The Quad: Citywide event dineL.A. relished by students on a shoestring

If you consider yourself a “foodie,” follow Los Angeles events or ate out at a restaurant in the past two weeks, I’m guessing you’ve heard of dineL.A. With over 300 participating restaurants spread out all over the city, dineL.A.’s special menus were hard to miss. And with seven Westwood restaurants partaking in this 15-day event, you didn’t have to go very far to experience it.

But if the fabulous UCLA dining halls are the only restaurants you skipped your instant ramen dinner for this month, then let me break the dineL.A. event down for you. Twice a year, the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board presents this two-week dining event to showcase Los Angeles as a premier dining destination while highlighting the diversity of culinary experiences LA has to offer, according to the event’s website.

Through these two weeks, instead of having to buy a ticket or a pass, diners are free to choose either the dineL.A. menu presented by any of the participating restaurants or order from the regular restaurant menu. The dineL.A. menus guarantee a 20% minimum value, but the restaurants have the freedom of dish selection and menu setup, which can either work for or against the customer.

So is it a deal? Depends on who you ask.

For third-year mechanical engineering student Disha Samaiyar, who has done dineL.A. every six months since 2014, DineL.A. is her time to go wild with high-end restaurants she typically can’t afford.

For example, at Pata Salada, a recently opened Mexican restaurant in La Brea, Saimayar said, “Their portions were very generous. Amazing value for money – they had some of their best dishes on the menu. The whole snapper is usually $28, but the entire three-course dinner is $29.”

However, Saimayar also warned, “Sometimes, well established restaurants don’t put their best stuff on the dineL.A. menu, because they don’t feel obligated.”

Fourth-year biology student Mary Alice Pope, who usually eats out at restaurants at least once a week, avoids dineL.A for a different reason.

Pope said, “The menus always include desserts and I’m not really a dessert person. I’d rather have the option of a drink instead.”

This is an important factor to consider. If you normally like to order a main course and a drink without appetizers or desserts, the dineL.A. menus might not be the best option for you, since most of them consist of an appetizer, a main course and a dessert.

Yet some students have turned this event into a tradition. Third-year electrical engineering student Ishaan Pathak has participated in the event four times with other UCLA students and finds it to be “a good way to try new places.”

And if you’re looking to splurge and have always dreamed of eating at the fanciest restaurants in LA but can’t afford to fork out more than $100, dineL.A. is a game changer. Take the restaurant Providence, for example.

With a No. 1 ranking on LA Times food critic Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants List, Providence can get away with charging $185 for their seasonal dinner menu and $220 for the chef’s tasting menu. With dineL.A., however, I had the chance to experience a six-course meal at Providence for $100, which while quite expensive for a college student, was a great deal for someone who will spend their savings on a once-in-a-lifetime food experience.

In the end, dineL.A. is really all about encouraging people to explore the diverse culinary food scene that shapes LA’s unique cultural identity, all while supporting local businesses and establishing LA as the important food mecca that it is.

While UCLA students seemed to experience both hits and misses during the dineL.A. event, almost every student who participated deemed it an overall positive experience that they plan to continue next year. Nothing speaks louder to college students than good food for a good deal.