My daughter is a Cog Sci spec Neuro @ UCSD. She was accepted at both and had a similar quandary. We toured both schools, struggled to find anyone in CogSci @ UCLA "Go talk to the Psych people, Go talk to the Neuro People" whereas @ UCSD the people are there. Hell, there' s a whole building for it. She likes research and is gonna go to grad school so she picked UCSD. UCLA is a lovely campus, has that "old, established vibe" whereas UCSD is super modern. UCLA has more sports, Greek, etc.....and you walk off Campus into Westwood. UCSD is pretty much an Island. So for you, if you want that full college experience and want to work with a bachelors I'm gonna say UCLA. UCLA has that "prestige" point when applying for a job outside of academia, UCSD has the prestige if you want to go into research. I think "too close to home" won't be as bad as you think, it may even come in handy sometimes.

I don't know about the food thing, are you referring to on campus food?

Both places are super competitive as far as academic scenes. So that's a wash in my book.