Graduate student life may get quite busy and it is normal. It’s important to make sure that your workload doesn’t affect your health. It will happen that you get too busy to get to make home cooked food for lunch. But don’t worry, there are lots of food options inside and around the campus. In this blog, I have tried to cover all the possible options that are available within walking distance from UCI.
There are several food options inside the campus. You can also find Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Iranian and many other cuisines if you are willing to take a short walk from the campus. Normally it takes from 10 to 30 minutes to get the food after you have ordered, however, if you running out of time then you might want to use vending machines located inside the campus. There are several vending machines easily accessible over the entire campus where you can get a cold drink, juice, and snacks. If can you have time and want to grab a heavy meal, then you should look for dining options inside or outside the campus.
There are two types of dining: residential dining and retail dining.
Residential dining provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They will have different monthly meal plan option and you can join the one that suits you. You can also pay cash or by card for a single meal at the spot. There are two Residential dining inside the campus (Pippin Commons and The Anteatery).
Retail dining includes food courts and other restaurant chain outlets. All these retail dining options are mainly located inside the three food courts (BC’s Cavern Food court, Phoenix Food court, and Student Center).
There are some other retail dining places where you can get sandwiches, pastries, and grab and go items. These include Java City Kiosk located near Engineering Hall building, Café Espresso located in front of Reines Hall, Bridge Café located just across East Peltason from Middle Earth Housing, Au Bon Pain located in the new Paul Merage building, 20/20 Café located inside Gavin Herber Eye Institute lobby, and many others. I have attached links at the end that list all of these places. If you are a coffee lover, then you have three Starbucks located just inside the campus. There are several food restaurant outlets including Subway, Wendy’s, Panda Express, Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, etc. located inside the student center food court.
Just across the campus, you have the University Town Center which has many restaurants and fast food options including, Blaze Pizza, Jack in the Box, In-N-Out Burger, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chick-fil-A, and other options.
Following are the links that will give you more details about the options discussed above:
Vending Machine Location: http://www.food.uci.edu/vending.php
Residential Dining: http://uci.campusdish.com
Retail Dining: http://www.food.uci.edu/dining.php
University Center: http://www.shopirvinecompany.com/centers/irvine/university-center
Feel free to add more information and your experience in the comment section below
Hasti says
July 29, 2017 at 11:18 pmDear Zoheb Shaikh
Thank you for your useful post. I will attend UCI this fall as a graduate student. I am looking for affordable low carb low-calorie food on campus. I would like to have this around twice a week. What is your suggestion? which residential community offers better qualities?
thanks
Yanqing Lilian Li says
July 19, 2017 at 12:30 pmAwesome suggestions!
You can always find restaurants near you from “Yelp” (https://www.yelp.com/irvine-ca-us). I always check out the pictures and reviews before going to a restaurant!
Also I strongly recommend an app called “Tapingo” (check out their website! https://home.tapingo.com). This app allows you to order pickup from restaurants on campus (e.g., Starbucks, Subway, Au Bon Pain etc.). Super time saver!!
Bri Craver says
July 19, 2017 at 8:19 amUberEats is also a convenient way to get food delivered to you, although they may charge a $5 fee or so. Ubereats.com
Yelp is a great place to look up local restaurant that provide free delivery. yelp.com
Kunchao Xu says
July 19, 2017 at 5:34 amThank you for the Shaikh’s work! I am a new graduate student who is eager to experience various food options just as Shaikh mentioned. But I have some questions that I hope you can answer such as what is the concrete content of monthly meal plan provided by residential dining and the normal level of per capita consumption of each store. Thank you for your time!
Zoheb Shaikh says
July 20, 2017 at 8:29 amHey Kunchao,
Welcome to UCI!!
You can find answer to all your questions on their website.
For menu related: http://uci.campusdish.com/EatWellContent/ViewMenu.aspx
For meal plans related: http://uci.campusdish.com/Commerce/Catalog/ShopSubCategory.aspx?category=All_Products_6676&lid=6676&root=Meal_Plan
For other info: http://uci.campusdish.com/
Laia says
July 21, 2017 at 12:00 pmThe meal plan gives you a certain number of entries to the food courts, once inside you can eat as much as you want and stay inside for as long as you want too! Details of prices here http://uci.campusdish.com/Commerce/Catalog/ShopSubCategory.aspx?category=All_Products_6676&lid=6676&root=Meal_Plan
Fast food places cost between 4 and 15$ per meal, better restaurants cost around 20 to 30 $, all you can eat places would be 32 – 40 $ per meal (prices including tip and tax), and a graduate student gets usually around 1900$ per month.
Hope this helps!