Tonight I grabbed the 1) spaghetti with meatballs and broccoli 2) blackened chicken covered in mango salsa with brussel sprouts and 3) some fried plantains. 1) Spaghetti was cooked well, but the sauce was extraordinarily underwhelming. Meatballs were clearly frozen bulk and cooked wack, but still bangin'. Broccoli was good, I should've put parmesan on top though. 6.5/10, overall totally edible, not a bad choice. 2) Chicken was, surprise surprise, SEASONED. Nice and moist while still being actually blackened on the outside. Definitely MVP of the night. The "mango salsa" was just cubed mangos and raw onions, but luckily I love 'em both. Brussel sprouts were steamed so they weren't crispy or blackened, automatic major point deduction. They put some particularly nasty kale in the mix for some reason too??? 5/10, those 5 points are exclusively from the tasty chicken. Sides were not good. 3) Ah, my old friend the commons fried plantain. Don't sleep on these little dudes, find 'em at the plant power station and grab a couple extra since your friends WILL eat them off your plate. 9.5/10, somehow always cooked great. Overall some nice healthy and tasty options, leaving feeling full in a good way, excited to get ripped off this Crunch Berries bar on the way home. Thankful for the UoR cooking staff's tenacity.
Charlotte Walton
We came here for a church youth conference called FSY (for the strength of youth). Not only did they happily provide the most amazing food to us staff and 500+ kids, they played Christian pop music to help uplift the conference, happily greeted us every meal, and made the experience even greater than it was already. Thank you so much to the Irvine Commons, you made this experience absolutely wonderful!!!
Above Aero
The food at times gets repetitive, but overall, there hasn’t been any issues here.
Mary-Kate S.
The only other review on here is about Bon appétit, but we have now switched food providers to harvest table. harvest table is honestly even worse, we don't even have a cafe anymore they replaced it with a little market. The 3 times I've had the chicken here it has been burnt and dry to the point where it's nearly inedible, but I think the greatest upset of all is them getting rid of the secret menu staple of the bulldog cafe which also no longer exists. I would do absolutely anything for an Oreo smoothie again, i don't care if Bon Appetit had a B in cleanliness at least the food is edible and we had forks during the dinner service. Everytime I try to eat food here there are literally no utensils. Nothing is open during reasonable times for athletes or student workers anymore and the hours aren't even posted anywhere. Oh also someone said they had moldy sushi from Bon Appetit, the pre packaged sushi from harvest table gave me a stomach ache so bad I couldn't move for days. Screw harvest table I want my Oreo smoothie and late night breakfast burrito bar back.
Romy C.
Every establishment owned by Bon Appetit serves absolutely horrendous food and drinks. The management company is horrible and serves unsanitary, poorly cooked food. I have found mold inside my sushi before, because they didn't throw out sushi from the day before and attempted to recycle and resell day-old, non-refrigerated sushi. The food is also extremely expensive and anyone that used non-Bon Appetit proprietary debit-dollars is charged even more than the items are supposed to cost. A bottle of Gatorade that is typically 1.29 or less at a gas station would be 2.75 at the Irvine Commons or Plaza. The Bulldog Cafe doesn't even carry anything besides water, tea, juice, and some unhealthy sugary snacks. Anyone that goes to the University of Redlands knows that the student body hates Bon Appetit with at an overwhelming proportion. The only redeeming quality of the company is that it offers jobs to students that are attending UOR, but my friends who work for Bon Appetit absolutely hate their jobs. The school needs a new contract on food distribution on campus. Bon Appetit holds a monopoly over the school-grounds and it is embarrassing that less than a handful of people I know find the establishment acceptable. The commons serves extremely unsanitary and low quality food and received a super-low, 81 (B) grade at a health inspection. What is even more unacceptable is the corruption that became apparent when less than a week later, the Irvine commons was rated at an A in cleanliness. That's the equivalent of a teacher giving you a pop-quiz, you failing, you paying your teacher to give you the answers, and retesting you within the week. The sad thing is that the employees are mostly very nice people and I'm sure they aren't poor cooks; I'm fairly certain that the issue is limitations and procedures set in place by Bon Appetit that make it difficult to impossible for its employees to cook good food. The plaza is a scam and the vast majority of the available foods for purchase are gross and extremely processed or extremely unappetizing. The cafe drinks are somewhat acceptable solely because it is near impossible to screw up blending fruit and milk together.
Tonight I grabbed the 1) spaghetti with meatballs and broccoli 2) blackened chicken covered in mango salsa with brussel sprouts and 3) some fried plantains. 1) Spaghetti was cooked well, but the sauce was extraordinarily underwhelming. Meatballs were clearly frozen bulk and cooked wack, but still bangin'. Broccoli was good, I should've put parmesan on top though. 6.5/10, overall totally edible, not a bad choice. 2) Chicken was, surprise surprise, SEASONED. Nice and moist while still being actually blackened on the outside. Definitely MVP of the night. The "mango salsa" was just cubed mangos and raw onions, but luckily I love 'em both. Brussel sprouts were steamed so they weren't crispy or blackened, automatic major point deduction. They put some particularly nasty kale in the mix for some reason too??? 5/10, those 5 points are exclusively from the tasty chicken. Sides were not good. 3) Ah, my old friend the commons fried plantain. Don't sleep on these little dudes, find 'em at the plant power station and grab a couple extra since your friends WILL eat them off your plate. 9.5/10, somehow always cooked great. Overall some nice healthy and tasty options, leaving feeling full in a good way, excited to get ripped off this Crunch Berries bar on the way home. Thankful for the UoR cooking staff's tenacity.
We came here for a church youth conference called FSY (for the strength of youth). Not only did they happily provide the most amazing food to us staff and 500+ kids, they played Christian pop music to help uplift the conference, happily greeted us every meal, and made the experience even greater than it was already. Thank you so much to the Irvine Commons, you made this experience absolutely wonderful!!!
The food at times gets repetitive, but overall, there hasn’t been any issues here.
The only other review on here is about Bon appétit, but we have now switched food providers to harvest table. harvest table is honestly even worse, we don't even have a cafe anymore they replaced it with a little market. The 3 times I've had the chicken here it has been burnt and dry to the point where it's nearly inedible, but I think the greatest upset of all is them getting rid of the secret menu staple of the bulldog cafe which also no longer exists. I would do absolutely anything for an Oreo smoothie again, i don't care if Bon Appetit had a B in cleanliness at least the food is edible and we had forks during the dinner service. Everytime I try to eat food here there are literally no utensils. Nothing is open during reasonable times for athletes or student workers anymore and the hours aren't even posted anywhere. Oh also someone said they had moldy sushi from Bon Appetit, the pre packaged sushi from harvest table gave me a stomach ache so bad I couldn't move for days. Screw harvest table I want my Oreo smoothie and late night breakfast burrito bar back.
Every establishment owned by Bon Appetit serves absolutely horrendous food and drinks. The management company is horrible and serves unsanitary, poorly cooked food. I have found mold inside my sushi before, because they didn't throw out sushi from the day before and attempted to recycle and resell day-old, non-refrigerated sushi. The food is also extremely expensive and anyone that used non-Bon Appetit proprietary debit-dollars is charged even more than the items are supposed to cost. A bottle of Gatorade that is typically 1.29 or less at a gas station would be 2.75 at the Irvine Commons or Plaza. The Bulldog Cafe doesn't even carry anything besides water, tea, juice, and some unhealthy sugary snacks. Anyone that goes to the University of Redlands knows that the student body hates Bon Appetit with at an overwhelming proportion. The only redeeming quality of the company is that it offers jobs to students that are attending UOR, but my friends who work for Bon Appetit absolutely hate their jobs. The school needs a new contract on food distribution on campus. Bon Appetit holds a monopoly over the school-grounds and it is embarrassing that less than a handful of people I know find the establishment acceptable. The commons serves extremely unsanitary and low quality food and received a super-low, 81 (B) grade at a health inspection. What is even more unacceptable is the corruption that became apparent when less than a week later, the Irvine commons was rated at an A in cleanliness. That's the equivalent of a teacher giving you a pop-quiz, you failing, you paying your teacher to give you the answers, and retesting you within the week. The sad thing is that the employees are mostly very nice people and I'm sure they aren't poor cooks; I'm fairly certain that the issue is limitations and procedures set in place by Bon Appetit that make it difficult to impossible for its employees to cook good food. The plaza is a scam and the vast majority of the available foods for purchase are gross and extremely processed or extremely unappetizing. The cafe drinks are somewhat acceptable solely because it is near impossible to screw up blending fruit and milk together.
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