Brains require a lot of energy to function, so it's no surprise that the main Caltech dining hall has a vibrant array of delicious items to please the palate.
Food: You can get pretty much anything you'd want here ranging from pizza to Mongolian BBQ. Each station has some sort of ridiculously nerdy name that adds to the dining experience. I'm going to go through all the options one by one, so bear with me:
Bunsen Burner (Grill): This place serves piping hot breakfast in the morning and transitions to choice cuts of meats in the afternoon. They seriously have a butcher's delicase in the dining hall. How sweet is that?
Deli Epicenter: The Epicenter is the to go place for some sandwiches. Never tried it, but the line is always ridiculous, so it must be at least decent.
Salad-Fusion: The salad bar is priced at $0.39/oz. Not super impressive as the selection is fairly small, but it holds its own. Each plate comes with a baked roll.
Wok Zone: This is the Mongolian BBQ station. The product that comes out of here is entirely dependent on your ability to mix the sauces correctly. Sometimes they'll randomly throw weird items into your food that you didn't want like corn. I don't know why. Maybe there are some passive aggressive employees who hate their job behind the counter. The amount of food you get is astronomical.
Pizza-Byte: Super good pizza at a reasonable price with loads of crazy options to choose from like Ranch Bacon Chicken.
Comfort Equation/Latin Bar: These are the two stations in the middle of the dining hall that serve the absolute best things on campus. The Latin bar frequently has tostadas with really great meat offerings. They like to serve seafood paella loaded with mussels and calimari (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/fp2H4dCbkZO52RrmFqzSVQ?select=S8Xc9TtSZsLoU5taZzN5Wg). Comfort Equation frequently has dishes like spice-crusted grilled chicken, Asian dishes, salmon, etc. You can load up on these items (some are priced by weight, some with a flat amount) and then get healthy sides like rice and steamed veggies.
Bandwidth Bakery: Has baked goods... most aren't super awesome.
TechTonics: This is a glorified soda fountain with coffee. The name is much more awesome than the actual station.
Soup Station: It's soup.
Sushi: Also self-explanatory.
Cooking 101: Ok, this one is pretty special. They serve absolutely delicious pasta here, cooked to order. Some of the meats include chicken, sausage, and meatballs. You can get red, cream, or a combo of sauces. They'll often experiment with different dishes like pho on occasion. I would stay away from the pho, though. It was watery and tasted nothing like the real thing!
Service: It's a dining hall so you grab what you want and pay at the front in cash, credit, or Caltech card. There's an area in the back to return your plate etc. that a lot of people forget about.
Atmosphere: It's a typical dining hall experience, but at least they have pomegranates, artichokes, a large array of citrus fruits, and strawberries growing outside. I think they sometimes use those in the food.
Synopsis: Pretty cool, although with the swipe card option you can easily spend over 10 bucks for lunch and not even know it. read more