Berkeley Dining, Decoded

Pranav Chittharanjan | Staff

With four dining commons and four campus restaurants, Berkeley Dining serves a diverse group of students.

Students living in residence halls are required to have a meal plan, and those who live off-campus can choose to purchase one. Berkeley Dining is also open to guests for walk-ins, providing both a cash or credit card rate, as well as a reduced rate for children.

We scraped the Berkeley Dining menus from February 10 to March 10, 2026, to investigate patterns in food offerings, allergen-friendly options and sustainability across locations.

Differences between each dining hall’s menu

While campus restaurants have fixed menus, dining halls vary day-to-day. They are planned six months in advance and follow a four-week menu cycle, according to an email from campus spokesperson Lindsey Michels. Berkeley Dining’s culinary team leads menu development, while also incorporating input from groups such as the Residence Hall Assembly, Residential Life and other student groups and campus partners.

“Each dining commons has its own culinary identity, kitchen configuration, and service model. This allows Dining to offer a range of cuisines and dining experiences across campus rather than duplicating identical menus at every location,” Michels said in the email.

In some cases, the design and infrastructure of each dining hall informs what is served there; for example, Café 3 is the only dining hall with a kosher-certified food station.

The Daily Californian analyzed the most common menu items served across different dining halls in the last month.

Loading menu data…

Breakfast and brunch are the most consistent in terms of menu offerings. For example, Café 3 served mini assorted danishes, oatmeal as well as various bagels and yogurt flavors every day, while Foothill served oatmeal and scrambled eggs every day. Brown rice, cheese pizza, halal ground beef and vegan breakfast patties were served at at least one dining hall every day.

Allergen-friendly options

Michels stated in the email that Berkeley Dining supports students with allergies and dietary restrictions through allergen-friendly food stations at each dining hall. Menu items are also labeled with allergens in-person and online, and students can schedule additional one-on-one support with a registered dietitian.

One concern of students such as freshman Coolsjes Singhvi is receiving enough variety to accommodate dietary restrictions. Singhvi follows a Jain vegetarian diet, which means he cannot consume meat or root vegetables — such as onion, garlic and potatoes — and he cannot eat after sunset. However, he does not follow all of these restrictions strictly, because many vegetarian dining hall dishes have garlic and onions, and there is always the risk of cross contamination.

The Daily Californian tracked the percentage of menu items across food stations at each dining hall that are vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free.

We aggregated food stations by similarities in food offerings — “Breakfast” at each dining hall includes the standard “Breakfast” stations but also bagel, yogurt, dessert and cereal stations served during breakfast or brunch. We excluded stations with less than ten items.

Inconsistent data was not excluded to accurately represent information presented on Berkeley Dining menus. For example, many vegetables offered in the Crossroads salad bar were not marked as vegan or vegetarian.

There were high percentages of vegan and vegetarian offerings at most stations and dining halls. Gluten-free offerings were also common at most stations, other than dessert.

Click on a dining hall to explore its menu data

Clark Kerr

Menu Analysis ▲

Crossroads

Explore ↓

Foothill

Explore ↓

Café 3

Explore ↓

Clark Kerr — Menu Analysis

Chart: Anika Bhutani/The Daily Californian  ·  Illustration: Dana Lim | Staff  ·  Source: Berkeley Dining

As for kosher offerings, students such as senior Andrew Petlak believe Café 3’s kosher station is sufficient. Petlak follows a strict kosher diet for meat consumption: he eats only certified kosher meat and does not eat pork or shellfish, nor does he mix meat and milk. However, he is less stringent about kosher certification for non-meat items. He notes that others who follow kosher diets may not be OK with eating vegetarian items not certified as kosher.

Petlak had a meal plan for his freshman, sophomore and junior years, and he said he believed there were sufficient options through the Café 3 kosher station as well as vegan and vegetarian offerings. In fact, Petlak kept a meal plan for sophomore and junior year primarily because he appreciates the access to kosher foods.

“Having access to hot kosher meals is pretty difficult in the Bay Area. … Having a place where you can get kosher meat almost every single day was incredibly helpful,” Petlak said.

Diversity in menu offerings

Students such as sophomore Olga Klymenko have noticed that the online menus sometimes vary from what is actually served. Michels stated in the email that these discrepancies are often due to supply chain disruptions from growers or manufacturers.

We analyzed how many unique grains, proteins and greens were served at the dining halls and found that the most frequently served grains are rice and wheat-based, such as jasmine rice, bagels and pasta. Furthermore, there are more unique protein options than grains and greens combined, with 379 unique proteins, 157 unique grains and 110 greens.

Loading data…

Students can find menu diversity through Berkeley Dining’s unique menus on cultural traditions and holidays, such as Lunar New Year, when all four dining halls served Thai noodle salad, longevity noodles and other celebratory items. Berkeley Dining uses an internal calendar of cultural events to plan these celebrations throughout the year. Staff also consult with campus and government resources, as well as representatives from student groups, to ensure cultural sensitivity.

“Everyone passes through the dining halls, so it’s a really great space to make people feel included (through food),” said Evelyn Campbell, Berkeley Dining’s student events and marketing team lead.

Campus restaurants offer alternate options

Aside from the dining halls, restaurants located on campus are open during weekdays and have a static menu for breakfast and lunch.

Monsoon Kitchens boasts the highest percentage of vegan options at 86%, with Local x Design following at 69%. Excluding the Golden Bear Café, more than 50% of the menu items at all restaurants are gluten-free. Almare Gelato and Brown’s serve the most gluten-free food.

However, most restaurants lack designated halal and kosher options. The only halal meat option offered across the restaurants is the halal rotisserie tri tip at Brown’s, and the only kosher certified option is the naan bread at Monsoon Kitchens — which is categorized as a side.

Singhvi said he still prefers the campus restaurants such as Ladle & Leaf and Brown’s.

“I think they give you the most food for how much a meal type is worth, and they’re very convenient,” Singhvi said.

Berkeley Dining’s sustainability practices

One of Berkeley Dining’s principles of service is being socially and environmentally responsible. They prioritize sustainability goals including “plant-forward cooking,” sourcing sustainable food and reducing both solid and food waste, according to its website.

Michels stated in the email that Berkeley Dining donates 50,000 pounds of food to organizations such as the Basic Needs Center and local food banks each semester, which is equivalent to about 40,000 meals. Berkeley Dining uses Leanpath, an AI-powered food waste management program, to track and analyze food waste.

Furthermore, the University of California’s 2024 policy on sustainable practices outlined a goal to obtain 25% plant-based food products by 2030. Michels added in the email that UC Berkeley has surpassed this goal; currently, 37% of the ingredients that Berkeley Dining purchases are plant-based.

Berkeley Dining menus indicate each menu item’s unique carbon footprint. A green icon means a footprint between 0-0.29 kilograms of carbon dioxide is emitted in the process of preparing the menu item, yellow indicates between 0.3-1 kilograms of carbon dioxide and red indicates more than 1 kilogram of carbon dioxide. Berkeley Dining uses the World Resources Institute’s Cool Food Calculator to estimate the carbon footprint of each menu item, including greenhouse gas emissions from supply chains as well as portion size.

The Daily Californian analyzed the percentage of food at each dining hall and restaurant that fits into each carbon footprint category.

Excluding the Golden Bear Café and Ladle & Leaf, more than 50% of items served in all other dining menus and restaurants have a low carbon footprint. Every item served at Monsoon Kitchens and Almare Gelato has a low carbon footprint.

Meat and other animal products tend to have a higher carbon footprint than vegan and vegetarian items. For example, items containing beef, seafood or other meat tend to have a high carbon footprint at the dining halls and restaurants. The only four items with a high carbon footprint served at the restaurants are the beef and cheddar burger, beef cheesesteak sandwich and buffalo chicken bacon and ranch salad at the Golden Bear Café, as well as the New England clam chowder at Ladle & Leaf.

Newly established Berkeley Dining Student Advisory Board encourages student input

Student input into the dining process is always encouraged, according to sophomore Steven Wang, a member of the newly established Berkeley Dining Student Advisory Board.

The board consists of 15 students and is led by Berkeley Dining Executive Director Christopher Henning and Katie Urbanowich, the director of administration.

Wang — along with a few students and parents — reached out to Berkeley Dining in March last year to share feedback. They discussed a few alleged instances of improperly cooked food causing sickness in students, as well as concern regarding the availability and quality of allergen-friendly options.

After communicating with Henning via email, Berkeley Dining met students and parents on Cal Day in 2025 to discuss solutions. Urbanowich reached out to Wang and other students involved in this initial dialogue with the board application last semester, and the board had its first meeting in February. During this meeting, students discussed initiatives such as operational and service improvements, optimizing the geographic distribution of Berkeley Dining offerings across campus and even expanding Berkeley Dining into groceries.

“I think it goes to show the breadth and capacity of the Student Advisory Board to come up with new ideas and continue to propagate the mission of bringing people together,” Wang said.

Copyright © 2026 The Daily Californian, The Independent Berkeley Student Publishing Co., Inc.