Best place to eat on campus

JimmNeutron

Ive a strong feeling this has been asked befor but where is every1's favourite place to get a decent lunch on campus? Im talkin like a proper feed now.
I got the burger at lunchtime in elements recently and thats swingin my vote slightly, although i think they only do it on a thursday/friday as they close early those days.
Well?

elmyra

It's called Brava.

Scraggs

Apart from my own cooking of course, I'd go with elements or the downstairs restaurant. Neither are exactly top class but they have to do. Elements is a bit pricy for what you get.

JimmNeutron

elmyra wrote:

It's called Brava.

Sorry, my mistake, haha. I dont go there very often:D

Scraggs wrote:

Apart from my own cooking of course, I'd go with elements or the downstairs restaurant. Neither are exactly top class but they have to do. Elements is a bit pricy for what you get.

Wat you mean apart from your own cooking?? do ya live on campus?

gubbie

I like elements cos its open late and is delicious

And I LOVE the grind-€3 huge sambos! Whats not to love

Riamfada

Upstairs in the Restaurant if I have too

Hilpers = **** & Expensive
911 = ****test 911 in Ireland, Rude staff, Crap Coffee and Overpriced
Brava = Good Stuffin your face food but crap. Poor RDS gig quality
Student Shop = Dr Doolittles?WTF.Made from recycled old sambos. Rbt Rbt's


what time is Elements open till?

Vorsprung

you gotta pay for decent food. elements all the way!

Blut

O'Briens
The Grind
Student bar

in that order

JustCoz

Where's the O'Briens option? Clearly the best! I only discovered elements last week after 3 and a half yrs in UCD, typical. It's amazo

Blowfish

JustCoz wrote:

Where's the O'Briens option? Clearly the best! I only discovered elements last week after 3 and a half yrs in UCD, typical. It's amazo

Elements was only opened as elements this year, previously it was the science canteen and wasn't great.

I'd go for O'Briens followed by the Grind.

beanyb

Insomnia is pretty good too. The paninis are yum. Though as with all nice places in UCD (O'Briens and Elements) it's pretty pricey.

On the cheap, the Grind and Cafe Brava all the way. They might slowly kill you, but the chips from Cafe Brava are pretty good.

tribulus

3 cheeseburgers for 3.90 in Brava does the job!

8.50 (i think) for chips and a delicious bacon and cheese burger in Elements.

Elements' green thai chicken curry with naan bread and basmati rice is quite nice too, it's 6.50 and is one of the better choices of food on campus.

The_Minister

I was actually thinking of bringing a motion to council, asking them ato investigate the possibility of granting permission for a Chinese to set up on campus. Beef Chow Mein FTW!!!
But, I think there may be some cartel deal with the current eateries with the college.

Chakar

I'm so going to elements tomorrow.

valor

the student bar food is so ****

Steibhin

The Sports Restaurant provides the best quality to price ratio on campus. Good decent meals (e.g. Backed potateo and chilli con carne with loads of salad for €5) without little waiting time, free water and nice staff.

cold_filter

back in the day nothing beat a sausage beans and chips dinner in the restaurant.. and the mean old lunch lady used to stand at the bottom of the steps so everyone had to form an orderely Q!!

Bean_Ghrinn

Elements for thai and good on the thighs.

Jonny Arson

The_Minister wrote:

I was actually thinking of bringing a motion to council, asking them ato investigate the possibility of granting permission for a Chinese to set up on campus. Beef Chow Mein FTW!!!

Oh if you do that you'll be a ****ing legend!!

I only ever eat from the Grind, O'Briens and the odd roll from Centra, everywhere else is **** except the upstairs restaurant which is both **** and outrageously expensive

mloc

O' Briens
Student Bar (solely the chicken of the day, everything else is crap)
Elements

In that order. If I'm in 9-5 I usually eat from one of the above and have 2 meals prepared from home that I eat. In terms of healthy options, apart from carefully choosing brown bread sandwich ingredients, there's very little available.

Also, that asian woman who works in O'Bs is a disaster. When I asked for no mayo and some mustard, she wiped her spreader knife on one of the slices of bread to clean it! I complained, and it took another member of staff to explain to her that I didn't want ANY mayonaise on my sandwich.

If you can't speak english, you shouldn't be working here, tbh.

panda100

mloc wrote:

O' Briens
In that order. If I'm in 9-5 I usually eat from one of the above and have 2 meals prepared from home that I eat.

Woah you eat three meals from 9 to 5? Never understand how guys can eat so much.Went to elements with my brother the other day and he had soup,spaghetti bolonagse as well as finishing of my chicken. Then he had two donughts in 911 and he was still hungry?!

Elements is my fav but I love downstairs in the main restaurant too.

mloc

well, its more like 6 meals really, 8.30, 11.30, 2ish, 5ish, 8ish, and around 10.30 so six I guess in a day.

They're not big meals, just small ones broken up between the day. UCD should really be giving people more information on healthy eating; I guess it's hard to do that when all the campus food is, for the most part, really terrible when it comes to balanced diet.

Vorsprung

panda100 wrote:

Woah you eat three meals from 9 to 5? Never understand how guys can eat so much.Went to elements with my brother the other day and he had soup,spaghetti bolonagse as well as finishing of my chicken. Then he had two donughts in 911 and he was still hungry?!

Not all guys are built like the ox that is your brother

AngelofFire

Elements is nice, i love their thai green curry, though only go there if i have a good few quid on me, every other day i try the Student Bar. The Food in the forum bar is appauling, there's little variety and the chips are always undercooked.

p-nut

I ate in the restaraunt for the second time ever there on friday and was pleasantly surprised with what i got. It was only half twelve wen i went but they were well stocked with plenty of healthy veg and potatoes and i got a lovely piece of trout. They had some sort of chicken curry there aswel and nice veggie stirfry. I cant see why everyone says such bad things about it????

elmyra

Elements have amazing hot chocolate. Everywhere else pales in comparison, though Insomnia in Conway is nice and quiet and edible most of the time!

beanyb

Is the hot chocolate Starbucks elmyra?

elmyra

beanyb wrote:

Is the hot chocolate Starbucks elmyra?

Yup, am I in trouble?

beanyb

Ha, Starbucks do good hot chocolate. I resent having to pay €1.80 for tea now though. It was only €1.40 before Starbucks came along...

Blush_01

I'm sorry, but I don't see what the huge hype about Elements is. I think it's overpriced for what you get and the food is frankly a bit crap. I've tried many different things on the menu and all (except the chocolate muffins, which are beyond comparison to anything available elsewhere on campus and are as good as the ones you get at Chocolate Soup) have been found wanting.

tribulus

Blush_01 wrote:

I'm sorry, but I don't see what the huge hype about Elements is. I think it's overpriced for what you get and the food is frankly a bit crap. I've tried many different things on the menu and all (except the chocolate muffins, which are beyond comparison to anything available elsewhere on campus and are as good as the ones you get at Chocolate Soup) have been found wanting.

It certainly was hyped up a lot and although I love the burgers and thai curry dishes, the other stuff I've tried such as the pizza and bangers and mash have been fairly crap but compared to the other restaurants I definitely prefer it.

Have you found the food in Elements wanting in comparison to the other restaurants? I think it's the best of a bad bunch tbh.

pretty*monster

Just had a lovely burger in Elements.
It's not exactly the best place in the world and for what you get, it's overpriced, but such is the fare on campus that's it's my first choice when I have the money.

Blush_01

I'd still go for Ratatouille in the restaurant over Elements. And I dislike the restaurant intensely.

What really irritates me most about Elements is the virtual absence of anything vegetarian. At least the restaurant makes a nod to vegetarianism. I'm not vegetarian myself, but I don't always want meat, I like to have the option to eat something other than a baked potato, salad, chips or garlic bread when I'm not in the mood for meat. Also, I've had nicer frozen burgers at home than the ones in Elements.

DirkVoodoo

O Briens wins hands down in my book

€4.95 for a bacon and chicken tripledecker with cheese is more satisfying than a student bar meal, plus they dont charge u extra if u ask for brie cheese

And if you are feeling a little more savoury, the bacon and brie toasted shambo is very nice, not filling and a tad expensive though.

Negative points would be the queues can be quite long and there is sometimes a lack of seating, plus its feckin miles from the eng block

Chakar

Upstairs in the restaurant is good for breakfast in the morning.Nothing like a good fry up.

For lunch I'll usually have a sandwich from the Grind or pizza and wedges from the downstairs restaurant.

For dinner if I'm in UCD I'll have chips with a few eggs and bacon.I haven't been to Elements yet.I keep meaning to go and I will if I'm in UCD this week.

Vorsprung

Chakar wrote:

Upstairs in the restaurant is good for breakfast in the morning.Nothing like a good fry up.

For lunch I'll usually have a sandwich from the Grind or pizza and wedges from the downstairs restaurant.

For dinner if I'm in UCD I'll have chips with a few eggs and bacon.I haven't been to Elements yet.I keep meaning to go and I will if I'm in UCD this week.

Nice to see you go for the healthy option!!!

I see the "Other" category has a fair few ticks. I can think of O'Briens in Health Sci, Insomnia in the Conway, the new place where the sports bar used to be. Where else can you actually eat on campus?

elmyra

After the 5 listed... The Grind, 911, Insomnia in Quinn, Insomnia in Conway, O'Brien's in Health Sci, canteen in Roebuck, Centra at Merville, The Arts Cafe.

p-nut

I didnt realise how many different places there were to eat on campus!! I was so curious i even checked out the auld website. There are loads more than i realised. Check it out: http://www.ucd.ie/catering/facilities.html
Now theres something to do any long lunch breaks....:D

Blush_01

I never knew there was an Insomnia in Nova! I must check it out, that's right behind my house!

themole

I would have to go for Elements for a meal (including breakfast) and O'Brien's for a sandwich.

Both are also close to my office in the Physics building

In my opinion the quality of the food in Elements is superior to any of the other food places, although you might not get as much. I prefer quality over quantity.

Insomnia also have nice sandwiches, but you can't get them made for you.

Chakar

bigjimthefirst wrote:

Nice to see you go for the healthy option!!!

Yeah especially the dinner when I'm in UCD in the evenings.I don't really have the breakfasts in the upstairs restaurant like every morning, probably twice a week I'd say.

I usually go for the sandwiches for my lunch but sometimes I like to have something more substantial.

Note to self:Go to Elements!

Stabshauptmann

Only 5 places sprung to mind?

Home cooking, not mine though! Ive a few friends who live on campus who cook for groups regularly.

The bar, tiny bit better than the restaraunt and cheaper.

Centra. Charged by the weight so be careful. I *think* I remember in first year shorter opening hours and a smaller selection. Im almost certain I remember complaining about having nowhere to eat on campus after 8pm and no breakfast rolls (now available in the bar as well).

Food on campus is definitely getting better, what with elements and all.

snuffles84

elements by a country mile.
the staff are friendly, the food good and they have heard of a little thing called presentation...

but if you just want a roll its got to be the grind over obriens cos it's cheaper.

smallthing

The Grind!! Clearly! A sandwich for €3 with however many toppings u can dare to ask for! Ya cant really go wrong! N for those a u that dont no wer it is, it's by the chemist in d student centre

themole

smallthing wrote:

The Grind!! Clearly! A sandwich for €3 with however many toppings u can dare to ask for! Ya cant really go wrong! N for those a u that dont no wer it is, it's by the chemist in d student centre

O'Briens, 3.50 for one meat and three salads, and that includes smoked salmon...

smallthing

Yeah but in the grind you can have as many meats and as many salads as u want! N smoked salmon is wated on a sandwich anyway....

pretty*monster

Poverty has lead me to eating in the restaurant this week. The chips taste like cardboard.

The canteen in the place I work is run by the same company and theymanage to put out much better food (at slightly more expensive prices for visitors but cheeper ones for staff). I can't understand why the ucd restaurant has to be so bloody awful.

scop

The food in UCD sucks. By far the funniest aspect of it all is 9-11 where one feels like a terrorist upon entry. Dost thou darest purchase something from us? Mixed with the fact that nobody understands each other in the place, and the whole experience might drive you mad. This is probably why I spend so much money in the Student centre restaurant wherein I slowly kill myself by eating chips and chicken nuggets. I used to eat in the Student Bar or Forum quite a lot, but being po' I have had to downgrade. Soon I will invent a pill that is compressed chips and chicken nuggets so that I do not even have to leave the library.

gubbie

What company runs the food in the UCD restaurant? When does their tenure end? I say protest Its not like anything else has worked

911 just takes forever. Its horrible

We have some good places though, but we don't get the luxury of just going into town or something

pretty*monster

gubbie wrote:

What company runs the food in the UCD restaurant? When does their tenure end? I say protest Its not like anything else has worked

Campbell's Catering

dajaffa

pretty*monster wrote:

Campbell's Catering

Really? They do the canteen in Dublin City Council which is sooooo much better, cheaper too but thats cause it's subsidised, even minus the subsidies it wouldn't be much more expensive at all.