As a vegetarian living on the Hill last year, Connie Ho often found herself unsatisfied with the meat substitutes offered in most dining halls.
With such limited choices, she said she had to get creative with what meat-free options meals she could put together.
Since the opening of Bruin Plate, the Hill’s first health-themed dining hall, earlier this month, the second-year art and art history student said her meal periods gained more variety and flavor.
“I didn’t like all of the fake meat at De Neve (dining hall),” Ho said. “(But) Bruin Plate has a … way of catering to vegetarians. They have more options.”
Bruin Plate first opened in Sproul Presidio for select Hill residents on Oct. 7 and has been slowly increasing the number of residents per day to ease the dining hall staff into being able to serve up to 1,500 diners each meal period. UCLA chefs began testing recipes for Bruin Plate at the Hedrick Test Kitchen last year.
Bruin Plate is designed to feel more like a restaurant than a traditional dining hall.
Walls of glass windows surrounds the tables, letting the bright sunlight in while soft indie-pop music streams through the speakers. The aroma of grilled quinoa burgers, chicken, and cheese and apple flatbread wafts up to the high ceilings from bamboo tableware.
On one side of the sprawling room, gleaming glass cases display grapes, pineapple and cantaloupe in addition to apples, pears and bananas. Students flock to the yogurt bar next to the fruit, where they combine granola, coconut flakes and Greek yogurt into a bowl.
Ho said she has been especially impressed with the vegetables and whole grains available at Bruin Plate that aren’t available anywhere else on the Hill.
“I like that they don’t use fake meats,” she said. “They use leafy, green vegetables … and the bowls have tempeh and soy protein.”
An expansive salad bar offers organic vegetables and newer dressings like kale vinaigrette and a yogurt-based ranch. A dining staff member mixes diners’ salads with the dressings of their choice at a salad tossing station called “Tumbled Greens.”
Bruin Plate’s construction was part of a larger $225 million project, which included the addition of four new residential halls and the multi-purpose building where the dining hall is located, said Alison Hewitt, spokeswoman for the university, in an emailed statement. A 2 percent increase in housing costs for students living on the Hill this year went toward funding the project in June, said Barbara Wilson, associate director of rooms operations for UCLA Housing and Hospitality Services.
The new dining hall is the largest one on the Hill and is spacious enough to accommodate 900 people, said Daryl Ansel, director of food and beverage for UCLA Dining Services.
Ansel said he hopes the new dining hall will draw traffic away from the De Neve dining hall. The Hedrick Test Kitchen has already seen a small decline in attendance, which Ansel said he expected.
“Every time a new dining hall opens, there’s always a rush to try it out,” Ansel said.
Iris Bachmutsky, a second-year neuroscience student, said she has visited Bruin Plate several times already because she enjoys the new flavors, especially in regards to protein for vegetarians, such as tofu.
“Most dining halls make (tofu) bland or fried,” she said. “(Bruin Plate) also offers (filling) vegetables without tofu.”
Some students were more critical of Bruin Plate’s food.
Suchawut Thamvorapon, a third-year economics student, said he liked the comfortable atmosphere, but thought the food portions were too small.
“I only had a small piece of chicken,” he said. “At De Neve and Covel, you get more.”
Thamvorapon said he thought Bruin Plate’s healthy menu was limiting, specifically the “spritzers,” or sparking waters mixed with fruit juices like pear, apple and passion fruit, offered in place of traditional sodas.
“It’s good for (your) health,” he said. “But they should have some soda for people who want it.”
As of Monday, De Neve Court and Dykstra Hall residents were allowed to dine at Bruin Plate using their meal plan swipes.
Bruin Plate will continue to increase the number of students from other residence halls admitted to dine during each meal period in the coming weeks.
Frankly, the food at Bruin Plate is shockingly bland. Though the food might LOOK good, and the advertising (e.g. this Daily Bruin article) might throw around vogue catchphrases the “bamboo tableware” and “grilled quinoa burger,” let’s be real. Unless you’re a die-hard vegan or vegetarian, you’re probably going to try BP out maybe once or twice (in other words, wait long lines for ridiculously small portions) and rarely go back.
I have to disagree with that. It may be bland if you want to eat pizza and soda at every meal. But the food at the other dining halls gets old after a while, and this is different. It’s a good change.