Bytes Cafe

Bytes is our favorite go-​to on campus: they’re quick (even during lunch), congenial in service, and make the absolute best iced cappuccino, perfect when you’re in a rush. Their salads (try the salad with jicama!) are super balanced in taste and texture, their pizzas have the sauce and cheese tastes you’re craving, and their soups are ideal for snacking outside. It may be on campus, but it would be a wonderful café for anywhere and any time: ideal for long work days and bright conversations.

Great option for lunch on campus, be it to go, alone, over a meeting, or with friends.
Service is fast, the people are nice, the location is great, and there’s something on the menu for everyone, whether you’re in the mood for something very light but filling (for which I’d recommend the Thai cabbage salad) or heartier (I love the caprese sandwich and the couscous side or comes with, though I always pick out the capers). Their beet and goat cheese salad is also quite good.
I’ve been here more times than I can count over the years, and I love just how consistent and predictable it is. I’m certain I’ll be back again.

Starving and needing a quick «byte,» we stopped by here. It was relatively quiet on the day I was there. Its been a few years since I’ve had a meal on a campus.
But, this café had a pretty good selection. Place your order at the counter and they bring it out to you. There are tables inside and outside, but there was too much sun outside, so we opted to sit inside.
Ordered Soup & Sandwich.
Soup-​was much better than I expected. It was a curry broccoli? I think. It was tasty.
Sandwich was bigger than expected. It came with couscous. I’d pass on the couscous. I had the Roasted Turkey. Kind of bland, but definitely hit the spot.
Plus, after my meal was able to grab a cappuccino to stay awake for the afternoon activities. Bonus.

I take it back, the food here is delicious. I’ve been opting for a chicken Cesar salad lately and everything is super fresh. Their specials are on point too — I had this barbecue panini with coleslaw recently — best sandwich I’ve had on campus. Would definitely recommend for lunch.

ok food I think the price is ok for stanford and the few is ok
the soup was probably the best thing… huge portion and almost all the soup offered are delicious
salad was ok but too dressing-​heavy/​oily

Well I went to the new Café this morning to order a Grilled Cheese Sandwich. The clerk told me that that was a special order (what) special order I told her it was two slices of bread and cheese is that too far out of the box for them
their name says CAFE if you dont order off their menu you are out
this company needs to rethink their business model. i am sure the food is OK but.
A co-​worker had the same problem this morning with attempting to order a Ham & cheese omelet much to his surprise that was also a special order.
they need to stay open later for the working class
their name says it all BYTE Café

I forget to check in here a lot, but I eat at Bytes or get coffee/​tea at least once a week. Selection is limited, but it has enough variety for my taste. I like to get the café au lait ($ 1.75), or chai tea latte ($ 2.75) with a bagel+cream cheese ($ 2.25) for breakfast. Bytes does serve breakfast, but I have yet to try it. Prices are $ 7.65 for pizza, $ 7.95 for sandwiches, and the price of salads depend on whether or not you add protein. There are also soups and specials everyday, ranging from pasta to curry. I tend to get sandwiches here. Particularly, I like the Warm Cuban Roast Pork sandwich which has pickled cabbage. The sandwiches comes with couscous salad. Lately I’ve been a bit more adventurous and tried the apple bacon brie onion pizza– it’s delicious! It is personal sized, thin crust, almost like a flatbread. I’ve heard good things about the salads, but I’ve only tried the Caesar with chicken. It had too much dressing for my liking, so next time I will ask for dressing on the side. However, Forbes Family Café is nearby, and I like the option of being able to make my own salad there. Anyways, Bytes is a great option for lunch if you are near the Engineering Quad, and is slightly cheaper than Nexus or Coupa.

One of the few places I like to eat at Stanford…
To be honest, I don’t think I have ever tried anything other than their Latin Salad and it’s rare I get salad as a meal but this is so good. When you get a fork with a slice of jícama, it’s heaven.
Just be warned it gets super crowded at lunch, and when the weather is nice, it seems to be the go to place to enjoy the sun. Also, do not panic if you walk into the Engineering building and see a massive line. It goes very fast and the wait isn’t too bad. Just a little scary when it’s packed and the poor servers have to find your number but somehow it always works out before anyone gets worked up.

Bytes is located in the Packard Electrical Engineering at Stanford University on the west side of campus. It’s a small little café that serves breakfast and lunch. Their breakfast burritos are amazing — I guarantee you will be full if you can finish it! It is full of delicious cheese, egg, salsa, and I recommend getting it with bacon or chorizo.
Their lunch menu is pretty much the same every time, with a few specials here and there. There is an assortment of pizza, sandwiches, soups, and salads. In my opinion, for how long the line gets during lunch (upwards of 25+ people… goes out the door) i recommend just going to nexus café across the street by the med school, or to the thai food place in the quad, or ikes. Those places are at most equally as long, but I think the food is a little better.

Great deal! Medium coffee and a pastry was only $ 3.50. Quick and friendly service. A good place to stop by before class!

Bytes is a Stanford institution. It’s a really special place. The food is good — not mind-​blowing, but good. The coffee is good — again, not mind blowing, but good. But, I would give it six stars if I could because of the staff.
They are just so friendly, personable, and just nice that it makes me just look forward to lunch/​coffee breaks so much. If you are a «regular» at Bytes (i.e., if you work in the stats building, the math building, the engineering buildings, or the psych department), chances are that some or all of the Bytes staff knows your name and something about your life. It seems like a small thing, but having people be nice to you is such a bright spot in the day. Maybe your research isn’t going well, maybe you didn’t get any grants that you applied for and now don’t know where your funding is going to come from next year, maybe you went on the job market for the second time and got nowhere, but at least the person you see behind the counter every day knows your name and cares about you having a hot cup of coffee.
I’ve been coming to Bytes for years and saw that in a previous review I had only given them four stars, so I had to change it to five.

Most of the food is mediocre at best, but their pizzas are always a pleasant surprise. Mainly the shrimp pesto and the «ragin’ cajun» are the only entrees worth getting. I give it a 3 because it’s on the lower end of dining options on campus (though still leaps and bounds ahead of Subway).
The coffee is fine (though I prefer Coupa) and the pastries/​snacks are pretty good.

This place gets busy at lunchtime but the line moves fast. They have a variety of options for vegetarians and carnivores alike. My complaint is that I ordered a panini and they gave me the butts of the bread! The sandwich was really crusty and tough to eat, as a result. Booooo.

My go-​to place for a lunch on campus. On the first floor of the Packard building, Bytes has enough variety with frequent enough changes in its menu that you could go every day without getting bored. If you work or study on campus and eat out a lot, that kind of variety makes it a better bet than Coupa; it’s slightly cheaper than Nexus ($ 7 vs $ 8); and is more flexible than a Dining Hall (can get takeout).
Of the salads, the Harvest salad is the best (the combination of apricots, cranberries and walnuts is amazing), but I’ve also heard good things about the Thai and Caesar salads. I haven’t heard too many good things about the pizzas, but the shrimp one is unique — just prepared to wait a bit longer for your order! The specials can be hit or mess: anything Asian-​sounding is usually pretty pitiful, while the pastas and Mexican-​sounding ones (e.g., quesadillas) tend to be better.
In the end, the sandwiches are my favorite. The cuban roast pork is a Bytes specialty, especially if you like pickled cabbage. For my money, the chicken sandwich is the best though. Especially when they make it with the roasted chillies… que rico! The house pasta salad that it comes with has elicited mixed reactions from my friends: some hate the raw onion and capers, while others find it a nice compliment to the sandwich (I like it!).
Lines can be long during lunch, so try to go before (11:30am) or after (1:30pm). If you must go during lunch, there’s a small lull around 12:30pm, so try to hit that spot! I find 1pm is the worst since there’s a slight backlog in all the orders.
Enjoy your lunch!

A decent place for lunch or a pastry if you’re on this part of Stanford’s campus. Their menu has a lot of fixed items and then some that change quite frequently. The staff are really friendly and it is always fun interacting with them.
The food is overall reasonably tasty and there’s a good variety of dishes to cater for different tastes and preferences. The portions are relatively small for the price, in my opinion, but I eat a lot and am probably biased. Nevertheless, I am never full after eating here. The lines can be very long at lunchtime, but they do an extremely good job of getting your food to you ASAP.
I’ve always wanted to try their pastries, but I’ve not gotten to it yet. They do look delicious, though. Hopefully soon!

A nice place to grab some quick lunch if you spend most of your time in the CS/​EE buildings. Their partly changing menu has some highs like the spinach and arugula salad, the meatloaf and the pulled pork sandwich. These’s are all really fresh and flavorful.
That being said, I don’t care much for the pizzas or some of the other options on the menu. Lunch time can often get very very crowded leading to long lines to order but the turnover time is still pretty good.
The staff is really friendly and if you are a regular they treat you super nicely. On the down side however, nothing is customizable on the menu since things are not made to order. So we can’t ask them to leave something out of a dish or add something in, it is what it is.
Their coffee is pretty good as well but they take only cash for amounts below $ 5.
Overall it’s got some highs and a fair few lows.

I don’t care for this place for lunch, but it is a nice morning option. Their drip coffee is decent, though their espresso beverages are nowhere near as good as Coupa’s. They do a nice breakfast burrito, and their pastries are good. It is a great place to grab a lemonade or iced tea during warmer season, and they will happily mix the two together for you into a glass of deliciousness. I wish their hours were better (later, weekends, summer…)
The line gets very long during lunch time, and I’ve found I don’t care for their lunch options that much. It tends to be a bit pricey, and often more than I can eat.
Other pluses:
1) Super friendly staff
2) Big cooler of beverages, so a good place to grab a soda or energy drink without going to Tressider (or having cash)
3) Hot sauce selection. Good on breakfast burritos, but I bet that the Electrical Engineering students mostly just pour it in their eyes to stay awake until they are done with their degree…

Ok place for eating in this area of campus. Their sandwiches are around $ 7 and are ok, but don’t compare to the nearby Ike’s (the wait is much shorter here though). They also have pizzas and specials for around the same price. Today I had the chicken marbella — seasoned chicken with apricots, plums, and olives over saffron rice. The chicken was surprisingly tender and tasty and it was a good portion for $ 7.35 I felt. Pastries and beverages are decent and fairly reasonably priced but nothing to write home about.
I give them points for taking credit cards, having friendly staff and having things other than sandwiches, burgers and burritos, which seem to be the default foods on Stanford campus. However I have to ding them a little bit for not allowing you to get something without an ingredient. I’ve been dying to try their apple and brie pizza, but it comes with bacon, which they told me they can’t make it without.
Make sure you ask for it to-​go to avoid paying tax (you can eat wherever you want).

Delicious pizzas! The apple, brie, and bacon one sounded weird, but it was oddly good! The sandwiches are awesome as well. The line isn’t too bad around lunch time and they promptly bring out your food! I enjoy having lunch here.
Next time I want to try some of the pastries and coffee.

I’ve stopped by here a few times to pick up some coffee & brekkies in the late morning on the way to work. Their regular coffee is good, as is their iced coffee. I’ve had a breakfast burrito (GINORMOUS, full of eggs and potatoes with a yummy pico de gallo — had the rest of it for lunch), strawberry scone (ok) and banana bread (yummers).The staff is very super friendly and service is quick.
It’s conveniently located on campus. There’s plenty of seating inside plus quite a few nice sunny tables outside.
One thing I did notice is the majority of the people patronizing this place were male. Maybe a coincidence? I’ll have to check it out at lunch to confirm.