CSU Monterey Bay Dining Commons

The Dining Commons is the main eatery of the five that populate the Seaside campus of CSU Monterey Bay. It’s basically a school cafeteria/food court. So why would you eat there?

To relive your school cafeteria days, with the dignity and flavor that was missing. For an all-you-can-eat experience without the downsides. When you’re going to an event at CSUMB – like a show of Chinese acrobats (Sept. 13) – and want to eat nearby. Or when you feel like good food at unbeatable prices.

All-inclusive prices are $6.55 for breakfast ($4 for continental breakfast), $8.25 for lunch and weekend brunch, $10.25 for dinner. Kids under 12 get a discount.

Since 1997, the Dining Commons has been run by Sodexo, a French multinational of 420,000 employees in 80 countries. And at CSUMB they make good food with care. No kidding.

The floor plan is modern, airy, casual, lots of windows and skylights. Gleaming stoves, grills, ovens and fryers are in full view right behind the serving stations in a wrap-around, open kitchen hub.

For dinner, my wife went for Mexican posole, a rich chicken stew that nicely balanced savory, sour, crunchy and spicy.

Our kids liked foraging for their food, and seeing it before committing. They chose burgers and fries, and loved it. Then I fumbled our 3-year-old’s burger. In a full service restaurant, that could cause an eruption of emotion while we try to flag a server to rush-order another. Here we just picked up a replacement.

Later the kids went to get their own soft-serve ice cream. To give you an idea of the variety in this food emporium, desserts, depending on the day, can include cookies, chocolate pudding, strawberry balsamic parfait, banana cream pie, horchata rice pudding, Jello, apple streusel, Samoa cake, Rice Krispies bars, bacon and beer brownies and homemade Twix bars. And that’s only half the options.

Now extrapolate that across the full spectrum of breakfast, lunch and dinner: breads, meats, cereals, chef’s choice, soups, salads, main dishes, grill items, pizza, salad, vegetarian/vegan and sides. They all change, every day, with multiple choices within each category. The Mexican burrito and taco bar is popular, sometimes precipitating lines, and the pizza station does brisk business. There is a perpetual salad bar with local produce – from organic spring mix, shredded carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers and beets, all the way to quinoa, barley and edamame – and organic, seasonal, and locally sourced dishes made from scratch, conceived by their chefs and nutritionists to satisfy and nourish. A weekly menu online maps it out.

The foods are accompanied by signs and menus that tell you nutritional info like the amounts of protein, sodium or fiber contained therein, whether it’s gluten – or dairy-free, vegan, or halal. The operation partners with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to buy sustainable seafood.

For lunch, my options at the vegan station leaned Middle Eastern: eggplant tagine, toasted wheat berry and corn salad, ginger sesame salad with tofu, chickpea and vegetable Moroccan stew, quinoa, farro. I told the food worker there, “I’ll take it all.” He smiled, plated it up, and off I went. Every single item was solid. Not all of it fireworks and Beethoven’s Ninth, but appropriately spiced, good textures, firm grains, light sauces, fresh smells.

The drink stations for iced tea (three kinds), fruit juice (four kinds) and soda (six kinds) were clean. I made my favorite concoction of 1/4 cranberry, 1/4 orange, 1/2 water. Don’t try that with a waiter.

My dad, who is mostly vegetarian, got enchiladas, beans, rice and tofu. I got a second lunch, a bowl of Punjabi chicken with perfectly cooked rice and chilled slaw. Bullseye.

The dinner and lunch hours bustle with the din of kitchen clatter and conversation from students, faculty, staff and civilians. But at breakfast, the vibe is quieter, the pace slower. It’s nice.

At the self-serve breakfast station there are toasters for DIY bagels and bread, bins of butter, peanut butter, jam and cream cheese. There are two waffle makers, with one for gluten free batter. The cereal section ranges from Frosted Flakes and Lucky Charms to Kashi Go Lean and Special K. There are dispensers for whole, nonfat and chocolate milk, vanilla and chocolate soy milk, plus Starbucks coffee, hot water and tea.

I went traditional, with scrambled eggs studded with veggies, crispy hash browns and lean turkey bacon. It was wholesome and filling.

You bus your own table, depositing food into a bin, stacking plastic plates and cups on revolving metal shelves, and tossing flatware in a tub. It’s not a glamorous ending, but it’s not all that different from what you do at an outdoor festival or at home. Plus, a mural behind you illustrates workers composting food scraps to show you’ve participated in the food cycle.

They sell to-go food containers for $5 that you can fill and walk out with. There is parking next to the Alumni Center a block away. For a fast, healthy and casual experience, the Dining Commons is an institution of higher eating.

DINING COMMONS CSU Monterey Bay, main quad, 3112 Inter-Garrison Road, Seaside. Mon-Fri, breakfast 7-10am (continental breakfast 10-11am), lunch 11am-2pm, and dinner 5-8pm (5-7pm Sat-Sun). Brunch 10am-2pm Sat-Sun.