The Vista Grande dining complex is located within steps of student housing, including Sierra Madre and Yosemite towers and the newest facility, the yakʔitʸutʸu residential community, with up to 1,475 beds.

Designed to help create an environment of community and interaction, Vista Grande has been modified for operation under current COVID pandemic-imposed conditions with physically distanced outdoor seating and no indoor dining. Customers are asked to use the Grubhub mobile app to order food.  

Among the dining choices is Balance Café, which prepares meals that are free of the top eight allergens — foods that account for 90% of food allergic reactions. The café is completely self-contained, with a dedicated kitchen, cold storage, cook and serve ware, dishwasher and dedicated team of chefs.

Six venues are on the second floor of the hillside facility with the street-level entrance to Grand Ave Market and Jamba offering quick access to healthy fruit-base smoothies, a premium deli, on-premise prepared sushi, grab-and-go snacks and heat-and-eat meals that students can easily prepare in their residence halls. The market features a wide variety of kosher-certified offerings that Campus Dining managers worked with a local rabbi to bring to campus.

The Hearth station has two stone-fired pizza ovens serving artisan pizzas, baked pastas and hot sandwiches.

The Noodles station serves all things noodle-y, such as ramen, tortellini and jambalaya pasta. Other stations in the complex include the Sweet Bar, featuring gelato from Paso Robles-based Leo Leo Gelato and other tasty desserts such as cookies, giant brownies and tiramisu; Streats with its globally inspired menu of al pastor, banh mi and short rib mac and cheese; and Brunch, which serves all-day breakfast items like Tennessee-style chicken and waffles, avocado toast with smoked salmon, and eggs with Boursin cheese and wild mushrooms.