Croutons Restaurant

Their sandwiches are actually very good! I had their California and used pesto instead of mayo. They give you a sandwich cut in half and is very filling. I wish that the panini sandwich was a little more pressed so that and sandwich would be crunchier but it was overall very satisfying.

One of the better campus food options at UCSD especially if you want something healthy. I love coming here for the salads. They have a wide variety of salads. I always get the half and half combo when I come here. The salad is definitely a decent size portion as a small, so I don’t know how big it would be as a large. The half and half I think is a tad pricy, but the best deal if you want variety. It’s a bummer that they upcharge $ 1.25 if you want any of the sandwiches or salads that they deem «special.»
My favorite salads are the mixed berry salad and the pear salad. The pear salad comes with blue cheese but I always sub it for feta and they have no problem doing that for me. The salads usually come with a variety of other toppings like nuts and stuff. I recently had the sundance salad. It was pretty good, but my least favorite so far. I don’t think the dressing was as flavorful as in the other two. I liked how it came with mandarin and avocado though. The soups are pretty good here, but not «out of this world» special. I like the tomato basil soup and the chicken and wild rice soup.
The sandwiches are what bring down Croutons to a 3 for me. They serve mostly pretty much only paninis and flatinis here. The flatini bread is almost pita like bread. I’ve had the pesto panini and both the barbecue and buffalo chicken flatinis. They were all pretty lackluster to me. The chicken on the pesto panini is pretty dry. The flatinis are reminiscent of something you’d get at Subway, Quiznos, or the freezer section of a grocery store. There just isn’t a lot going on besides meat, cheese, and sauce. I’d rather have a sandwich packed with more fresh veggies, but the panini style here kind of limits the execution of that type of sandwich here.
Although Croutons is a bit pricy, it’s a solid option for me when I’m at UCSD and craving salad and soup. I’m just not a big fan of their sandwiches.

Oh, dang it. The first time I came in here the sandwich was good and I got it really quickly. The second time I came in, the experience was just so-​so. I wonder why? I didn’t come in on a busy hour the second time around and my sandwich took forever to make. Which is okay, but then when I got my sandwich, it wasn’t made as well as the first time around. It wasn’t gross, but I was disappointed. What a bummer, I also recommended my boyfriend try them but now I can’t say that I want him to.
I can vouch for the brownies and say that those taste good, but you can’t mess up on a brownie bite.
One star for the cleanliness and always friendly service, I’ll give them that. Place is small. Don’t bank on finding a place to sit in and eat unless you go during an off hour.

First time going today was not a bad experience. I chose the combo lunch deal. Since I was new I asked what they suggested. They recommended two items which were each a 1.25 extra, but they failed to mention this to me. If someone ask you for a suggestion you let them know that it’s extra.
The food was pretty good nothing out of the ordinary though. Just a decent place to get a sandwich and salad. The one thing I didn’t like ironically was the croutons. I love croutons on my salad, but these were made of corn bred or something. No thank you I’ll pass on that. You don’t mess with simple things like croutons it is just not right.

I absolutely love Croutons. When I’m nostalgic for some college memories, I always stop by Croutons for my usual (combo: chicken pesto panini with extra pesto on the side and a buffalo chicken salad with ranch).
Croutons is really delicious and you need to give them a try if you want soup, salads, and sandwiches made from scratch!
The service is good considering you order and pay and find a table and the server brings you your food. When I go, the staff is always smiley and happy.
I highly recommend you stop by when you are on campus!

My favorite place for lunch on campus! It is healthy and delicious unlike other campus food (that’s right I’m talking about panda and burger king). Honestly, everything on the menu is good, the salads, sandwiches, soup etc. I pretty much tried every kinds of salad on the menu and still haven’t found one that I don’t like. People might complain about its price but I think the quality is well worth the money! In addition, the restaurant itself is a great place to just hang around and wait for your next class. The only downside is that it closes too early around 3 in the afternoon. Otherwise you’ll see me here all day!

Used to come here for lunch almost every day, but I stopped for a while because was getting sick of it. Recently I started coming back here again but the past 3 times have been extremely bad! Not sure if it’s the lettuce or the cheese, but the salad is very bitter. It’s like spoiled salad. For all 3 times! I’ll stop coming back!

The food is a good, but it’s definitely not worth the price. Since UCSD is on a hill, it’s difficult for students to eat outside of their campus. Croutons understand’s that pretty well, and take advantage of that. Being on-​campus, they increase their prices to an unreasonable amount. I paid $ 8 just for a sandwich. Definitely not worth it. It tastes good, but the taste doesn’t correlate with the amount of money you’re spending. Would not recommend eating here if you’re on a student budget.

Croutons is similar to that of Panera, Boudin, and all those other places with soup/​salad/​sandwiches.
This restaurant is one of the cooler looking places on campus! Aside from that, the food is alright. It’s good, but it’s not the best. The price range is typical… It’s cheap, but it’s expensive for what it is. A little olé sandwich for almost $ 7 and a tomato basil soup, which equates to almost $ 13? I should’ve done the combo, but it was my first time and it was really busy, so I didn’t know what to do hehe.
I got the chicken pesto and tomato basil soup. Since the name of this restaurant is called «Croutons,» I expected the croutons to be good. Indeed, they were huge and delicious! The soup and croutons were the best part about my meal. The sandwich wasn’t the greatest, and I couldn’t really taste the pesto.
Seating inside gets crowded because it’s pretty compact, but there’s seating outside also. They bring the food to you when you order in. The customer service was forgettable! I wasn’t impressed.

My mother, sister, and I dropped by for lunch yesterday after our tour of the UCSD campus. It was right around 12pm, in the middle of the lunch rush, and the line was out the door. We were a bit apprehensive about the wait, but they moved us through quickly and took our order in less than 5 mins.
The venue itself is small, and it was difficult to find seating during the lunch hour. There was plenty of outdoor seating, though, since it is a college campus. I suggest ordering your food to go and finding somewhere to enjoy your food outside.
I’m usually not big on salads, but I got the Pear and Blue Cheese Salad and added diced chicken and it was delicious. My sister enjoyed her Chicken Pesto Panini, too. We weren’t huge on the Granny Smith Chicken Salad Flatini because the flatbread got cold quickly, and once it did, it was too chewy.
Overall, everything was great! Quick service, yummy food, reasonable prices.

The salads here are really nice. Fresh and right amount of dressing. If you’re not a big eater, I recommend getting the small salad because the large one is huge.
Bonus points to their triple chocolate brownies!
Nice environment, not a lot of seating, so be ware that you might need to wait during lunch hours for a place to sit inside. A really good place to hangout during lunch:)

I really love the soup/​salad combo you can get here! They don’t over do the dressing which is nice and the soup comes with these amazing croutons.
I usually get the Mediterranean salad with the tomato basil soup, but their egg salad sandwiches are very good as well (they do put a kind of dressing on them though). I would advise everyone to stay away from the meat, though, as I’ve gotten a chicken panini 2 separate times and found bones in both of them…
This is a great study environment if you can find an outlet and listening to professors discuss things makes me feel intellectually stimulated :)
Students: try it out! It’s on campus, convenient, and a break from the usual dining hall food.
Everyone else: you won’t be missing much it you don’t go here…

Took me three years to try this place for the first time. HORRIBLE UNFRIENDLY customer service. Ordered a simple salad and soup. Both was quite disappointing. Soup was very dry, and mushy. The salad had absolutely no dressing inside. should have checked before I left.

I go for the free brownies on Tuesdays (which is only available on the ucsd campus). Other than that, I recommend getting the combo deal (you can get a combination of a small soup, small salad, or a sandwich) for a better price and just a better variety of taste because for me, eating a regular size of salad is too much vegetables in one sitting and eating just a sandwich is not enough for a filling meal. I recommend the chopped salad if you like meat or the santa Fe salad if you love cheese! I would also recommend their tomato basil soup and chicken and rice soup! As for sandwiches, I like their chicken pesto panini.

Decent food and prices, but I do not find some of the employees very friendly.

i was getting tired of pc food and wanted something relatively healthy, and ate at croutons for the first time. i like that it’s in a convenient location and the outdoor seating is also a plus.
for the price, i like the half soup half sandwich combo because you get to taste different things. i think that in the future i would choose croutons over pc for their yummy sandwiches and the fact that i don’t feel so guilty after eating.

I came here after class to get a bite to eat on the go. I ordered the buffalo chicken flatini which sounded pretty good but was absolutely Nothing special at all. I liked the bread it was on but all that was in the bread was thick chicken slices doused in buffalo sauce that made the paper wrapping rip and maybe a total of 6 small onion slices total.
I only waited 6 minutes for my food which was conventions since I was in a rush, but no one was in line before me so I’m not sure how they would do if they were busy.
However, they gave me a free brownie which was really nice since I wasn’t expecting it! I guess they do that on Tuesdays.
I hear their salads are good (my friend says the BBQ chicken salad is best), so I would come back if I’m in the area and in the mood for a salad.

I can’t believe it took me almost 3 years to try this place! I love soup and salads but I just never took the time out to eat here. Anyway, this Croutons is relatively small and when it’s busy, the line will go out the door.
I ended up getting the combo meal which allows you to order specific salads and any small-​sized soup for a low price. I got the Granny Smith Chicken Salad and the Tomato Basil Soup. The salad was topped with apples, chicken, cranberries, and croutons and was so tasty! There was a perfect amount of vinaigrette dressing on there and it just complemented the salad so well. The soup was equally tasty because it was just so creamy and the texture of the croutons in the soup balanced out the soup.
I seriously can’t wait to come back and try more!
TL;DR:
Food: 4÷5−− recommend the Granny Smith Chicken Salad
Price: $

Croutons is one my favorite places to eat on campus because of how fresh and simple the food is. The menu is very «user-​friendly» and detailed, which makes me indecisive about what to order at times.
My favorite salad is the Cobb, but I like that there is a wide variety of other options as well. I’ve tried some of the other salads, and many of them lack the proper amount of dressing and leave them bland. As for the sandwiches, the $ 6.95 chicken pesto panini is pretty bomb, with chicken, mozzarella, basil, and pesto mayonnaise. But I’m not a huge fan of chicken, so I’ll always order the $ 7.95 Italian panini, with ham, salami, tomato, pepperoncini, provolone cheese, and garlic mayonnaise… YUM!
The bottom line is that the food is delicious but overpriced for its portion size. They are perfect for a light lunch, though!

The famous chicken pesto panini was a huge disappointment. The pesto had very little pesto flavor and, despite looking very creamy (more like pale green Alfredo sauce than pesto) did little to alleviate the extreme dryness of the slices of chicken breast. The bread was poorly sliced and grilled — one slice was super thick and looked like they’d fried the outside of it to a hard crust, while the other slice was much thinner and wasn’t grilled at all. I had to force myself to finish it because I hate wasting food, but there is no way I’m getting that again.
There’s a variety of other sandwiches and salads there, but none of them are worth it — like most of the on-​campus, non-​UCSD-​affiliated restaurants, actually. But I’d much rather eat in the dining halls than at Croutons, whether I have dining dollars or not.