Food and coffee in UCD

eclectichoney

Any nice spots to recommend on campus??? Good coffee and nice (cheap ) food?

OneOfThem Stumbled

Student Bar, Elements or Insomnia!

*gets coat*

eclectichoney

Is there an Insomnia on campus? Couldn't find it listed anywhere!

ironclaw

eclectichoney wrote: »

Is there an Insomnia on campus? Couldn't find it listed anywhere!

All of the above were turfed out when Kylemore took over the entire food / drink in UCD

StarBucks is in Quinn Business School. Everywhere else, except the restaurant, serves pretty much the same sandwiches (Readers under the Library and Pulse in the Medical Building are identical menu's, except Pulse serves Salad's I think)

The other option, cheaper of course, is the Student Union Shops. If you like good coffee, you'll probably despise SU coffee. I'm pretty sure its the cheapest of the cheap. Gives me heartburn. Very bitter and acidic. They do however offer good lunch deals sandwich wise.

Centra is also worth a walk.

Eathrin

50c for a coffee or tea in the Ag building, I think.

haro124

There are insomnia machines in the student union ships . Not great but cheap-ish

Maldesu

Haven't checked yet but I'm hoping Costa is back in Readers this year. Best coffee on campus.

Jammyc

In a similar train of thought. Does anyone know of a source of hot water or a microwave on campus that we can use? Preferably over the north end of campus!

Eathrin

I think the Seomra Gaeilge has one!

Dude Love 1

Centra is the best for food I think, Chicken fillet roll for 2.75 and full pizza for 3.50, does the job nicely

[Jackass]

The SU shop under the James Joyce library has new coffee machines which I have to say make a pretty great coffee for only 1.50 (or whatever it is), and they have a hot food counter now too, which I don't know if it's nice, but is probably the cheapest on campus.

Maldesu

[Jackass] wrote: »

which I don't know if it's nice, but is probably the cheapest on campus.

I was in earlier. It looked nice anyway.

On a side note, Costa is still there and a good as ever.

bringupthebook

[Jackass] wrote: »

The SU shop under the James Joyce library has new coffee machines which I have to say make a pretty great coffee for only 1.50 (or whatever it is), and they have a hot food counter now too, which I don't know if it's nice, but is probably the cheapest on campus.

Think it was €5 for a ciabatta and a drink. Was ok wouldnt rush back. Lasagna etc looks nice though. You can get it with or without salad

Jammyc

Eathrin wrote: »

I think the Seomra Gaeilge has one!

Ca bhfuil an seomra?

Anybody know of any others?

Dude Love 1

Just got a beef curry in the student restaurant in the Gerard Manley Hopkins centre. 8 eurp, rip off!

beardedmaster

€1 coffee in The Grind in the old student centre, and it's not bad at all!
€3.50 for a roll/wrap, and an extra 40c if you want hot chicken. Unlimited fillings too, it's class.

Eathrin

Jammyc wrote: »

Ca bhfuil an seomra?

Anybody know of any others?

I've never been per se.
I think it's in the Arts building somewhere. Make some enquiries.

haro124

Eathrin wrote: »

I've never been per se.
I think it's in the Arts building somewhere. Make some enquiries.

Arts block, B205

dirtyden

Can you not get sausage beans and chips for about 1.50 in the canteen anymore? That was standard fare in my day.

Eathrin

€2 for soup isn't too bad.

Vorophobe

most of the people now working in the hot food section of the readers cafe look like they`ve never made a sandwich before in their lives. So slow :-( i wish the folks from last year could have stayed on

Maldesu

Vorophobe wrote: »

most of the people now working in the hot food section of the readers cafe look like they`ve never made a sandwich before in their lives. So slow :-( i wish the folks from last year could have stayed on

Some of them are last years staff. I recognised 3 of them but the were over by the coffee rather than the food.

Sam the Sham

The people making the coffee at Readers don't have a clue about how to make a cafe latte.

Is there any place on campus where they do know how?

ironclaw

Sam the Sham wrote: »

The people making the coffee at Readers don't have a clue about how to make a cafe latte.

Is there any place on campus where they do know how?

Always founds the staff in UCD to be very nice and with all due respect to them, however, I feel Kylemore in general have a very high staff rotation. I'm not sure why but generally people don't seem to hang around much longer than 6 months to a year. And as a result you get people with alot of inexperience in what are pretty high pressure places. UCD at lunchtime is probably the busiest you can get in terms of the catering sector.

Johnronson

Scrambled egg and toast for 2.80 in the new sports centre cafe although they do microwave the egg.....

Woofstuff

Anybody know the opening hours of the shop under the library at the weekends?

Eathrin

Jammyc wrote: »

In a similar train of thought. Does anyone know of a source of hot water or a microwave on campus that we can use? Preferably over the north end of campus!

Alternatively you could put a travel kettle in your locker.

Arthur Rimbaud

Vet college has a microwave and (I think it still has a) toaster for general use, in the vet canteen

Jack Bracken

beardedmaster wrote: »

€1 coffee in The Grind in the old student centre, and it's not bad at all!
€3.50 for a roll/wrap, and an extra 40c if you want hot chicken. Unlimited fillings too, it's class.

The grind has god-tier chicken mayo as well. I live off the stuff.

The food in the restaurant in the new science building is pretty gross. Cold greasy pizza. Eugh.

beardedmaster

Jack Bracken wrote: »

The food in the restaurant in the new science building is pretty gross. Cold greasy pizza. Eugh.

That's only one thing, to be fair. Their breakfasts are excellent. Any amount of beans for 30c! And their black pudding is class too.

Eathrin

A whole plate of beans?

beardedmaster

If you went that far, they might charge you for two... but I've seen generous portions count as one.

chikatita

how much is the pizza in centra and whats it like?

Eathrin

chikatita wrote: »

how much is the pizza in centra and whats it like?

3.50
Filling enough and somewhat tasty but I wouldn't say the ingredients are particularly "good".

chikatita

got one, it was disgusting to be honest

SparkySpitfire

Am I the only one that finds UCD food... kinda gross?

Obviously the sambos and all are grand.
So far this year I've gotten:

Got a chicken pesto toasted sandwich in the deli of the SU shop beneath the library - pretty tasty!

Chicken curry in the restaurant - filling, tasted grand, cost around 7 quid though!

Other than that:

-Chicken curry in the SU shop under JJ - nope
-Stir fry in the restaurant - nope
-Pizza in the restaurant - nope
-Chicken goujons and chips in the restaurant - meh (It's more expensive than in Cafe Brava but the chips are better and you get one more goujon but the batter on them isn't as good as Cafe Bravas IMHO )
-Veg soup in the restaurant - watery chunks
-Cafe Brava - I don't remember their chips being so crappy? The goujons are okay though.

I dunno, maybe I'm picky. I find the more "wholesome" food in the restaurant tends to be watery and bland. And the more greasy stuff like pizza just isn't great at all.

Wedges in centra though - €1.50 Nom

Anyone tried the lunch in the bar? I'm interested to give that a go!

SirDelboy18

Best food and best prices are found in the Science building in my opinion.

vintagecosmos

I may be wrong but Kylemore appear to be gone from Smurfit. The starbucks station is gone and all machines are now Lavazza (really nice roast).

Vorophobe

I find all food sold on UCD campus is expensive and bland. The only place I've seen that use decent ingredients and have very reasonable prices is Molloy's Centra (by the Merville residences). Their hot food counter is great, and they have special offers on in the shop all the time. I've bought a whole days worth of food for a fiver before!

eclectichoney

Love the cafe beside the Pool and the SU shop under the library is pretty good also.

Bonus points for the Science restaurant being called Pi

bringupthebook

The queue in Starbucks in Quinn in the morning is getting worse. I dont know if they have less staff or have staff assigned to back room stuff but I queued for 20 minutes this morning and yesterday to get a coffee. One guy making the coffees and one on the til. I hardly had time to drink it!

ironclaw

bringupthebook wrote: »

The queue in Starbucks in Quinn in the morning is getting worse. I dont know if they have less staff or have staff assigned to back room stuff but I queued for 20 minutes this morning and yesterday to get a coffee. One guy making the coffees and one on the til. I hardly had time to drink it!

Its not bad before 10am. I've never queued that long.

The reason is less staff (Usually one before 10am) and secondly they normally take an order and make it, and then return for the next order. If you don't have two staff then you can't have one on the till and the other making. There are at least 3 members of staff who are obviously inexperienced however.

Mycroft H

eclectichoney wrote: »

Love the cafe beside the Pool and the SU shop under the library is pretty good also.

Bonus points for the Science restaurant being called Pi

It used to be called elements. And you could get Bacon and Pancakes for 3 or so euro.

#thingswerebetterinmyday

ironclaw

BX 19 wrote: »

It used to be called elements. And you could get Bacon and Pancakes for 3 or so euro.

#thingswerebetterinmyday

That was amazing. Hard to think it was over 3.5 years ago for myself. Quality dropped a little towards the end however.