the caf — Restaurant in Ottawa

Absolutely horrendous. The food regularly makes me sick. Every day there is a new and exciting different colored goop! The workers are incredibly unprofessional, one attempted to pick up my friend after his shift, when she declined him he made our food inadequately. Other workers do not follow basic food sanitary regulations. I have found multiple hairs in my food from a lack of hairnets and beard nets. Many workers act as if they cannot be bothered to serve the food without grunting and anguish. The food is FULL of sodium and fat. It is extremely hard to eat healthy unless you only eat from the salad and vegan bar. From what you can actually stomach from the vegan bar and the salad bar, it becomes very redundant. I went to leave the restaurant with two bananas today so that I could still eat while I study, considering my meal did not fill me up. Well apparently the profit margin of this place is so low they can only afford if I take ONE banana, sorry to attempt to bankrupt you. Eating in their "dining hall" is typically a game of finding a table that is actually clean before other people. Often tables will go uncleaned for the entire duration of my meal, with no sign of anyone keeping the place up. I usually opt for a table that has the least amount of garbage and crumbs. I am not sure if it is an under-staffing issue or if staff is just plain lazy and won't wipe down the tables. Whichever, it should be resolved. Often the menu posted online does not match up to what is actually served that day. "Pan Asia" station often serves the EXACT same thing every day with very little variation. Chicken teriyaki stir-fry and the next day will be chicken stir-fry with hoisin sauce! WOW. SUCH A WIDE VARIETY! Also the Fresh Food Company has a habit of calling everything on a tortilla a "taco" for example, their pulled pork taco which consists of a teaspoon of dry, flavorless pork slopped on to a mini white tortilla. For a company that prides itself in the diversity of the menu it offers, it would be wonderful to see well made traditional dishes instead of heating up a bag of spice-less goop and calling it a meal. If I could rate this place lower than one...

If you like risking the safety of your belongings, the caf is now fabulous.

I used to love this place. The variation in food was excellent and for the majority of the time: food was great. However. The only reason I was willing to pay several thousand a year to eat here was because of the convenience. Living on res with an all you can eat caf next door? Awesome! The caf this year, however, has just felt like an abusive relationship.

Backpacks are now banned. You are forced to leave your belongings unwatched and unguarded right outside the caf in kindergarten cubbies or on the floor. There isn’t a single thing stopping someone from showing up and stealing thousands of dollars in laptops and other school electronics. Again: COMPLETELY unguarded belongings that EVERYONE AND ANYONE has access to. The element of convenience is no longer present. If I want to eat lunch during my 40 minute break between two 4 hours classes, and I don’t want to leave my most valuable belongings on their own, I have to spend 30 minutes going from class to my dorm to the caf to my dorm to my class. If I want to grab a quick bite before bussing somewhere, the ability to book it out of the caf to the bus stop is no longer present as my bag is now in my 7th floor dorm.

In addition to the customers and students being blatantly walked all over, the caf has always had its fair share of issues to begin with: Cutlery sometimes completely being out (I’ve eaten pizza with a spoon before!) The soda machines frequently have no flavours in stock The soda machines are frequently out of order The milk dispensers (?) are frequently out of stock The coffee machines often do not work

I feel these are the more significant issues, anyway… ones I’ve been putting up with for several years while still enjoying the caf. But this new “no backpack” rule is appalling. I will be downgrading my plan to the cheaper meal option this coming semester. I do not...

Abdul wasiu, may not be the exact spelling but it sure you can figure it out. This man who works the sandwich station is absolutely unbearable, In my second year now I was always an advocate for the caf especially the sandwich line, but as of recent I never have much good to say. 1. I held leniency for a rather long time trying to be considerate about factors like, new caf workers have to learn the system, they tend to organize workers based on ability as for the ranking system I’ve had other staff tell me of, and some people just genuinely take longer to learn than others. But this is completely and utterly unexplainable, I understand it is important to keep a diverse group of workers in the caf but he does not understand English, even after weeks of working the station he still does not know the difference between when I ask for turkey or chipotle. I don’t understand why he can’t be included on a location like the handouts. 2. He gives the most sorry portion of whatever he puts. I get not putting an excess but one pickle and one cucumber slice misaligned on the sandwich are you serious, I refuse to believe he’s never seen or even eaten a sandwich in his life. I got a sandwich the other day and asked for cucumber, he had the audacity to tell me there was no room, I had 2 toppings on the sandwich. 3. I don’t understand is there not general training, even in the slightest? All the other workers tend to learn and adapt, I’m continuously hearing from peers about how disappointed they are with this man. He doesn’t know how to cut a baguette, he doesn’t know how to use the panini press, and he’s still confused about how to top a sandwich 2-3 weeks in. I wouldn’t particularly out one person but this is just completely...