On-campus residents looking for a quick lunch or a late-night snack have a new range of options this year, with Puzzles Café offering a revamped menu.
The eatery, near Sproul Hall on the Hill, has incorporated some healthier and specialty items into its traditional fare of pizza and french fries.
The additions include frozen yogurt, fair-trade coffee and organic tea, and some vegan options.
Connie Foster, director of UCLA Dining Services, said the changes came in response to student input collected over the last couple of years.
She said Dining Services has conducted a number of focus groups to determine student demand for certain types of options in Hill restaurants, and the results indicated that students wanted more healthy, organic and vegetarian food, as well as more late-night options.
“We’re hoping to meet our customers’ needs,” she said.
Until last year, Puzzles primarily served as a late-night hot spot ““ until 2 a.m., students could order pizza, milk shakes and french fries.
The cafe pared down its hours and menu last year during construction on Sproul Hall, and this year it has fully reopened with the new menu.
Students can still order pizza and fries, but Puzzles has diversified its options a bit to meet demand for healthier fare, Foster said.
Andrea Santos, a first-year electrical engineering student, said she believes the change is a good one.
“I like the lighter (options),” she said.
Foster said so far student response to the new Puzzles menu has been positive, noting that on one night last week the cafe served over 1,000 customers.
“Traffic has definitely increased over last year,” she said.
The Puzzles menu may continue to expand. Foster said Dining Services is hoping to introduce tart frozen yogurt with toppings, as popularized by Westwood Village stores such as Pinkberry.
The changes to the Puzzles menu are only part of a larger effort by Dining Services to include more nutritious and specialty options on the Hill.
Foster said that, in addition to visible changes such as new menu items, Dining Services is making smaller changes, including using healthier ingredients.
For the past several years, food has been prepared with trans fat-free oil, and Foster said Dining Services hopes to expand that policy to all types of food.
“We’re moving toward zero trans fats in our bakeries. We’re almost there,” she said.
She added that they now use pesticide-free lettuce in their salad mixes, and that more organic items such as tea and cheese have been introduced in some eateries.
Herumi Ann Baylon, a first-year undeclared student, said it was important to her to have healthy foods available, and she had noticed the effort to make nutrition a priority.
“The quality of the food is definitely really good,” she said. “There’s more tofu and things like that.”
But she added that, even with the number of options offered, she is not always sure the food is as healthy as it might appear.
“It is hard to find really healthy food. Even with the tofu dishes, sometimes it feels like they use too much salt,” she said.
Dining Services is also working to up the number of vegetarian and vegan options on the Hill, Foster said.
Leah Sitler, a first-year sociology student who is a vegetarian, said in general she is happy with the vegetarian options offered in the dining halls.
“I’m probably getting healthier vegetarian food here than I did at home, because they always have an option,” she said.
“But some of the soups aren’t clearly labeled (as to whether they are vegetarian).”
Sitler also echoed Baylon’s concerns about the overall nutrition of Hill food.
“They have salads, but I don’t feel like the food is really healthy,” she said. “It’s important to eat healthy.”
Foster said Dining Services may continue to make changes throughout the year, especially in response to student demand.
“We’re continuing to work with students, and we’ll continue to tweak things throughout the year,” she said.