I didn’t say it was good but you have to agree that it has its merits. Food quality is never the highlight of an all-you-can-eat (AYCE) place — it’s the quantity. In that regard, Monarca Dining Hall delivers a generous experience for a reasonable price.
Monarca Dining Hall, which used to be named City Eats and nicknamed Shitty Eats, is one of a handful of all-you-can-eat restaurants in San Francisco and the only one with a variety of cuisines represented. The vast majority of AYCE eateries in SF are Asian restaurants.
For $16.78 (this includes tax), you can have breakfast, lunch, or dinner there. (I confirmed that all meals now cost the same amount with an employee.) That’s close to the price of a salad or a burger and fries or a rice bowl at some places. At Monarca Dining Hall, you can have inferior versions of those dishes and more!
The dining hall, which is open to the public, has three dining rooms, shelves for bags and backpacks, lockers for smaller items and different areas for different foods.
Metal baskets full of fresh fruit greet diners as they enter. Most check out the hot dishes and salad bar first. The main dining room is also home to vegan desserts, a soft-serve machine with cake cones and bowls standing by and drink options spanning a whole wall — four infused water dispensers, a carbonated water machine with three flavors and a juice machine with four options.
Some diners head into the other serving area with burgers and fries instead. When I visited, some sort of beef dish was also being served and there was also a deli station for diners to make their own sandwiches. The room also has different kinds of bread, a toaster, cereal dispensers and milk. An assortment of tea, coffee machines and two kinds of soup — one vegan and one not — are also there. The only thing missing is trays so you don’t struggle to carry flatware, food and drinks to a table.
The building has huge windows, lots of seating, and spotless floors. It actually feels pleasant to be in — when it’s not crowded.
When it’s crowded, finding a seat seems impossible. Due to the new West Grove Commons dorm building, over 700 more students have meal plans and presumably, many of them eat at Monarca Dining Hall. (It’s most crowded around 2 p.m. according to Cantonese-speaking employees who happened to be talking near where I was eating.)
The food isn’t the worst. The dishes that employees cook seem to be the best. The Thai green curry rice dish has tender chicken, vegetables that aren’t overcooked and properly cooked white rice.
The ice cream has a weird texture, but it’s still good. People line up for it.
The lukewarm patty on pumice-like buns, served with Death Valley-dry fries wasn’t ideal, however.
Despite the inconsistent quality of the food, I liked that I could choke down as many dry fries slightly lubricated by ketchup as I wanted — I wouldn’t actually, but I liked having the option. I liked that I had the option to eat a hundred apples and a hundred bananas if I had the motivation to. I especially liked that I had the option to grab a second bowl of that Thai green curry rice. For less than $17, you can have these options too.
Monarca Dining Hall’s options aren’t great, but there are many and you should try them at least once. If you commute like me, go get a taste of what students living on campus experience.
P.S.
By the way, ask for a newly introduced stamp card in case you end up going there eight more times before you graduate. Every tenth meal you purchase could be free if you aren’t using a meal plan. You’re really just paying more though. I tracked down a bank statement to see how much I paid the last time I went there for lunch, which was last semester, — $14.13 (including tax) on April 11, 2024. That’s an increase of $2.65 per meal or $23.85 for nine meals, more than enough to pay for a tenth meal.