The 7 Best Cheap Eats Around SDSU and the College Area

Milo's Pizzeria has been baking New York-style pizza on El Cajon Boulevard in Rolando since 1996, which means it has been feeding SDSU students for three decades, longer than most of them have been alive. The pies come out of a brick oven, the cheese is whole milk from Wisconsin and California, and the shop still signs its name "Milo's Pizzeria (at SDSU)," like a return address. Owner Ed Rose has been in the pizza business since 1994.

It's our No. 1 cheap eat near campus because it does everyday pizza with real care and covers more of a student's week than anywhere else on this list: a slice between classes, a sub on the way home, a whole pie for the apartment. The two phrases that come up most in reviews are "New York-style" and "pizza by the slice." One recent reviewer called it a five-minute drive from SDSU made for slice-and-drink combos, and another said two giant slices with a drink was more than one person could finish.

The order is the one Milo's says it's known for: a whole cheese pizza, $12.99, split between two people. Toppings are priced one at a time, so the house cheese pie is the easiest way to eat well and keep the total low. Every sub is $7.99, meatball included, and garlic knots ($6.99) or garlic bread ($4.99) turn a pie into a spread for the group. Specialty pizzas run $17.99 when you're feeding a crowd, and a can of soda is $2.

A couple of planning notes. The storefront sits back inside a plaza off El Cajon Boulevard, so keep an eye out as you pull in. Slices are at their best earlier in the day, and if you'd like to skip the counter altogether, Milo's has taken orders through Slice for eight years. If Ben & Esther's at No. 2 is the morning ritual, Milo's is the dinner that never needs a group vote.

Ben and Esther were real people. Justin King named Ben & Esther's Vegan Delicatessen, on El Cajon Boulevard in Rolando, after his Jewish grandparents, second-generation Ukrainian-Americans who lived in Queens and later Miami and were devoted deli-and-bagel people. King has been vegetarian or vegan for about 35 years, so the tribute comes with a twist: everything on the menu, from the schmear to the lox, is vegan.

The deli started in 2019 on Sandy Boulevard in Portland's Roseway neighborhood, where it sold animal products at first, then went vegetarian, then went all the way to vegan. The San Diego flagship opened at the start of 2022 inside Aztec Village Center near SDSU, a partnership between King, a longtime restaurateur who once owned several barber shops, and Marc Bennett, who owns Pappy's Barber Shop nearby. Barbers and bagels, it turns out, go together.

Order the lox sandwich, stacked with schmear, tomato, red onion, capers and dill. The housemade carrot lox is the thing fans single out, and the deli sells it by the pound if you want to take some home. Add a knish or latkes, $4.50 each, or make it a matzo ball soup morning for $11.50. The praise also lands on the bagels themselves, the vegan schmears, the RZA sandwich and the gluten-free bagels, and one reviewer summed it up as generous portions at good prices.

By the numbers, Ben & Esther's has the strongest, steadiest fan base on this whole stretch of the boulevard. What keeps it just behind Milo's is timing. The shop runs 7 AM to 3 PM, favorites can sell out by around midday on weekends, and seating is outdoors only in a small space. Treat it as breakfast or lunch, and on a weekend, get there early.

Halal Burger Co. picked its opening day with care. Co-owners Ahmed Hagisufi and Abdullahi Salim aimed for Friday, April 18, 2025, so the shop would be ready for Jumu'ah prayers, and they opened in the former Juicy Burgers space at 6353 El Cajon Blvd in Rolando, close to several College Area mosques. It's the pair's first restaurant, and it has quickly become one of the best-reviewed counters on the boulevard.

The idea came from abroad. Hagisufi was born in Somalia and raised in Switzerland, and San Diego Magazine reported that he had seen how popular halal dining was in Europe, especially in the UK, and spotted the same demand going unmet in San Diego's Muslim community. Halal here means the meat is slaughtered and processed under Islamic dietary law, with no pork and no alcohol-derived ingredients. The burgers carry Mediterranean and African seasoning, and Salim runs the wings and pizza side of the menu.

Start with the Mecca Munch at $9.99, or six bone-in wings for the same price. The Baraka Burger ($10.99) and the Halal Majesty ($11.99) are next up the ladder, and the fries-and-drink combo adds $3.99. The wings and the Philly cheesesteak are what fans talk about most; the Philly is $15.99, so it's a good one to split. Shakes run $6.49 to $7.49.

One recent reviewer described an immaculately clean room, attentive counter staff and food out in about 10 minutes, then worked through a Majesty double with fries, six mango habanero wings and a steak Philly. That's a lot of lunch. Where Milo's has thirty years of regulars, Halal Burger Co. is the newcomer that earned its fans fast. It opens at noon most days and at 2 PM on Fridays, so plan it for lunch or later.

Garden Fresh Grill & Smoothie is the family-owned Mediterranean and Middle Eastern counter that has been feeding the College Area for more than a decade. It's on El Cajon Boulevard in Rolando, and while the menu covers salads, appetizers and chicken and beef kebabs, the gyro is the dish people bring up most.

That gyro is a lamb-and-beef blend built on a spinner and carved fresh, then tucked into Greek pita with lettuce, parsley, tomato, onion and tzatziki. The sandwich is $12.95. Pair it with the $5.99 lentil soup, another crowd favorite, and you have a full dinner. If you're extra hungry, the gyro plate runs $17.95.

The smoothie half of the name gets plenty of love too, and boba comes up in reviews as well, so it's an easy stop for a drink between classes. Want something besides the gyro? Fans point to the chicken kabob plate next, and the salads and appetizers make it simple to build a lighter meal. The people working the counter get kind words, too.

What puts Garden Fresh at No. 4 is how steady it is: its ratings hold up across review sites, and the kitchen keeps long hours, 10:30 AM to 10 PM every day. With two pizzerias, a burger shop and a biscuit counter on this list, Garden Fresh is also where your week gets its greens. Walk up, order at the counter, and let the spinner do the rest.

Woodstock's Pizza SDSU is the College Area's big pizza hangout, and it comes from a family of college-town pizzerias. The first Woodstock's opened in 1977, when Chuck Woodstock set up near Oregon State in Corvallis with a plan for a fun, student-oriented pizzeria: hand-tossed dough, generous toppings and a crust folded over with the sauce baked right inside. In 1980 Chuck teamed up with Mike Chew to open in San Luis Obispo, and a delivery driver named Jeff Ambrose later helped open shops in Isla Vista, Chico, Davis and, eventually, here at SDSU.

Chuck and Mike died together in a 1985 plane crash. In 2001, Jeff and his wife, Laura, bought all five California locations, and the company has since grown to seven. The SDSU shop, at 6145 El Cajon Blvd in Rolando, was built out of an old laundromat, and Woodstock's calls it "SDSU's favorite hangout." It also has more reviews than any other spot on this list.

Those reviews keep circling back to three things: the sauce-inside crust, the beer selection and the wings. The lemon pepper and BBQ wings get special praise because the sauce is baked on instead of poured over.

Woodstock's also posts the most useful deals near campus. Weekday lunch, 11 AM to 3 PM Monday through Friday, is all-you-can-eat pizza for $14.95. A Slice & Soda is $8, a Slice & Beer is $9.50, a slice, salad and soda is $14.95, and a valid student ID takes $6 off any large or extra-large. Pitchers are $9.99 on weeknights from 9 PM to close, and it's open until 1 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. The deals are the smart way in, so plan around them.

If Milo's is the quick pie you take home, Woodstock's is the pizza night you stay for.

On El Cajon Boulevard in Rolando, right next to Cheba Hut, Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken covers the College Area's biscuit breakfast. The chain started in Durham, North Carolina, in 2012, inspired by a biscuit tour its founders took, and its mission, to "serve great food made with premium quality ingredients by people who care," has carried it to more than 25 locations in eight states, California included.

The biscuits are buttermilk and made fresh daily, and the glazed blueberry biscuit gets more love than anything else on the menu. The Sweet Country Blues puts pork sausage on that glazed blueberry biscuit for $7.99. The other classic is the Righteous Chicken biscuit, with buttermilk-brined fried chicken, for $8.99. A single cheddar biscuit is $2.79 when you just need a little something before class.

Grits, blueberry beignets, country gravy and a mac-and-cheese box all have their fans, and cheddar tots are one of the chain's signatures. The parking lot directly in front of the door makes a quick stop easy.

Rise opens at 7 AM and closes at 2 PM every day, so it's a breakfast or early-lunch stop, and that early close is what places it at No. 6. You can order online or through the app, but the app doesn't carry the full menu, so order at the counter if you have your heart set on something specific.

Every college neighborhood needs a place where one coffee turns into a whole study session, and in the College Area that's Living Room Coffeehouse, on El Cajon Boulevard in El Cerrito. "Study spot" is one of the phrases that comes up most in reviews, and the setup makes sense of it: indoor seating, couches, a patio, plenty of outlets, including at the outdoor tables, and hours from 7 AM to 11 PM every day.

The Living Room brand goes back to Thanksgiving Day, 1991, and calls itself "A European Cafe with a Californian Flair." The original is on Prospect Street in La Jolla. There are three locations now: La Jolla, this one near SDSU, and Rancho San Diego, which adds an Italian dinner menu with woodfired pizza and gelato.

The order is the Cinnamon Crunch Foam Cold Brew, iced cold brew topped with house cinnamon cold foam, for $7. There's a kitchen behind the espresso bar, too, and avocado toast is the dish people mention by name.

Living Room lands at No. 7 because it's a cafe first, with less cooking going on than at the counters ranked above it. What it offers is time. Parking on the block is tight, so walk over if you're close.