and the flavors rotate every day I think.
I do most of my cooking at home, but sometimes I would pick up a few ingredients from the salad bar to add to my meal at home :)

I come here to get the cheapest entrée once a day because I’m poor. I come out of need, not by choice. UCSD has the worst food program out of all the UCs, and this is part of the reason why. I’ve been eating here for so long that any food off campus is like the food of angels.

This is hands down the most beautiful dining hall on campus. It looks magnificent in the day and night. Feels like a 5 star restaurant. I guess it is one.
As always, I will be writing from a vegetarian’s perspective.
I haven’t tried out a lot of their options. But their cheese pizza is delicious. It’s not as oily as Foodworx’s cheese pizza. Another great option is their pasta with marinara sauce. I have tasted the marinara at Canyon Vista and it was quite bland compared to here. Ventanas has some great marinara sauce. Be sure to have either of these with a juicy garlic bread.
The dining hall looks great, food is good, the variety is great (for veggies as well!) and the prices are very low as well. You get a pasta bowl with a garlic bread and a drink for just over $ 3, which is remarkable.

This is actually one of my favorite dining halls at UCSD. When I got here, I was warned to steer clear of Café V because of food poisoning problems, etc. They must’ve changed up a little from last year then because everything’s been A-​OK so far.
The food is standard dining hall food: sometimes good, often times mediocre, and every so often, downright gross. But that food is the same across all dining halls for the most part, so you just have to learn to navigate through the menus.
Pros:
–Great fruit/​yogurt bar: it’s not squished into a remote corner like it is with other dining halls. There’s usually plenty of fruit even past 7PM, and there’s almost always pineapples and watermelon; Yesss!
–Cinnamon Rolls!!! Only dining hall that has cinnamon rolls.
–Desserts are not located right next to the cash register. Bloody miracle. You don’t have to stare at them while you wait to pay.
–They always have a pasta section open and almost always have a China Express section
–It looks pretty, the seats are comfy, and it’s never as crowded as Pines is.
Cons:
–Hot food is always a meh.
–Coffee here is terrible; don’t get it!!!
–their scones suck.
–Sun will get in your eyes/​scorch you if you go at the wrong time because of the windows.
–No TVs): …
–They have the crappier salad dressings

If you are dying from hunger being on the campus the only option for a warm meal is ventanas. Typical school canteen, worth the price but no fireworks, unless you bring your own. I also ate some really bad pizza from threre– quality of a frozen pizza, cost me 5 dollars and heartburn. I am not coming back.

This place is horrible. Management needs to step it up and provide a better creative instead of switching spices of the same entrée. The workers here seem not to care either when serving. Overall building is great though but much work needs to be done.

In all fairness, the dining hall is one of the nicest looking on campus – but don’t think that says anything about the quality of the food. If you want better food, it might be worth it to go to the superior, albeit uglier OVT.
Café V is just ok. It isn’t great in terms of food or even service. I give it 2 stars because it isn’t bad in terms of a dining hall but overall it isn’t somewhere I would like to eat all that often. There is little variety and few healthy options.
The burgers and fries are always an ok back up if you aren’t down for the main course or the pizza looks old and kind of crappy (as it usually does). But I can’t imagine eating this for too many days in a row – and I’m sure my body is happy about that.
The breakfast options are pretty good. Breakfast burritos are always a good option if you’re hungry. They usually don’t have pancakes or French toast but have a waffle iron ready every morning.
The dining hall could use more organic options. Also it would be nice for some froyo or dessert of some kind.
If you like Sushi… DONT EAT THE SUSHI. It isn’t going to give you E. coli or anything but it isn’t very good. It’s relatively ok for dining hall sushi… but that’s assuming the terms «dining hall» and «sushi» should ever be combined.
Seriously.

This place had bomb burritos. Don’t know if it still does but hey, it has nice windows!

Be honest here people, is the food here REALLY worth more than THREE stars???
Food:
–low on variety and the little variety that is here, it’s NOT THAT GREAT!
Ambiance: Very impressive! Newest dining hall on campus! Pictured on all the UCSD dining hall brochures. This whole place looks very nice with all the windows (hence «ventanas»…get it??)
Price: under $ 10…so pretty cheap?
Service: bus yourself
***********
Fine Dining:
Food: 4.5 stars
–I have to admit that Fine dining here is AMAZING!!! It’s super over priced but who cares? what else were you going to do with those extra dining dollars? My favorite has to be prime ribs! OH SO YUMMY!!! The salad is SUPER tasty! Love the dressing! And the BREAD!!! OMG, I don’t know where they get that bread from but it’s TO DIE FOR!!! This is the epitome of Good Dining Hall FOOD!!!
Service: They SERVE YOU!!! WOW!!!
Price: OVER PRICED!!! $ 20-​$ 30
Ambiance: SAME as above

For college dining hall food, I’d have to say that this place is pretty cool. They have a sushi bar, a pasta/​pizza station, a stiry fry station, a grill (burgers, fries, chicken strips, that sort of thing), a variety of drinks, a couple salad bars, and lots of candy and ice cream :)
I didn’t eat here a lot when I went to school here, but sometimes I am on campus and one of my fav undergrads (cough cough Jen W.) swipes me a free meal :) My most recent visit, I got the california roll, a ben and jerrys ice cream bar, some juice, and a slice of random cake they had sitting by the salad bar. The sushi wasn’t fantastic or anything, but it was DINING hall sushi and it was EDIBLE, that is amazing in itself. The cake was delicious, but I don’t think that’s a regular thing :(
Lines can get ridiculously long, even in nonpeak hours (between classes, dinner/​lunchtime). But I guess It’s like that in every dining hall so I can’t really complain.
The dining area is what makes this place great. I’m not talking about the seating or the tables, because most of the time those are trashed, lol. I’m talking about the HUGENESS of the room and the GIGANTIC windows. It makes for a pretty dining experience, so even if I wasn’t buying anything, I’d still like to bring my own lunch and eat in here :)

I love this place! So yummy when you have meal points. Don’t pay in cash/credit/debit.no worth it.
Fine dining was incredible! I loved their seafood pasta… yumm
I miss ERC

Having been an RA @ ERC when Café Ventanas first opened, I can see it’s gone through a host o’ changes.
The concept of ‘fine dining’ is nice, but really only affordable for college students on meal plans. It was a weekly event where students would get fine dining style meals brought to them on nice china for a frighteningly exorbitant price (but wondrous if you were an RA, heh).
The floor to ceiling glass walls make for spacious and exciting viewing, but the view isn’t that great (75% Rady construction, 20% shuttle stop, 5% ocean if you’re lucky).
The first year it was opened a student vandalized several of the large pane glass windows, which then were hastily covered up while they underwent repair. The obvious damage, combined with CV’s overall nautical feel, made us call it Café Titanic for some time.
The food overall is nice, not much more above standard dining hall fair, although occasionally you’ll luck out with a great pasta dish or an inspired sushi menu. But overall, you have your usual run of the mill UCSD Dining Services she-​bang. Not too bad.

I remember my college days and the cafeteria. Nothing like this.
The food is pretty darn good sometimes, especially given the difficulty that exists in preparing for such long hours and high volume.
The potatoes are really good. Serious.
The coffee is weaker than a Frat Boys GPA, though, so get your coffee elsewhere (they serve ‘peet’s’ beans, but brewed to be just darker than water).
The staff are mostly fun and happy.
Not bad.

They have a changing menu. I’ve had some pretty amazing meals here. Breakfast is delicious with options that include but are not limited to
Health cereals
Sugar cereals
Oatmeal
Omelettes
Breakfast Burritos
Bobcats (this fried egg sandwich with a choice of meat on sourdough)
Breakfast Quesadillas
And they’ll make eggs for you in various styles too
They have hash browns and sausage and bacon,
and even waffles for those self-​serving types.
Lunch/​Dinner is sometimes wonderful and sometimes awful.
You can always fall back on a Chicken Rustica Sandwich (or a CRS as the cool kids call it) or a Chicken Club or a Chicken Pita. But I hate it when I spend my dining dollars on something gross and which I’d gone with the old standby
And there are veggie/​vegan options. I’m not one of them so I can never really analyze how sufficient there are optiosn are, but they always offer vegetarian sausage in the mornin’ time (until they run out of course) and they usually have a Vegetarian alternative for lunches and dinners. When they offer fish tacos, they also offer eggplant tacos, for example. Also, their Vyro has no meat and is a pretty tasty sandwich.
Drinks (like Apple Juice (flat or sparkling) or SOBE or Snapple) are kind of expensive, but I like to treat myself to them.
Naked Juice costs less than it does at Ralph’s.
P. S. Oh yeah i forgot. Sometimes their chicken is really dry.