Cafe Zeb

Great location in the Law School. This café is partners with Caffe Strada and FSM Café so their food is decent.
Service: café style
Ambience: lots of seating and a great place to study. Indoor and outdoors available!
Food: average café fare with sandwiches, pastries, salads and coffees.

It exists, and technically sells coffee. Definitely go with Americano rather than their brewed stuff.

If you can get past the occasional obnoxious law student, Café Zeb is a solid place to study/​eat. The food is definitely some of the best you can get on campus — the California sandwich is great for vegetarians. The lattes range from average to great, and there’s a wide variety of pastries/​snacks to select from as well. The café itself allows for a lot of natural lighting which is really nice, and the ambiance always motivates me to be productive.

Special place in my heart forever and always. I may be bias, and I also may have not been to any other campus cafes, but it’s the best on campus. Yep.

First time here, and I’ll be back. I had a great panini with tasty onion and turkey. It’s sad that $ 8 seems reasonable for a sandwich, but there you are… not a bad deal.

The sandwiches and orange juice are yummy! Pretty good place for lunch and to hang out. Nice couch and free ice water! But the tables and floor were a bit dirty. Regardless, it is still a nice place to get a quite bite between classes.

Delicious ice cold water (free)!
Warm pesto turkey avocado focaccia panini that screams California.
Hungry law students.
Red bull.

Good lunch destination kept secret by law students.
If you want a salad or sandwich for lunch, café Zeb is IMO one of the better options on campus. The salads are substantial and tasty, the sandwiches are good and come with a side salad. Everything I have tried has been pretty good and I have never had trouble finding a place to sit down.
Check it out.

They charge extra to add a little soy milk to your coffee. The manager is super rude and its horrible that a café that has a monopoly on the law school doesn’t accomidate individual who are lactose intolerant. Also soy milk is cheaper then milk when you buy in bulk so its essentially a tax on those that can’t digest milk.

I’ll have to admit that I’ve never eaten the food here. This is just one of my favorite places to study when I’m on campus. There’s a variety of tables, booths, and even comfy sofas to claim as your study area. Plenty of outlets and lots of natural light flooding in from the floor-​to-​ceiling windows. The booths have signs reserving for groups of 3 or more, but people ignore them and take up a whole booth just for 1 person. I’m one of the guilty ones.

I really want to like the study area outside Café Zeb. It’s nice and spacious, usually has available outlets (some awkwardly placed on the ground), has comfortable seating, and best of all, sells food! The janitors keep the place almost religiously clean (they came in one time and spent a good 15 minutes cleaning a piece of gum off the floor), the café provides free water, and when you’ve drunk too much coffee there are at least two bathroom locations within easy walking distance in the actual Boalt Hall.
But there’s a major drawback: obnoxious law students.
I’m not saying all law students are obnoxious, but those who are pretty much give them the reputation and spoil the mood in here. Even during the hours when it’s open to undergraduates (8AM-​5PM M-​F), they’ll hum and haw loudly near you if they believe you’ve got better study real estate than they do. Or hold conversations from seats on opposite sides of the room. Or shoot dirty looks and imitate your sniffles when you’ve actually got a cold.
But then there are also the super awesome ones, like the one who held open the door for me one time and said, «Welcome to the party that is the law library.»
The food I’ve gotten here is always hot and fresh though and their coffee is strong enough to keep you awake. My favorite: hot pita bread with hummus, artichoke, and roasted bell peppers — perfect snack&study food.

That breakfast biscuit tho… It’s probably the cure to bar review and makes friday a day worth living.

I love studying at Café Zeb! It’s located inside of Boalt Law School, so I sometimes stop by before my classes at Haas. I really don’t enjoy the food or drinks at FIFO inside Haas, but Zeb sells great food and drinks!
Ambiance: Lots of places to sit and study! It’s also not too rowdy or loud even when it’s crowded so you can easily be productive when you want to be or just have a coffee with a friend.
Service: Food and drinks come out pretty quickly, so nothing to complain about.
Food: I’ve gotten the caprese sandwich, which is just bread with melted cheese and tomatoes with basil. It comes with a salad and definitely fills you up but unfortunately lacks flavor. I added some hot sauce which did the trick, but I wish it had something in it already. The bread was soft and so fresh, so overall the sandwich was enjoyable. They have the same snacks as Café Strada and FIFO, like the parfaits, muffins, etc. but they have a much larger variety in food. Huge variety of sandwiches and salads and soups that you can’t go wrong with!
Drink: I always get a half iced tea-​half lemonade here! FIFO unfortunately doesn’t sell lemonade, so I love coming here when I don’t have cash to get it at Café Strada. They give it to you in the bigger cup which is nice and it’s always so tasty! Their coffees and other drinks are pretty identical to the other two cafes.
Verdict: I will be returning! The slightly higher prices are definitely worth the ambiance of the café!

I really enjoy Café Zeb. Located inside Boalt Law School here at UC Berkeley, Café Zeb has proven that school owned café food does not have to be completely disgusting (though a little over priced).
Pros:
–Great Atmosphere. Zeb is the perfect place to come and get some studying done if you need a place to help you concentrate. There is a lot of comfortable seating (booth and tables) and has many outlets for you laptop.
–Have a good deal of options that could be considered healthy. Unlike many other school run café’s in the area (aka FIFO), Zeb has food that you can eat and not feel disgusting about yourself afterwards.
Food Recommendations: The steak salad with the ice tea lemonade.
–The steak is cooked very well and seasoned well. In my experience, they cook the steak pretty rare which I like but for those who do not like their meat pink, you can always ask them to cook it a little extra longer.
–The ice tea lemonade is not too sour or too bland so it was a good mix of tea and lemonade mix. Super fast service too.
–Their soup of the day is good too. Changes daily (obviously) but you usually cannot go wrong with their soups. Comes with a nice fat piece of foccacia too.
Cons:
–Lots of crowds. I feel like more and more people discover this gem every day, try it, and the never want to leave. These people come early and take the good spots so you might have to look around for prime seating. I have never had a problem finding a seat, but not the best booth seating.
–The food is a little on the pricey side. Compared to the other café’s in the area, the food is on the pricier side for what you are getting. However, I guess you are paying for the convenience and the atmosphere.
–Door lock after 7pm and the only way to get in is if you are a law student. Most of the time nice people will open the door for you, but just remember that if you are not a law student you have a chance of not being able to get back in after this curfew.
Overall I love coming here to get some work done. The food is good and the atmosphere always puts me in a studying mood.

Café Zeb is located in the heart of Boalt Law School, and is quietly tucked away despite being next to Bancroft, one of the busiest streets on South Side. Café Zeb is great for just doing some work in a cute café, or for food.
Most of the menu is the typical coffee, salad and sandwich offering. But I must say, the sandwiches here are VERY GOOD. I’ve tried sandwiches at almost every café on South Side, from Milano to Babette, and the steak sandwich I tried at Zeb is my absolute favorite. So much good flavor packed with some caramelized onions and mayo. The bread itself is nice and crunchy, and goes well with the tender steak. I like the side salad too because it’s dressed with vinaigrette. I’ve also tried the tuna salad sandwich — also very good. The tuna is very fresh and diced to the right size.
There are also a lot of law students, so if you find those types of people attractive, then Zeb is the ideal place for some eye candy.

LOVE this place.
It’s not perfect in every capacity but the majority of the menu options are quite good.
The chicken salad is a MUST! I order it every time. The mustard vinaigrette is made with real seed mustard not that gross yellow stuff and it’s not a honey mustard ether — it’s just delicious, perfect texture and they always put the right amount on. The salad comes with shredded chicken that’s fantastically moist, dried cranberries (a great addition in any salad), feta cheese (which just melts right in) and walnuts (which I always order it without since I’m not a fan of nuts in salads). I’ve been here quite a few times and I just can’t help but order this salad every time.
I’ve gone with friends though who have enjoyed their quesadillas, sandwiches and other salads.
If you go to Berkeley and haven’t been here yet you’re missing out!
The reason it’s not a 5 — the seating is quite limited given the crowded nature of the law school. There are quite a few tables around the corner past the library but those are typically full of law students who are studying. You can ALMOST always find a seat though so it’s not too bad — especially if you’re willing to sit outside, their patio is quite nice.

I enjoyed my meal at Café Zeb today! Some of the menu items are pretty pricy, but I thought my turkey&avocado sandwich + mixed greens meal was pretty cheap at about $ 6-​$ 7. It filled me up and it was really tasty.
My boyfriend got the Californian sandwich without realizing it didn’t have meat in it. We’re both carnivores so we thought it’d be disappointing, but it was actually really tasty! They were generous with the avocado so it was pretty delicious.
I have meal points so this won’t be my go-​to spot on campus, but it’s a nice change from Ramona’s&GBC. I definitely want to come back to try the Nicoise salad because that looked delicious.

Love their White Mocha, which is basically the Bianca Mocha at Strada. Love their two seating areas – especially the one on the West side since it’s basically a giant study spot with bar stools along the windows, booths and cushy seating. AND HUGE TABLES.
They have pretty quick service and it’s just a lovely place because the windows are huge and you can enjoy the sun. Also, they take that new Café card that Strada, Fifo and FSM take. Woohoo!
TIP:
–Load $ 20 onto the Café card right now and you get a $ 5 reload coupon!

Awesome place (often overlooked) because it’s in the Boalt school on the bottom floor. Great food — definitely beats Haas café or any of the dorm cafes.
The food is awesome, would recommend the warm sandwiches. Service isn’t THAT fast but it’s not slow either. Awesome seating with glass doors (so you can really enjoy it on a sunny day, sitting indoor with a good book and some coffee)
Also the sofa seating and chair seating have outlets! They sure know the way to a student’s heart…

I have only tried the Chipotle, Mediterranean, and Asian Chicken salads. They were all pretty decent, but I still think almost $ 7 was on the high side for a salad. My favorite is the Asian Chicken salad because of the dressing and crunchy noodles tossed in. Otherwise, the Chipotle and Mediterranean salads seemed more generic.
The BBQ chipotle quesadilla was also pretty decent – filled with lots of cheese and had a side of green salad.
The coffees are the same as Caffe Strada and FSM.
I’ll return to this café due to its proximity to work and when I’m too rushed to go home and make lunch.