Sierra Summit

Favorite Dining hall at UCSD and here’s why:
Food:
–stir fry: AWESOME!!! They put whatever you want in it so you can customize yours down to what type of oil they put in! I typically get mine with chicken or tofu, with noodles and veggies and I like it stir fried with peanut sauce but no oil, just water. I know, I sound picky… but THEY MAKE IT FOR ME so YAY!!!
–Pizza: You GET YOUR OWN FREAKEN PERSONAL PAN PiZZA!!! YAY!!!
–Sandwiches: I didn’t eat too many sandwiches here, but I understand that there are a ton of spreads and bread options. I was a little overwhelmed with the different types of combos and options you had, so it would take me FOREVER to decide what I wanted in my sandwich so I would avoid getting one. But for those that like options… this is the place for you!!!
–Ice cream: THEY MAKE IT LIKE COLD STONE!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!! «I want vanilla ice cream, give me some oreos, give me some heath bars, give me some snickers, give me some m&m’s, give me some gummy bears…» You get the point… it’s make your own ice cream combo HEAVEN!
–Smoothies: I LOVE smoothies!!! I had one EVERYDAY!!! It’s like a Jamba Juice there!!!
Ok, imagine a jamba juice, a cold stone, a customize stir fry joint, a personal pan pizza place, and a endless option sandwich deli that all got married and had ONE CHILD. THIS CHILD IS SIERRA SUMMIT!
Ambiance: Really nice after they remodeled it! TV’s are a nice touch! Don’t know what they are showing on TV half the time, but it’s nice to know it’s there and available for us if we really cared to watch.
Price: depends on what you get, but most things are under $ 10! woo whoo!
Service: bus yourself

This place is disgusting, countless food poisoning cases because the students there just don’t give a crap about your health. This is the last place on Earth where I would want to eat. Absolutely disgusting. The burgers are undercooked, they clean their woks by banging them against the insides of a trashcan, and the pizza is undercooked as well. Only thing I would consider getting there is probably the smoothie and the ice cream. If you live on campus at UCSD, go to OVT or Plaza, where they actually give a damn about health regulations. I would give this place 0 stars if I had the chance, or maybe even negative stars. Any one who thinks this place is good must not eat out a lot…

While I haven’t been to Sierra Summit in at least a few years, I can still remember enough things to write a review for it. Since my experience isn’t very recent, I’m going to make this short and direct.
Good:
Fresh-​carved sandwiches
Coldstone-​style ice cream
BBQ Ranch Chicken Pizza
Stiry Fry
Everything else is most likely normal dormitory food. Acceptable, but you’re going to get tired of it before the year is up.
Service is going to change constantly as the majority of the workers are students so it’s hard to really gauge what kind of an experience you’re going to get.
I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t go here if I had to pay cash. But since you need to get meal points, you might as well go here!
Oh and there’s plenty of seating whether you want to study while you eat or hang out with some friends over a meal. The ambiance is the same as you would expect at any cafeteria.

stir fry, period.

The only good part is the Stir Fry, which is actually delicious. And the guy who is usually making it is always really enthusiastic and funny. Salads suck, pastas are terrible, sandwhich meats sit out all day and the turkey has a lot of fat. Some of the smoothies are pretty good. The fries are served cold half the time. It just grosses me out having to think back on being forced to eat here for an entire year. It just sucks to eat dorm food and UCSD doesn’t make the experience any better.

so omg omg omg. i saw a roach yesterday. disgusting. i stopped eating my food and moved tables but was grossed out i coudlnt eat.
service is sometimes TERRIBLE. except for the exceptional people who make a great effort to help you get your food fast. =] lines can get long. stir fry takes forever but its like the best thing there. get stir fry Steve. the pizza has gotten better but theres good days and bad days. if you want a personal one and a personal garlic breadsticks, get it the day the dude that looks like luigi from supermario works. he makes them really good. i’ve gotten voer sandwiches but the foreign lady, she’s awesome. the grill takes too long.
summit has really good breakfast.
however. it is mighty expensive. they gave us more meal points but they raised the prices.
they don’t have anymore MONSTERS! WTF. and sometimes the place can get REALLY crowded and theres nowhere to sit. dont sit by the walls. the roaches crawl there.

Well I thought i would only rate ovt since I was bored, but based on what I found out today and my experience today i had to share it with my Unilocalers. Basically the fat lady who works at the place next to the sandwiches (not the one with the accent, the younger looking one) she’s an anal cheap freak, i got a baked potato today and she refused to give me more bacon even though she only gave me a few specs (literally) after i she put the butter and sour cream on top you couldn’t even see the bacon bits anywhere… and I noticed she’s always really rude for some reason, damn lady if you don’t wanna work in a dining hall for a career just leave, nobody’s begging you to stay.
on top of that one of my friend’s friend who works at summit told her that they never really clean the back until the health inspector comes, and one time they even found a dead rat somewhere… that’s bad news bonkers man!

Summit was one of the better dinig halls in my UCSD experience, and for the longest time in my undergrad years (2001 – 2005), they were the only dining hall that would serve breakfast burritos all the time.
Now I dont’ know ’bout you, but sometimes a brotha just needs a mothereffin’ breakfast burrito at 5pm. Summit always delivered.
Summit also always had the weirdest, weirdest and most awesome staff ever. Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about – from the fly guy behind the grill to the happy Satanist to the amazing girl with piercings, Summit had a wacky and amazing staff with character.
That being said, now that I’ve gotten my BA and MA from UCSD am I ever going to go back? Hell nah.

Something’s wrong when you are paying $ 12 (with dining dollars of course), for a turkey sandwich. That’s because I like getting double meat but they charge an arm and a leg and your first born son.
But with my wah-​wah complaints aside, Sierra Summit is my favorite dorm food place on campus. Hands down, a very good turkey sandwich; super moist on a nice flaky croissant.

This place is okay. The only good things are the stir fry and the sandwiches.
Its so crowded all the time though. And the tables are almost always full or there are almost always crumbs or spilled sauce on them. I mean doesn’t anyone ever clean them?

Yeah, it’s actually pretty good if you don’t have to eat here everyday. But isn’t that the same for most restaurants?
My fave meals are the breakfasts, the sandwiches, and the stir fry. I don’t live on campus anymore so, I have to say once you leave, you miss the convenience. I appreciate getting breakfast + a drink for under $ 5. That’s a deal since I’m in a rush to get to school and haven’t eaten at home.
****UPDATE****Sierra Summit just went up one more star in my book. MARCO the cook is AMAAAZING! He made me a veggie hamburger stack (replace buns with lettuce. burger with grilled onions, tomato, avocado, sprouts. I added my own beets. The whole thing was only $ 1.95! I freaked!~)
TIP for coffee drinkers: Look, Sierra Summit… your coffee is bad. Yeah. I said it. Peet’s would be ashamed.
THE BEST COFFEE is just downstairs. There is a coffee shop called MUIR WOODS literally just under sierra summit. It’s like a dollar more… but, hey, you get what you pay for. Very good coffee there and funny baristas.

Avoid the meal plan at all costs! I cannot emphasize this enough. Pretty much all of the food here is really bad. Greasy and unhealthy and gross or a salad bar that tastes like dirt. No one would eat here if they weren’t forced into it or incredibly lazy.

Most of Sierra Summit’s food sucks. My 5 stars are for one thing and one thing only: the made to order stir fry noodles. When I worked at UCSD I tried to have a box of this delicious goodness once a week. The sweet chili garlic sauce is to die for and those noodles are perfect. All for the low low price of only $ 4.75. I am fed 3 free gourmet meals a day and I still dream of Sierra Summit noodles. *insert Homer Simpson sound here*

The food and coffee at UCSD’s Sierra Summit is all disappointing. The salad bar is a joke, the groceries are sparse and the fruit selection is minimal, but this place is worth going to because it serves a peanut butter and jelly smoothie. I’ve never had anything like it, anywhere else.
A pb and j smoothie may sound a little strange, but it is one of the most delicious smoothies I have ever had. It is like a raspberry smoothie with a scoop of peanut butter and the two flavors, of course, compliment each other, but they taste together in an icy blended drink.