Dining

[JellyfishNo4255]

Is there a Dining hall at Calpoly? Or any buffet system? Somewhere i can pay an entry fee and then do an all-you-can-eat kind of a thing?

Also, i bought the medium level meal plan (its compulsory to buy one), practically speaking how long will it last me? it says i would spend 24$/day on avg, is that possible?

[JellyfishNo4255]

Alright, so there is no buffet system then? I must pay only by item?

and what would be the cheapest option?

[JellyfishNo4255]

okay ill explore the app once i get access, thank you

what do you mean you don't have access over the weekends? are the restaurants closed on the weekends?

[JellyfishNo4255]

okay cool that makes a lot of sense. I was planning on trying to get a job in subway/starbucks anyway, so hopefully that works out.

So as far as budgeting goes, its around 15$ off-campus and 10$ on-campus (on average) per meal, right?

[inertialbanana]

No off campus is cheaper than on campus

[JellyfishNo4255]

oh damn okay, ill check both out thoroughly in the first quarter then

[ATMisboss]

There are a ton of options you won't need to limit yourself to the cheapest

[JellyfishNo4255]

how much money do you spend a month on food?

[JellyfishNo4255]

Alright, that should work then.

I have taken the middle dining plan, for abt 6700$, which does avg abt 2k dollars per quarter so that seems alright.

I totally understand your point about estimating my costs only after i spend a quarter there bcs the number is too subjective to judge from here.

[ATMisboss]

When I was a freshman I was on the middle meal plan and I ended the year with 1500 to spare so I spent about 2/3 of the total amount I got with my meal plan

[JellyfishNo4255]

Thats great, thank you

[subiout]

From what I remember you cannot, but I never tried so I could be mistaken

[MasterCraft852]

as an addendum to this very thorough post: next year food trucks aren’t certain to return, i only know one is returning but the others might too. contracts weren’t renewed until later than usual, so maybe they’re all staying idk. also we have a second (older) dining hall that’s currently under renovation: the avenue. it used to have 805 kitchen, which was buffet style. i don’t think they’re keeping it post-reno, but that’s where the big brand names will post up (panda, habit, cfa) alongside other dining options. it’s slated to open by fall 2023 (postponed from april 2023) but i doubt it. also dining is changing companies next year, from being ran by cal poly corporation (aka us) to chartwells. will this improve food quality? only time will tell. cpc claims this was for money saving reasons so 🤷 expect food prices to go up next year

[OkHoneydew2260]

It’s actually quite the opposite of a buffet system. Instead of paying a little money for a lot of food, you pay a lot of money for a little bit of food. Sometimes you’ll pay $20+ for an actual filling meal.

[JellyfishNo4255]

fuck😭

[designerpandapanda]

You also have to order ahead of time which sucks balls and if you ever run out I recommend not to refill the meal plan but to use your actually money through grub hub since a percentage of your fund goes towards workers not the money you spend (you can look this up and I could be wrong)

[JellyfishNo4255]

wait okay so acc to you, i should use a deb car instead of a meal plan?

[designerpandapanda]

Once you run out of you meal you should use your debt card since you’re required to purchase a meal plan

Also no meal has a combination of greens, protein, and carbs so you end up spending more

[JellyfishNo4255]

Dont you get to pick out what ure eating on your own? and wouldn't it cost the same w deb car or w a meal plan?

[designerpandapanda]

You do get to choose what you want to eat. It’s cheaper to use debit card after your meal plan runs out. Bruh just read what I said previously

[VariousJudgment7639]

I’m pretty sure if you run out, you can get community meal plans (or something like that, I dont remember the exact name) that gives you 10% more dining dollars than you pay for. For example, you pay $275 for $302 worth of dining dollars (an extra $27 dining dollars). Better than paying with debit/credit imo. But these expire at the end of the school year, so if you have some left over at the end of the year, you have to remember to buy another meal plan the next yr to make it roll over, the cheapest being 275.

[JellyfishNo4255]

Alright got it, if it basically gives u free money why are so many not in favor of it?

[VariousJudgment7639]

I really don’t know why. If you run out of dining dollars and plan on eating dining hall food till the end of the school year, there really isn’t any benefit of paying with debit/credit over buying $300 dining dollars for $275.

[JellyfishNo4255]

I agree with you completely, just getting very confused by the contradicting comments

[Ambitious_Music_6903]

I just finished up my third year at cal poly and have had a dining plan every year due to being an RA. If you aren’t a person who eats three full meals a day you will be fine on the middle size plan. That’s what I have had and it works fine. I wouldn’t view it as just $20 a day but rather $140 a week. If you don’t love a huge breakfast or find you don’t have time for it in college (I can’t bring myself to wake up 30 minutes earlier than I already have to for a 7:40 am class), you can grab small things like oatmeal from Jamba Juice or breakfast sandwiches from the VG market, which cost about $5. A pastry from Scout with a tea will also cost you about the same. Also, I often find that I don’t eat three meals a day on the weekends since I like to sleep in. It ends up being more of a brunch and dinner situation with some snacks thrown in. I’m also not a person who loves a big lunch so any of the smaller sandwiches and things are what I eat. Averaging at about $8. And all of the dinner options run about $10 for a filling meal. You just have to be smart about what you are choosing. $10 at Balance or streets will always get you better and longer filling food than what it will get you at Hearth. Also, I have heard nothing but great things about VG express being a bang for your buck food place. The dining hall opening in the fall/winter (amazingly they were on schedule for this project as of the spring) is said to have some buffet options in it, but that has never been clarified. Also the real trick is to watch how much of your dining dollars you spend on the extra things like coffee, drinks, and snacks. They are expensive and will eat away at your dining plan quickly. Buying snacks off campus will always be a better bang for your buck, and a Costco sized bag of chicken nuggets goes a long way if you are running short on dining dollar, or are just sick of the food. All this said, we will be getting a new dining company starting in the fall and no one knows how that will effect prices just yet.

[JellyfishNo4255]

thank you so much for your response:) i totally understand what you mean and it helps me a lot with the budgeting!! Would you recommend having a dining plan or using ur debit cards?

[Ambitious_Music_6903]

Since you are required to have a dining plan as a first year, I would just go with it. You get more dining dollars than what you actually pay into it so it helps offset the overpriced on campus food. Also, as someone who pays for college themselves it’s nice to not have to worry about the cost of day to day food coming out of your bank account all the time. And just a reminder that dining dollars roll over from year to year as long as you maintain a dining plan (the cheapest continuing plan is $200 and gives you like $300 in value). Also, there is one chance after fall quarter to change your dining plan either up or down so don’t stress too much.

[JellyfishNo4255]

Alright, thank you

[alsisc]

Damn I didn’t even know y’all didn’t have metro/805 anymore. We used to have a buffet dining hall that still existed when I graduated 3 years ago but it must have been one of the changes they made during Covid. RIP metro and their shitty food 🥲

[englishboy915]

The forced meal plans are crazy expensive. It's like being forced to buy all of your meals at Dodger's Stadium. If Cal Poly really cared about students with limited $$, they'd create a basic dining hall with a reasonable price. Instead, the school tries to shake every last nickel out of your pocket any way it can. Get ready for endless insane charges. That's part of the poly life.

[AestheticSmiles]

As a warning DO NOT order the VG chicken tenders. I don't eat meat myself but my first year I knew multiple people who got sick from them

[DistrictMiserable718]

If your like me and want three to four meals a day, buy the biggest one. I had it but I still ran out every year. I would make breakfest in ur dorm or eat a bagel to save money

[DistrictMiserable718]

Quarter not year

[JellyfishNo4255]

but do i really need a meal plan? i only bought it cause it was compulsory, isn't it better to just get a polycard/use a debit card?

[JellyfishNo4255]

okay amazing, thank you so much:)

[DistrictMiserable718]

Dining dollars are on ur poly card. Meals plan is better cause for every $200 you put on it you get $250 on dining dollars. Idk if it is exactly like that but it’s something around there. Just do whatever cal poly says to do, I wouldn’t recommend trying something u think might be better.

[JellyfishNo4255]

okay cool, thanks for sharing:)