Phoenix Grille

Convenient because of its place on campus, but the food is only okay and takes forever to get after ordering.

Phoenix grill is actually one of my favorite places to eat on campus :) During my last four years at UC Irvine, I have came here to study, hang out, and wait out for traffic... ohhhh!! and to eat!! of course :) hahaha Phoenix has a great variety of foods to choose from:- Einstein Bros: awesome bagels. I even like their bagel thin sandwiches. I especially like the bagel sandwich on asiago, or asiago thin, with egg, swiss and mushroom OR egg, swiss, and asparagus. however sometimes they run out of asparagus and substitute it for spinach.. and their workers are bipolar-Tortilla Fresca: so to me this place is like a mexican food bar... it has breakfast sandwiches, sometimes tacos, sometimes burrito bowl... add whatever you like to it!! what can go wrong :) - Grill Works: burgers freshly made with whatever you want in the middle. my favorite is the bacon, mushroom and swiss burger :) with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. no onion! haha... and they also have fries, onion rings, and other sandwiches... - Salad bar: regular salad or pasta salad, hand tossed!! yummmyy!! throw in whatever you want :) - Others: they have a fridge on the side: it has sandwiches, sushi, etc... And they also have a variety of beverages... Soda, juice, energy drinks, icee, etc ... even those 'asian drinks' like the aloe stuff and calpico

Tortilla Fresca's breakfast burrito makes me sick once, shame on it.Tortilla Fresca's breakfast burrito makes me sick twice, shame on me.Tortilla Fresca's breakfast burrito makes me sick three times.... WHY AM I STILL COMING HERE?!Einstein Brothers serves watery sugar instead of hot chocolate once, shame on it.Einstein Brothers serves watery sugar.... you get the picture.Burger from Grille Works tastes, feels and looks like a hockey puck once... OK, OK.You know what? Just skip it.

4 stars for letting me be able to catch most of the presidential inauguration before my second morning class. I was hoping the main TV wouldn't be focused on sports like they do every day. Definite bonus. I'm sort of craving for a good burger from here.My last review was harsh, but it was the beginning of the school year, they have rough patches. You'd still be able to find a good salad, burger, or even a taco salad if you get the chance. I just wouldn't recommend the strawberry muffins here. It won't really get you wired on sugar, just sick from excessive amounts of it.

Phoenix grille is currently operating like a government service that doesn't really give a shit about whether or not they have your business, and only exists to do the bare minimum. The last time I was there, the employee working at the grille took about 8 consecutive orders and then went on break without starting any of them. It took about 5-10 minutes for the rest of the staff to realize nothing was getting made, followed by a mad scramble in which the food got made in a random order - which really sucked for me because I was that front of that line. About 20-25 min later I finally got my cheesesteak with 0 apology whatsoever. Any decent competitive business would be throwing free stuff at you left and right after shenanigans like that, but that clearly is not what we are dealing with here.Icing on the cake was that the cheesesteak was so gross and soggy that I had to bust out a knife and fork so I wouldn't be shoveling handfuls of beef into my mouth.Bottom line is that even if you're already on campus, it's worth the 10 extra minutes round trip to get to any of the businesses at UTC instead.

Okay, honestly I feel like Phoenix Grill's hours are always so awkward and change way too often.There are 2-3 main kinds of food you can get here, as well as foods (prepackaged) that you find at Zot-n-Go, etc.The problem though? They don't have enough employees working...So what happens?Go at lunchtime and you willl be stuck there waiting for quite some while.The veggies of the salad bar aren't as fresh as those at the student center, neither. It is just because there is less of a people flow and the veggies don't get replenished as fast.

Sooo....writing this review while sitting in here actually.This place was the BEST place to go freshman year when we were SICk of Pips and Brandywine. grilled cheese is only appetizing for so long...This was before the days of the student center, so phoenix grille was a godsend. zotbucks were accepted so i would get my bad fast food sushi fix and greasy burrito fix here.HOWEVER, after revisiting today, three years later, i must say it's not that great anymore. It's lost the special lure that it had freshman year, and everything is just so-so greasy campus food. The "burrito" is just a greasy mess, and the burgers are your average burger. Although, i must say the chicken fingers on a good day are especially juicy and tasty, and the curly fries when extra fresh can be delicious. Overall, if you're stuck on campus and need a quiet place to get homework done, or kill some time while grabbing a bite, it's a good stop. Lot's of free outlets, which is a plus, when needing to stay on campus for a while. :)

I come here for one thing only: the taco saladOne autumn night during my freshman year, I strolled over to Phoenix Grill from Middle Earth with three friends. For most of us, it was our first time to this place and once arriving, we immediately knew what we wanted to get: taco salads. This is one of my favorite mexican dishes and I found it incredibly delicious! Since the first time I've had a taco salad here (which was the first time I ate a taco salad period), this has been my place to go whenever I wanted to grab a guilty snack, something that I could eat whenever I was having a bad day and it always made me feel better. A drug, but nonetheless a good drug :]An inexpensive price and plenty of seats. I just wish the service was a little brighter and vibrant. but its understandable. we can forgive it :]

This rating is just for Einstein Brother's Bagels inside the Phoenix Grill--I am a regular customer for their Everything Bagel, toasted with Salmon Shmear. It cannot be beat. There are no other decent places to eat at on campus. For the venue itself, it's a clean, semi-quiet environment perfect for group meetings/discussions. Some booths even have wall-plugs so that students can work on their laptops while lunching. I haven't tried their other options due to their price/questionable quality (I just don't think I'll get the bang for my buck). Bagels are simplest pleasure :]

Oh Phoenix grille. I don't blame you for your glorious mediocrity. I imagine that any excellence you might show is immediately squeezed from you by the combination of the campus concessions monopoly and the relative budget tightness of recent years. The employees here are not to blame - they do the best job they can under the rigid pricing structure and oversight of the campus. It's tough to make mass processed Mexican food exciting when you are massively overcharging for it. I'd love to give you an alternate campus dining option that surpasses Phoenix but this is the sad reality...there is none better. Time for another trek to the university center. Who wants In n Out?