Cité Universitaire’s Restaurant- Paris (75014) en

I was told it was a great deal/place. For the food, it’s good for a cafeteria, but the level isn’t as high I thought it would be.  However, the setting in general is superb, especially when it’s nice outside, the cafeteria is open for everyone so it’s nice to take advantage of it, and for 4.35 euros the meal, definitely worth it!

The cafeteria
The patio behind the Cité U is a great spot to grab a coffee. That morning it was beautiful out, after weeks of shitty weather ( rain, cold, rain, cold again, rain again) and it was paradise, like we were at the beach.
The beltway is at the end of the park, but curiously we don’t hear it very much, even though there’s no wall blocking the noise.
This article is about both the cafeteria and the restaurant.
You can come here for a coffee on the fly, especially since I heard that lunch I was there that they changed the coffee machine and the espresso was really not bad for a cafeteria.

The restaurant
The room of the restaurant is big enough, not extremely charming, but it’s alright.  What’s nice are the windows that look out to the park, which is really pleasant.
There’s a nice vibe around the restaurant. The website is well done , there are positive feedbacks on Qype, during the week of la Francophonie , they offered different dishes from different francophone countries.
There’s two types of menus, as you can see on the picture, I didn’t understand at all where the difference was, but overall it’s 5 euros.

The little story
I met a person that lived in Cité Universitaire, and when they heard I was looking for good deals in Paris they bragged about the restaurant saying it was honestly pretty good.
I went with a friend, I admit we were thrown off by the dishes:  the fish and cream sauce wasn’t exciting in the least ( I ate at the cafeteria all through my school years, and thank god it’s over). We were standing there like idiots with our trays, I was looking at my dropbox list for plan B that was easily accessible.
It was too much of a hassle, so we told ourselves: ok let’s do this.

As I was saying earlier, the fish with cream sauce wasn’t appealing to me, and the pizza didn’t look too bad, but it didn’t look very sexy either.

We finally went for the chicken, I’m allergic to store-bought chicken with no soul and no muscle, pretty much lifeless, this full breast however looked like the real deal.
It was.
The rice was cooked well, not dry, the vegetables beside it were also goof, and the chicken was really good, I swear.  A nice chicken breast, a little dry and hard, just like when it’s good meat.
I enjoyed eating it, and digested it really well.
I have to say the vegetables I got were much better than those fluorescent carrot slices that came with the fish.

Look at this cute little meal on a tray, with a Mamie Nova chocolate mousse, the last time I ate one was 15 years ago.
4.35 for everything, visitor price, nice!

Overall it’s good :

-the place is nice, and it’s even charming when it’s nice out
-they thought of everything: the website, the greeting by the employees, the visitor access to Cité U
-what I ate that day was really good, especially for that price
-a friend once said that political figures should take the metro at least once a week to feel life, and the city, I’d say it’s important to let those that aren’t in the education system to mix with students, I like going into universities when I’m travelling in other countries to get a feel for the youth.
Just by eating here, other than the simple pleasure of the experience, for a moment I was part of the student life. Like in hospitals, there’s another rhythm, another relation to time, to the outside, and it’s important to be able to connect to this.
I bet there’s some good cafeterias in some hospitals I well, I think it’d be nice if the well and the sick could share a meal at the same time.