The Faculty Club

Love this cute little wooden lodging and restaurant straight smack bang in the middle of campus. I walk by Faculty House every morning at 8am to go to class and it’s always well maintained. One of my professors treated us to the Lunch Line Buffet once and it was really nice!

As a visiting professor, attending a conference, I took advantage of the location and the nice website. The reality is far different. The scholar’s room is in a different building from the shower. Have YOU ever experienced walking past a restaurant in your towel to get to your room? Also, the showers are co-​ed, so you have to somehow get dressed before a woman (I’m a man) accuses you of exposing yourself. No mosquito protection on the windows and no internal a/​c. Never again. I left after the first night and paid more for the Bancroft Hotel, not quite as convenient but only an 5 min walk across campus.

We had an amazing time with our wedding at the faculty club.
Erica is so nice and always willing to offer help and make suggestions. She is very busy, but is always receptive to phone calls and emails. We also had a day-​of coordinator to help Erica make sure everything ran smoothly during the wedding. We are so lucky to have had such a great team of vendors that made this location really shine and made the night a fun experience for everyone.

Stellar! A hidden gem on campus. Does not get ANY better in Berkeley. All local organic ingredients. Staff is warm and inviting. Most have been there for years, and are as accommodating as they are knowledgable.

I am sick of this place and their entirely predictable menu before Cal games. Who wants to eat hamburgers and salad at10 am in the morning???
I called them and suggested that they might want to consider changing it up a bit and going with a breakfast buffet since we had a noon game today. I was told they would talk to the chef. NO CHANGES!
No wonder the place looked empty today. We ended up eating at the stadium. Next time there is a noon game we will not be going to the faculty club. Very disappointing that this place shows absolutely no flexibility even though fans must.

Talk about a hidden gem for breakfast!
I like big portions. I like good service. I also like eating on a budget.
All three of these things came together in one magical breakfast experience in the Kerr Dining Room at the Faculty Club.
The menu has a variety of items, ALL for under $ 10 per plate. The best deal is definitely the T.F.C. Sunrise, which my friend Sarah S. ordered. It comes with 2 pancakes, eggs, a breakfast meat of your choice, home fries, toast, AND if all of that wasn’t enough to entice you, juice. ALL FOR $ 7.50. They even had grapefruit juice as an option.
They also offer omelettes with a choice of 3 fillings — I ordered one with smoked salmon, onions, and cheese. The smoked salmon was a tad bit fishy but the sauteed onions helped to mask it. I wish I’d ordered the T.F.C. Sunrise or The Golden Bear instead.
The food comes out on a magnificently large white plate and you can delicately wipe your mouth on a cloth napkin while sitting in what feels like a log cabin/​mansion. Aaaaaaaand basically the entire dining experience kind of takes you away from the clutter of campus life.
I definitely plan on coming back!

The first thing to keep in mind is that the rooms are priced on par with the Berkeley TraveLodge and the Berkeley Super 8 motels south of campus. For the same price, you can be located smack in the middle of UC Berkeley in a Maybeck-​designed Craftsmen building which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Having said that, it is not luxurious. My bed was not the most comfortable I have had, neither was it so awful that I could not sleep. The furniture was Craftsman in style and well worn. The shower was oddly configured with a very low head, but it worked and had good water pressure. The towels were the thin white towels you might be given in a Holiday Inn in the sixties.
There was a fair amount of noise — students, early morning workers and sanitation trucks, the bells of the Campanile, but it abated by about ten. Earplugs would be useful, although I did not use mine. Being in the middle of campus, I expected it to be noisy and I wanted to hear the sounds of the University. It was hot when I was there and there was no air conditioning. Normally it cooled down at night, and the fan helped.
The wifi was tricky but it worked most of the time with small quirks, like it wouldn’t let me remotely access my work system and the Gmail app didn’t work (although I could sign on to gmail using Google on the internet). Overall it worked well and when it didn’t I used my Iphone as a hotspot.
I only ate breakfast in the Club. I had the continental breakfast a couple of times — it was meagre but serviceable (coffee, cereal, small pastries, juice). But more often I would order the $ 6 eggs/​bacon/​toast/​potatoes breakfast, which was very good and very reasonable. I did not have lunch or dinner there given the other dining options on offer in Berkeley. There is wonderful deck that overlooks the Faculty Glade where you can have breakfast and watch the students pass by on the way to class.
The place does have a rabbit warren quality which I enjoyed. I was always getting lost. It is very dark, as you would expect from a Craftsmen building. Not a good choice if you have mobility issues, both because it is a little hard to get to the Club itself and also because the rooms are upstairs with no elevator.
The people who work there are friendly but not particularly helpful or effective. Since Berkeley has no hospitality major, they may not even be students. But if you ask for specifically what you need, you generally get it eventually.
I would stay here again. For me, its charm and location outweigh its shortcomings.

Berkeley’s Faculty Club can be used for events, weddings, and whatever else your little heart desires, but keep in mind that there isn’t a lot of space to maneuver around. The main foyer is nice, but the side rooms are plain/​tiny and the outdoor area where weddings are held is full of overgrown grass and students milling about.

I have stayed here on several occasions and look forward to coming back. :)

This review is for the Faculty Club as a wedding venue.
The staff, bartenders and kitchen truly deserve 5 stars. The wedding could not have gone any better for me and Anita. It was truly a special day. The fact that it fit just within our budget absolutely sealed the deal.
So why three stars overall?
Money drama. We signed our event order almost a year in advance. We would pay a flat rate for food, booze and venue. Then a few months before the wedding, buried in an info packet was their new cocktail offerings which were ala-​carte (and much more expensive). Additionally there was a changed policy about discounts for club members.
All this added lots of uncomfortable phone calls, stress and money worries. There were invoices and estimates that had to be checked and double checked by myself.
Eventually we sorted most of it out, but I was quite upset that we had to renegotiate terms just a few months before the wedding. If the club needs to generate more revenue I get it, but really, you need to honor your agreements with your guests. Anything else is bad business.
So again – GREAT job with the big day, but I highly recommend prospective couples get early estimates signed and dated by the club so there is no confusion later on.

I’ve had the honor of having dinner at the Kerr Dining Room two times (luckily, all courtesy of an organization on campus). Both meals were absolutely delectable.
My most recent meal was the lamb with fig sauce. The lamb was cooked to perfection, completely tender and juicy. Lamb is especially hard to cook because it can be gamier than beef, but this one was perfection! The fig sauce was a perfect compliment to the savory main.
I also had the blood and sand cocktail, which to be perfectly honest, tasted bland for a cocktail, but if you enjoy the taste of liquor, you wouldn’t complain.
I have also tried several desserts. My favorite thus far was the mango flan. Okay, my mom makes the best flan, but this was a good competitor. The mango was a perfect combination of sweet and tart, paired with a caramelized flan. Yum!
Though, I have to note the Kerr Dining Room is pricey. Entrees are in the $ 20-​$ 30 range. If you have the ability to splurge, do it!

I had an event here about three weeks ago and I have to say it’s been one of the best experiences ever!!! Christyl who is the special events manager was very patient and made it a stress free proccess for me. The venue is beautiful with such a historic feel… I would recommend this place to any one … the staff is extremely friendly !!!

Good place, not too much expensive. I give only 3 stars because it’s old and not realy an hotel.
What was amazing was the staff: thank you Randy (not sur of the writting, sorry about that) for the help with my room, thank you Christian for the good choice of beer, thank you all for your kindness

Good lunch and good happy hour.
I’ve been the the Faculty Club several times for lunch and happy hour. For lunch, they usually have a simple menu of appetizers, seasonal main courses, and dessert. Everything I have tried has been pretty good. For happy hour they have appetizers like veggie rolls and sweet potato fries, and of course, beer pitchers.
Service is friendly and attentive. It is sometimes tricky to find the dining room, but a little searching and wandering should be enough.
I have not tried breakfast yet, so I will have to check it out.

My wedding nightmare at the Faculty Club…
About 5 months ago I got married at the Faculty Club. Up until the day of our wedding I felt relatively confident about the staff at the venue we picked to host the most important day of our lives thus far. The day of coordinator at the time seemed distant, but relatively competent. I was sure wrong. I thought that if I waited to write this review, I would feel better about my choice to host my wedding at The Faculty Club. After the many flubs of the day I learned that this coordinator, Michelle, had another job lined up and apparently felt no compassion to help insure that my special day go off with a hitch.
The many unfortunate issues surrounding my wedding kicked off with the serving staff demanding cash/​tips from my groom at our rehearsal dinner. As a server at a catering company myself I was shocked when they were so demanding and aggressive with the bride and groom the evening before our wedding.
That same evening we were shown the parking passes for the parking structure under the tennis courts. The timing on these passes was at 4pm even though our wedding started at 3:30. This was a concern to my mother and mother-​in-​law who were the first to see these parking passes — Michelle assured us that the passes were good all day and didn’t need to be re-​printed. What Michelle neglected to tell us was that there was a tennis tournament that same day and the signs hung in the parking structure also said 4pm. So most of the 40 parking spaces I pre-​paid for were occupied by families attending the tennis tournament who read the signs and parked in my spots until 4pm (when my ceremony was almost over). Many guests at my wedding were unable to access these spots I paid for and parked elsewhere and several received parking tickets.
Before my ceremony started we had 30 minutes where wine was served to my guests that were waiting for the ceremony to start. The bar staff claims that in 30 minutes my guests drank 74 bottles of wine and tried to charge an extra $ 2400 in wine. We paid per person for the evening AND by consumption. I don’t know how they felt comfortable charging for both… There is no way that each of my guests consumed 74 bottles of wine in that short of a time. It was a party, but it was not a drunken diaster.
The staff at the faculty club for my reception also threw away all the extra cake and cupcakes that were uneaten instead of saving them for me and my family. I never even got to try my own wedding cake because the staff was in a hurry and decided to throw the extras out. Approximately 3 dozen cupcakes were also thrown away in addition to my beautiful cake. I would have loved a little box with 2 slices for my husband and I to have enjoyed. I wasn’t hard to miss — I was the lady in the pretty white dress…
They also threw away my extra wedding favors left behind by guests instead of putting them with the rest of my stuff. I don’t know who justifies throwing away glass mason jars, but the staff at the Faculty Club didn’t care to take an extra moment and do the right thing.
After several attempts to contact the manager at the Faculty Club, Felix, with MULTIPLE emails with no reply and several phone messages unreturned I certainly feel defeated. I can never get my perfect day, but maybe this can help you avoid the pain I suffered at the hands of the Faculty Club. The food was good and it was a beautiful January day. but you’ve been warned! Do not do business with The Faculty Club or Felix. To this day he has never offered an apology.

I always thought of the Faculty Club being hoity-​toity and very expensive, since all of my previous meals here had been for meals during interviews or during club/​association dinners. (Not to mention, a club of faculty members usually brings to mind an image of lots of professors coming together to shell out some serious dough on a really nice meal.) Fortunately, the Faculty Club is very affordable!
It took me 3 years before I had heard about the special breakfast they serve for $ 3.50 ($ 5 total, including tax and tip). It comes with juice and coffee/​tea and a huge plate that has 2 eggs served the way you want ‘em, 4 slices of toast, a side of house potatoes, and a good amount of fruit. Why spend $ 4 on a cup of coffee when you can have an entire meal AND coffee here at the Faculty Club?
Every month, there’s always at least one special going on. This month’s early bird menu had an appetizer, entrée, and dessert for $ 13.99. Although the beef and barley soup didn’t sound that appetizing, it had a real strong kick to it like a hearty bowl of chili. And the entrée was a choice between five big slices of beef brisket or a roasted cod filet with mashed potatoes.
And lastly, don’t forget about their prime rib dinners for $ 15.95 every second Tuesday of the month! It comes with a soup or salad and one of the tenderest slices of prime rib that I’ve had the pleasure of eating. Coffee and dessert aren’t included, but it’s still a delicious bargain for some quality food.

Okay! It is quite true that anybody – students and the general public may come here to the Faculty Club. It is not exclusive to just the faculty of UC Berkeley. No, no, non!
And I finally got to try the secret breakfast I have been hearing about. I was in the mood for an adventure, not to mention if the secret breakfast still existed for that unbelievably low price I read in another student’s Unilocal!review. And yes, it does Ladies and Gentlemen – it most certainly does. I do encourage you to find out for yourselves.
I’ll be back!

Michelle Viscarra, event coordinator at the Faculty Club, Amy Lovlien, our wedding planner and Dan Rosenbach, our DJ and sound/​lighting pro helped us make our daughter’s wedding on 8÷3÷13 a wonderful, beautiful, fun and magical celebration. We could not be happier. We recommend all three of them. The setting is, of course, very special and all staff most courteous and helpful.
The banquet tastings were disappointing to us, but the food was actually very tasty and well prepared and presented on the wedding night.
Amy, Dan of Love in the Mix, and Michelle were all very professional, friendly, patient, responsive by email and accommodating.
Thank you for a memorable event!

Tonight we attended a friend’s wedding reception at the Faculty Club. I had never been here before and was surprised to see how well it worked out for the celebration. The venue was practical, convenient and beautifully decorated. The party got started with appetizers and cocktail hour on the patio. The patio was clean, and lead to open paths surrounded by fresh cut grass and trees on campus. It set a very clean and natural tone. There was plenty of space on the patio for socializing and foot traffic.
The wedding was somewhat rustic and earthy themed. The cabin like lodge suited the theme well and was nicely decorated. There was enough room to accommodate about 175 people and have a dance floor. The food was really good. We started with side salads and bread then had the option of NY steak, halibut or portobello mushrooms. My fiancé and I had the halibut and steak. Both dishes tasted very good. The halibut seasoned on top and cooked nice and flaky yet still moist. It was a pretty good portion served with mashed potatoes, carrots and green beans. The NY steak was tender and juicy. My fiancé saw the the Faculty Club offers prime rib on Tuesdays and made a comment that if the Prime Rib is as good as the NY steak he’d be there every Tuesday!
If you are looking for a small, rustic, easy to manage venue for a wedding this might be the place for you. Having the inside lodge for dinner and dancing and patio for other activities is convenient. Bathrooms are clean and just down the hall. You can also rent out rooms to store materials and change. The only con would be not having a lot of parking nearby. Guests would have to park on the streets and walk into the UCB campus.

A hidden gem of a restaurant in the forest! The first time I came here, it was before my interview at Berkeley. I was quite nervous, but the chicken tortellini from the Faculty Club quelled the butterflies in my stomach.
And here I am today, Unilocaling about how I got in to Berkeley. The tortellini did it.