The Ida and Cecil Green Faculty Club

I was from Sixth. She was from Marshall. We met in a discussion section in Muir. The rest is history…
When it came time to arrange for the wedding, we didn’t look long, nor did we look far. Our first choice was to get married at UC San Diego. The only question was «how?»
As it turned out, the Faculty Club had us covered. They have wedding packages that include the ceremony, cocktail hour/​reception, all the food and alcohol your guests care to stomach (choice of open bar or cash bar), setup and teardown of all the tables and chairs, etc. The only major wedding services we had to arrange for separately were the DJ, the photographer, the cake, and the officiant. Selecting the Faculty Club and working with their head of catering, Julia, really took a lot of work off our shoulders and streamlined the process — all the more important because we did the majority of coordination and planning from another state.
Ceremony: We opted to have our ceremony under the trellis in the Faculty Club courtyard, giving the wedding a sort of «indoor/​outdoor garden party» vibe. It provided an intimate setting for our guests, and there was no such thing as a «bad» seat for the ceremony. However, you can also have the ceremony beneath Sun God — it’s cool to have that option.
Cocktail Hour: When you select a wedding package, you also set the number and type of hors d’oeuvres available for your guests. Although we were unable to eat the food ourselves (occupied as we were with getting photographed all over the vicinity of the Faculty Club and Muir) our guests reported the food was excellent. There were a lot of options, as well, so we were able to select a variety of foods that fit our budget. The cocktail hour itself took place behind the ceremony area in the courtyard; It was a mild June afternoon so our guests were able to enjoy the fresh air and chat amongst themselves while waiting for dinner to be served.
Alcohol: We went with a cash bar option to avoid breaking the bank, but we did provide wine with dinner, as well as beer and sangria. Julia was very accommodating and flexible when it came to arranging for and selecting the alcohol on offer.
Dinner: We opted for dinner service rather than a dinner buffet for our 85 or so guests; guests had the choice of three entrees (and a kids’ meal option) on their RSVPs. I don’t recall the specifics of what we had selected, but there is a wide variety of entrees to suit your guests’ tastes; we’d selected a salmon dish (which my wife and I each ate; presented well and tasted great), chicken piccatta, and a vegetarian dish. Everyone enjoyed their dinner, which was served with a choice of wine or sparkling apple cider for toasting.
Facility: Another advantage of having the wedding at the Faculty Club was their provision of separate rooms for the bridal party and groomsmen to use in the hour and a half or so leading up to the ceremony. We all had a place to secure our belongings and finish preparing for the night ahead. The facility as a whole was clean and nicely presented (lots of art on the walls in the entry area, signage welcoming guests to the wedding, etc.). Parking in the adjacent lot was convenient as well.
Staff: Julia, the head of catering who also acted as coordinator for the ceremony and ran our rehearsal the day prior, deserves special mention — she was extremely helpful, professional, and friendly in every interaction we had with her. She’s done a lot of weddings; that level of experience allowed her to provide invaluable advice and help us make decisions about every stage of the wedding. Our wedding would not have gone nearly as well as it did without Julia’s help!
Temo, the maitre d’ who took over the show for Julia once the reception and dinner service got rolling, also deserves a shout out — he did a great job keeping everyone happy in the evening and made sure everything went smoothly. He secured our valuables while we were busy elsewhere and he and the staff consolidated belongings which were left behind for next-​day pickup by the bride’s parents; he took care of things so we didn’t have to.
The extremely professional waiters and waitresses were quick, effective, and unobtrusive and helped make the night special. The chef and kitchen staff prepared a large amount of food that both tasted great and was presented beautifully — our guests were impressed, and so were we. Thank you to the entire crew who worked on our wedding!
Getting married at UC San Diego was a natural choice for us — and the Faculty Club warrants your consideration if you would like to have your ceremony and subsequent reception on campus.

The Faculty Club is known as a cozy little gem nestled in the eucalyptus forest on the UC San Diego campus. Most students know this as the place where you can participate in the Dine-​with-​a-​Professor Program. The buffet changes daily, but you can always check the menu on the Faculty Club website! Make sure to eat there on a day with sliders, because those are the best! Oh and don’t forget about Ice Cream Wednesdays. You need to be either a member of the club or accompanied by a member, so get to making new friends.
The catering team is absolutely stellar, especially the manager Julia Engstrom. There is so much creativity and attention to detail, whether she is producing an entire wedding or an annual department dinner. She likes to invite her clients to look at the various indoor and outdoor event spaces throughout the Club as well as discuss potential catering menu options. Hosting an event here is a seamless and individualized experience… your guests will be most impressed!

We held our 40^th High school Reunion here last September. It was perfect! Julia Engstrom managed our event planning and we had great and plentiful food, a festive setup on the outdoor patio, friendly staff and bartenders, and all at a VERY reasonable price. We were even able to meet at the club a couple of times as a planning committee, which was very convenient for our group, and Julia provided refreshments for us.

Don Corleone: Bonasera, Bonasera, what have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you’d come to me in friendship, this scum who ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by some chance an honest man like yourself made enemies they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you.
The Godfather
The doors parted for my friend the former Dean and I followed behind him. This place is one of the most classy places to eat at UCSD. It’s white tablecloths and silverware versus the plastic forks at the Price Center. I was amazed as the new Chancellor walks by and waves to my friend. Dining with my friend is like dining with the former Godfather. Professors, deans, and top administrators wave or stop by to acknowledge my friend during our lunch. I feel like a ninja as they pretend not to notice me.
I started with the french baguette. Fresh baked aroma and a satisfying crunch as I bit into it. Soft interior melted in my mouth with excellent flavor. :-) Then I had the grilled chicken breast with char sui glaze. The chicken was cooked perfectly. Nice char and juicy on the inside. Not a big fan of the glaze as it was swimming in it. I would have preferred if they basted it so the sauce would caramelize on the grill
This is one of my fav places to eat at UCSD as the food is very good most days, it’s all you can eat, and I find it interesting watching those now in power pay their respects to the former Dean. During the summer they have all you can eat ice cream on Wednesdays. Hopefully I have not revealed too much and they find me sleeping with the fishes tomorrow…
Some other entrees I’ve had:
Caribbean Braised Chicken with Chayote, Zucchini & Butternut Squash — The chicken was perfectly cooked with the insides nice and juicy and the spices not overpowering so you could taste the chicken. The vegetables were pretty good as was the rice dish.
Fish tacos — great tasting seasoning blended into the batter of the fish, tortilla pretty good
braised pork sliders with onion rings — combination of pulled pork and onion rings was really delicious!
English style fish and chips — way too much batter, flavor was poor due to all the batter underneath the crispy batter, fries were the standard fast food fries
Fresh Yellowtail Meuniere GF and Confetti Rice Pilaf. I loved the yellowtail! It was cooked perfectly and the spice did not overpower the fish.

The Dine-​with-​a-​Professor program is honestly one to utilize, especially when you have the Faculty Club. For lunch, you have the option of a lunch buffet, which is especially great if you come on a Wednesday :) On Wednesdays, they have ice cream sundaes!
Onto the food! So basically, if you see that they have mashed potatoes on their menu, GO. The mashed potatoes are absolutely delicious – so creamy and smooth, with nice clumps of potatoes within it. I am dreaming about it as I write, and I’m a pretty big critique on mashed potatoes. They definitely hit the spot with this one. They also have a ton of different small side dishes for you to have. I basically got a lot of salad to go with my mashed potatoes, but there were also specials like turkey/​cranberry salad (sweet, tender turkey bits that were mixed with some couscous). I also came when they have minted peas, which were a perfect match with the mashed potatoes. Absolutely awesome!
I felt like I was in a different realm of UCSD when I was dining here. Somehow, regardless of the week 10 stress craze, I really enjoyed myself, especially with the amazing food. They also have a nice fruit bar and some desserts. But the ice cream here was especially amazing – it was particularly milky and it tasted so creamy. I thought Haagen Daaz was good but whatever kind of ice cream they had here, it was pretty up to par.
Definitely give this place a shot if you haven’t tried it already! Utilize that program, UCSD-​ers!

My program hosted a recruitment dinner here and all I have to say is, the food is delicious! Unfortunately I can’t say how the booking logistics/​menu selection process is, but what I do have to say is thumbs up for the people here and double thumbs up for the food! The best catering I’ve had on UCSD’s campus no doubt.

This is the UCSD faculty club. It’s a nice, modern building. The programs I have gone to are organized by other organizations (Council on Foreign Relations, IR/​PS @ UCSD) and are simply using the faculty club.
The organizers arrange to have a student at the entrance to the parking lot giving you a parking pass which is pretty convenient.
All that said, the food is pretty run of the mill banquet food. The breakfasts run to eggs and bacon or sausage plus various pastries — no yogurt, oatmeal or anything you ought to be eating. Lunches are pretty forgettable. But the worst of the worst is the coffee. It’s watery, tasteless stuff that doesn’t even deserve to be called coffee.

We had our wedding here in May. Julia, the catering manager, was very helpful throughout the planning process and served as ‘day of’ coordinator at the wedding which was wonderful. She walked us through logistics at the rehearsal the day before the wedding. She also let us bring some of the wedding décor items that day and store them in her office so we would have less to deal with the morning of the wedding. All went very smoothly for the prep and the ceremony.
The food was great! We got a lot of compliments from guests on how much they liked everything. The mashed potatoes are heavenly. Temo, the banquet manager, and his staff were all attentive and helpful throughout the reception. At the end of the evening they even helped us back up all of our stuff and load it in the car.
We were very pleased with the whole experience and had a wonderful day with our family and friends.

This is my first of two reviews. I recently signed a contract to have our wedding here after our first venue fell through. We literally have two months until our wedding and were in panic mode! I contacted Julia on site and she has bent over backwards to make everything fall into place since we spoke. I had never even heard about this place for weddings, but their courtyard is gorgeous (especially in the evenings), and their reception hall is awesome with vaulted ceilings, and even a seperate cocktail hour room with a wall length bar! I was thoroughly blown away when we started seeing all of the amenities. The pictures do NOT do this place justice on their website. Go and take a tour!
To top it off, we went for our tasting last night. We tried the salad, braised short ribs, teriyaki chicken (we requested the chef make this), and chocolate covered strawberries. My fiancé and I kept looking back and forth at eachother saying, ‘this is NOT wedding food’. It was absolutely delicious, restaurant quality food. The chef came and met us towards the end of our tasting and he talked about any substitutions we wanted, and how we could improve the meal to our specific tastes. We actually didn’t want to do much to it, it was delicious, but just the care they put into their space and service is mind boggling.
My review is strictly for their wedding venue, and I will create another one after we get married in August. So far, it is night and day from our other venue. Check this place out if you are getting married soon!

We came out here for a wedding of a couple of friends of mine recently. The Faculty Club itself is small, but the outside patio was perfect for a small wedding such as theirs.
As for the food… as the other Unilocalers noted, it was great. Standouts especially were the mashed potatoes and the salmon — totally exquisite! And the appetizers were divine; the fig toast and brie really hit the spot.
Here’s a toast to the happy couple — «May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.»

My recommendation: come on Ice Cream Sundae wednesdays
If you are a member at UCSD Fac. Club, daily lunch is $ 8. Guest price is $ 11.50. At the member price, it is definitely the best bang for your buck food on campus. Daily lunches are buffet style and food is usually pretty good, and the company is amazing. If you sit at Roger’s table (community table), you can meet all sorts of smart people and have some really interesting discussions.

Had the pleasure of dining here a few times as an undergrad thanks to «Dine with a Professor» Program and a few other Revelle Grad events. The interior decorations are not the newest, or the most modern, or even that aesthetically pleasing, but the four stars really come from the FOOD!
The few times that I’ve been here, the BREAD was DELICIOUS, the soups were sooo good!, the entrees were OH SO YUMMY! And seriously, the desserts… my GOD, someone please stop me before I go into a diabetic shock!!!
You’ve really got to eat here at least ONCE before you leave as an undergrad! I know you aren’t allowed to enter unless you are with a faculty… but find a way to get in b/​c once you are in, It’s worth your while!!!

I had my wedding here and things were pretty excellent. I worked with Dixie, who was an absolute saint and made things as easy as possible for us, letting us drop off all the stuff we wanted for our wedding and taking the reins on arranging it in the space. We had a cake dropped off and a harpist who showed up and they were directed what to do and where to be with little input from us, so kudos there. The Faculty Club itself is very pretty and intimate — it’s fancy without being stuffy. We’d both been there for a lot of UCSD events and noticed that the setup was really similar to any number of things we’d attended as undergrads, which was kind of cute and homey.
Some minor quibbles that keep me from tacking on that fifth star — well, it ain’t cheap. Alumni get a discount but it still was the vast majority of our wedding budget. More annoyingly, they don’t do a corkage fee or anything — you pick from their wine list or you don’t drink wine. This was a big issue for us because my dad had laid away some bottles and we couldn’t use them. Also, apparently the waitstaff were not as prompt with the glass-​refilling as they could have been — I didn’t notice any problems but my dad noticed some people toasting with empty glasses. Finally, in my years of experience, the food there can be a mixed bag. Avoid the vegetarian if you can because it’s often a nondescript pile of veg. I learned that this is because the veg option is at «the chef’s discretion» — when you pay for catering there you can’t pick the vegetarian meal, you just take what you get. Pretty lame.
On the whole, I’d say 2.5 stars for Dixie and 1.5 stars for atmosphere.

Oh, the UCSD Faculty Club. You’re so classy. Your’e so sassy. You’re so… mediocretastic.
The food at the exclusive faculty club (especially at $ 12.50/meal for guests of members) leaves a bit to be desired. The menu changes daily, and today’s was a lovely jambalaya and fried okra special with two soups (chicken corn chowder and a barley soup). There was also an orrecchiete pasta dish. Huzzah. There’s a salad bar, and the tiniest, jankiest beverage station in the history of hydration: tiny glasses stand next to a depressing ice machine and two small water/​iced tea dispensers.
The experience is so dissonant from what you’d expect when you go for lunch. It’ sjust… bleh.
That said, it’s a great space for a big event, and if you’re having a year end event, it’s expensive, but very nice, and if catered it can kick ass. I’ve enjoyed brunches, lunches, round table discussions, and get downs all in this space. Club it up, folk.