Covel Commons Residential Restaurant

This is basically a heavenly version of hometown buffet. The food here is so good, and the variety is unmatched for a college campus cafeteria. The menu changes daily, so make sure to come on a day where they are serving food you know you’ll enjoy. Once inside, it is all-​you-​can-​eat, so be sure to load up.
For $ 13, you’ll be in and out of there with a hardy meal, where you can tackle all of the food groups. From pasta to soup, from cereal to desserts, this place has something for everyone. The highlight of my trip was the salad bar and pasta entrée, which were very delicious. The salad bar consisted of romaine lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, olives, and more.
I definitely will be back, and I’d highly recommend this place to all. Parking on campus is generally permit only, but you can pay a small charge (around $ 5) for a daily pass. Don’t let that deter you from a truly exceptional dining experience!

Although not my favorite dining hall, Covel gets the job done when you wanna carb-​o-​load or feel like pasta. The main feature is usually some italian specialty (both vegetarian and meat) — ranging from a simple bow tie pasta to cioppino or risotto. They also always have thick crust pizza, dessert, burgers and fries, a salad bar, and a cereal station.
The new addition that I like here is the Hallal and Kosher section: featuring hummus, chicken, and pita bread. The food quality has upped a bit since I’ve been a student, but its disappointing how small some of the servings are. I can’t complain though with all the health initiatives, and since there’s lots of options for UCLA folks this dining hall isn’t as crazy crowded as it used to be.

There are few times I’ll actually eat lunch or dinner in the covel dining hall at ucla, usually between 8 and 9 pm when it is the only dining hall open or if a friend wants to eat here. That being said, their weekend brunch is one of my favorite things about the ucla dining halls. Although the omelette line is always ridiculously long, they are absolutely delicious. The best time to go to avoid the long line is between 9 and 10:30 am.

Hands down, the best dining hall ever.
When its Shrimp Saganaki Day, you know its gonna be a good day!
Shout out to the friendly people who make the food at Covel. You the Real MVP!
10 out of 9 would come back to Covel again.

There are four dining commons at UCLA. Covel is almost universally regarded as the least appetizing of them all. Not only is it the oldest after recent renovations, they serve some of the least tasty, and most choleric options. Although the food is still editable (realistically better than the majority of other campus dining halls gogo Bruins!), and okay in a pinch, most people do not seek Covel out to eat from the other options.
They do have the best pizza oven tho, I’ll give em that!

Freshman year in college has a magical essence about it because the drudgery of high school social structure, SAT preparation and the college application process is well behind you and a 4 year academic journey is just beginning. Freshman year promises that the worst is over and your life can finally begin. One of the first things you do during orientation week is settle into the your dormitory and share a meal with your fellow schoolmates in the residential dining hall. I decided to have lunch at Covel to recreate that magical time.
When I attended UC Irvine, I heard rumors of the amazing dining experience at UCLA. People were saying that the food is cooked fresh just for you and that you can have as much as you want. I heard that the food was so good that UCLA freshman instantly gain 15 lbs the first month of school. I have since graduated UC Irvine and got into UCLA’s graduate nursing school. Some rumors were true but the experience could not live up to the hype.
The dining hall does indeed have five stations, each with its own cook preparing a signature dish just for you. The menu changes daily. The taste and the preparation failed to blow me away. The day I went, they had arugula salad wrap, chicken fettuccini alfredo, pepperoni pizza, hamburgers and hot dogs. I didn’t bother with the hot dogs. The fettuccini sauce and chicken was adequate but the pasta was al dente, not to my preference. The pizza was freshly baked in a stone oven which was great but too bad it only had pepperoni on it. I mostly filled up at the salad and soup bar.
Lunch costs $ 13 per person without a dining plan. Too pricey for my tastes and to top it all off, it still can’t compare to Mesa Commons at UC Irvine.

Very nice and clean setting. The choices were varied and were also healthy. My favorite was the wonderfully fresh fruit that was offered-​cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, honeydew, peaches, nectarines, grapes, etc.
On the naughty side there were delicious desserts such as chocolate cake, apple pie, cookies, and soft serve yogurt cones. Beverages varied from sugary sodas to heathy fruit drinks. College dining ala 21^st Century style.

Best pizza dough! Omelet was awesome. I did not know that dining hall food can be this good. UCLA you guys are lucky!

Great venue to host on the rooftop with a view. I’ve only been to this place with catered food, so not sure if the restaurant is referring to this. In any case, the outdoor space is amazing with a view of the UCLA campus and Bel-​Air. The only issue is that it is in a residential building, which is kind of strange, and there are lots of stairs to climb. Park in the Sunset Village parking lot.

The pizza from this place is the sucks. I know they have a wood-​fire oven and all, but the pizza is destroyed with the sub-​par cheese and relative lack of toppings. The only other gripe I have, and this goes for most other dining halls, is that supply is often swamped by demand. It’s good that a new dining hall is opening soon, but the sheer amount of people living on the hill makes for a pretty crappy eating experience if you want to eat during the more important parts of the day. Also, I wish cinnamon toast crunch cereal would always be available, since it is one of the best cereals ever invented by mankind.

Better for breakfast. Dinner consists of a lot of pastas. Overall, I’d regard it as a second-​tier dining hall compared to the likes of De Neve and Feast. But again, not bad, when you compare to other schools.

This place is horrible in terms of actual food quality, but for school cafeteria food, it’s decent. There are often super long wait times due to the long lines and massive amounts of students and the kitchen struggles to keep food coming out at a fast pace.
The food is also not that great either. There are much better options in westwood and nearby but I guess if you are on a meal plan or living on campus at UCLA, there isn’t much other option.

I’ve experienced the many different sides of Covel Commons, when as an undergrad, in the 90s, I went when it was called Griffin and Sunset and the food quite honestly wasn’t the best, just your basic pizza and burgers from what I remember, no diversity or love in the food.
Boy times have changed, I now work at UCLA as staff, intervening among the youngins, and the food has changed as well, it is not only more diverse — what Pad Thai, pasta and Philly cheese steak, but also tastes alot better. Love the pizza here too, probably one of the better ones on the hill. One thing I enjoy here is the soup and veggies. Such a great selection of soups, I sometimes have two cups. I enjoy their slit pea and clam chowder. Good stuff and as staff I pay 4.50. Also great views of the UCLA campus from the windows and sometimes you see Tyus Edney eating here (Mr. 4.8 and he’s staff).

Undeniably, this was the best tasting restaurant within the UCLA dining hall options on the hill… De Neve had it’s charm, Rieber was too far of a walk but Covel had the PASTA…
I can’t even begin to tell you how many of my friend’s meal plans I would abuse. RA’s, Little bros, and even random people who would be so gracious enough to swipe me in cause I felt like eating dorm food. I had no shame…
Patrons: I think Covel dining probably had the best looking kids. Sunset village baby. (Courtside, Canyon, and Delta Terrace)
Food: Pasta bar, Pizza, hotdogs, cheese sandwiches, Pastries, coffee, soft-​serve ice cream,
Décor: Pretty nice… Good for a group setting or the individual loner.
True stories…
*12 plates of food stacked one tray at one time.
* Yes… I’m the asshole who claps as loud as I can when someone drops a plate and breaks it on the floor… Big emphasis on the ASSHOLE part. :) Damn I miss undergrad.

I think Covel is probably my favorite dining halls (at least of the OG ones. Rieber Feast is pretty bomb and is probably my #1 fave now but I digress). I like sitting next to the windows. Nice view :]
Went for brunch. Omelets good. Actually everything is good. The only bad thing, that «NOOO WHYY MEE???» moment, was that the toaster was broken, so I couldn’t toast my eggs benedict english muffin breakfast sandwich. So sad.
Tips for the freshman:
— dorm food gets repetitive so get creative!
— 1 part orange juice, 1 part cranberry juice, and a splash of sierra mist = BEST DRINK EVER
— also try mixing cranberry and apple juice.
— don’t eat ALL YOU CAN EAT because. you’re gonna get fat. I got freshman 15 (curse you delicious dorm food!). Instead share your swipes with upperclassmen in apartments!
Dorm food. I hate it but I love it.

Good food for a dining hall. Known for pasta/​pizza.
BESTTT red velvet cupcakes ever! (check out picture). similar to quality of Vanilla Bakeshop in terms of its soft and airy consistency.

Honestly, I only went to Covel so often because I lived in Sproul. Granted, this is also a summer review.
Breakfast | Euro Kitchen: Bacon, sausage links, scrambled eggs, hash browns with bell pepper. You can get that pretty much daily. Pancake bar: Pancakes and soft Belgian waffles. Personally, the waffles with the crunchier exterior taste better. Yogurt usually comes in normal, peach, and blueberry (?) with optional granola. The omelette bar seems only to offer ham and cheese. Donuts abound. Fruit layout provides decent variety, e.g. grapes, strawberries, blueberries…
Pasta «bar» | Variation is OK. The scampi/​scallops one was a surprise. I found it quite delicious; at least it was seasoned enough. Pesto and parmesan self-​serve. It’s definitely very greasy and caloric, but… screw it, it’s college.
Soup | The pasta in the minestrone is consistently inconsistent, gloopy, soft, hardly palatable. Which is quite a regret – the rest of the soup is very savoury. As for the rotating varieties, I have seen Portuguese sausage, New England clam chowder, etc.
Rice | Steamed white rice daily. The other rice is sometimes brown, sometimes Hawaiian, sometimes Spanish. The vegetables are usually steamed and very bland. The tofu + mushroom side, containing two of my favourite food items hands down, was a huge disappointment.
Euro Kitchen | I don’t know why it’s called Euro Kitchen. I saw BBQ chicken there. It didn’t really scream European to me, but it wasn’t bad, either.
Dessert | Do try the Salvadorian coffee cake, passionfruit mousse, apricot pie…
Coffee cake | It spits and has seizures and then fills half your mug. So press it again, or find a better machine. Or stop drinking it.
Ice cream | Saddens me that of 5 days there, only 1 night did I see waffle cone instead of cake cone.
²⁴⁄₇ fruits | Fuji apple, Golden Delicious apple, Red Delicious apple, Granny Smith apple, orange, banana. I saw nectarines one fateful day.
Utensils | Not very clean. Luckily, dirty plates do not exist consecutively; at least I have not really seen it that way.

Honestly, I only go to Covel since it’s so close to my dorm room. It’s probably the most predictable and boring of the three dining halls. They’ll always have either pasta or meat with rice. The only times I want to actively eat at Covel is when they have some sort of meat dish like Pot Roast, Meatloaf, or BBQ Ribs.
The only thing Covel has got going for it is the dessert bar. For some reason, the dessert bar at Covel looks the most appealing to me. At breakfast, there are so many donuts and other pastries… TEMPTATION. Also, they seem to have the best assortment of fruit. I even saw nectarines in here once!

Covel is BY FAR my favorite dining hall. The pasta is so, so good. I hate when I go to Covel expecting pasta, but instead, I get… rice and curry. It is the biggest letdown ever! But that’s what I get for not checking menus, eheheh? The other entrée usually isn’t bad either. I faaahreaking loooove when they have some sort of beef dish, like the Mediterranean Tri-​Tip, oooomggggg. I don’t even know why they call it Mediterranean, but who currrrs.
I kind of prefer Covel’s salad bar over De Neve’s because they chop the veggies up smaller :3. It makes for easier eating. I like, I like.
A few complaints:
— Dirtiest dining hall. A lot of their utensils and plates are disgusting sometimes. I remember lifting hella forks up only to see a piece of food at the end NAAAASTY.
— One time, I put some cherry tomatoes in my salad… When I bit down on one of them, it was rotted. I never put cherry tomatoes in my salad again after that.
— Sometimes they do not have apple juice. What’s up with that? Apple juice is bomb.
P. S. Down with beef-​less Thursdays.

My favorite dining hall. Except for the weird smell that’ll permeate your clothes after you eat, the food at Covel is consistent– something that the other dining halls can’t claim. Known for its pasta, I like how the website never inaccurately lists what they’re serving. I don’t get weird surprises like at Rieber.
The breakfast/​brunch is good but they seriously need more sauce bottles. I’m a spice freak and I can never find a bottle of tabasco because some jerk has it on his table and isn’t even using it. PUT IT BACK.