For most college freshmen, learning to embrace, and then remedy, the “starving college student” stereotype can be difficult. For vegetarians, the mission of going from hungry to full can sometimes seem downright impossible.
In order to aid practicing vegetarians in their hunt for the perfect meat-free meal, the Mustang Daily has accumulated a list of the best places and plates to get.
Whether it’s the Garden Grille, Vista Grande, Sandwich Factory, The Avenue or Campus Market, almost all of the food vendors on campus offer some vegetarian options.
“The Garden Grille has an assortment of customized salads that feature Cal Poly produced items,” said Alan Cushman, Campus Dinings associate director. “There are some wonderful organic, meatless salads, and the kitchen can put all different kinds of things in the dish that make it flavorful like artichoke hearts, capers and olives.”
Cushman also mentioned that the Garden Grille has a pasta station and garden burgers as well as certain specialty dishes, such as enchiladas and casseroles, made fresh daily.
Backstage Pizza also offers an assortment of vegetarian foods on its menu, including a full salad bar, cheese pizza, veggie pizza and even cheese-less pizza.
“Occasionally (Backstage) has cheese-less pizzas, which are good for lacto-ovo vegetarians, but most of the pizzas have at least cheese on them,” Cushman said.
The Avenue and Campus Market are known mainly for supplying students with the vegetarian basics, Cushman said, such as a variety of fruits and vegetables, yogurt and macaroni salads.
“I think there could be a wider variety . of foods at most of the places on campus. But I think Campus Market is a little bit better – they have plates of vegetables and hummus, and they have a lot of soy products that are good,” said history major and vegetarian Wendy Ross.
Both Campus Market and The Avenue offer their own trademark vegetarian meals. According to its menu, The Avenue makes to-order veggie sandwiches from a collection of fresh veggies and cheeses, and the salad burrito, which includes lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, onions and Italian dressing.
The Campus Market, located on the other side of campus, offers fresh bread twists, which are made daily and come with either marinara or ranch dressing, and slices of veggie pizza (made with bell peppers and onions).