Location: Basement of Terman Engineering Center

Stars: 3.5 (out of 5)

Hours: Mon-Fri: 7:00 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat-Sun: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I only have 10 minutes for lunch. Which means I don’t have lunch. I get out of my swing dancing class at 2:05, just late enough to miss the actual food at Union Square, leaving me stuck with the questionable pizza from il Piatto twice a week. So when I got an email from Intermission saying they wanted someone to review a campus eatery, I remembered Ciao!, that place in the basement of the Terman Engineering Center. I pass it on my way to grab the aforementioned pizza.

I was so excited about the possibility of an actual lunch that I even went on Stanford’s online list of campus eateries the night before to check out the menu. I spotted a couple of tasty dishes that looked promising, and I invited my friend to come along to help me sample the menu. Everything was golden.

But then I got there. To my surprise, the menu at the restaurant had absolutely nothing (I repeat, nothing) in common with the menu online. And for someone like me — and many of my fellow students, I imagine — who plan ahead, this huge discrepancy was troubling. I fumbled with my glasses to read my new options and choose my meal (again). My friend was less shaken.

He decided on Momma’s meatball panino. I chose one of the daily specials, chicken parmigiana, but ran into trouble yet again when the friendly cashier told me they were all out. Flustered, I went with the stuffed pasta shells, another daily special. To round out our meal, I got chicken spring rolls, orange juice and root beer. Our food was ready before I was done paying for it; convenience can occasionally be troubling, especially when it comes to dining.

As a New York native, my companion said his sandwich was hot and tasty but a bit small for something that cost $5.50 in real-world dollars (they don’t take Cardinal Dollars).

The last sandwich I got from a New York deli was bigger than my head (by a lot). This one looked good, though.

At $6.50, my dish came with two big shells. Again, hot and tasty. The cheese inside and the pinkish tomato sauce complemented the shells nicely. But I voiced a similar complaint — not enough food. And I’m not even from New York.

After quickly finishing our main courses, we moved on to our appetizer: the chicken spring rolls, yet another daily special. (Anyone who’s eaten with me in the dining hall knows I always eat my appetizers last.) The order comes with two giant spring rolls; I can’t decide if that’s a good deal for $4.95. They were pretty big.

When I first went to order them, I noticed they were in the “cold food” section. I’ve always liked hot spring rolls, but I ignored my instincts and bought it anyway: all for the sake of Intermission. But I should have trusted myself. Each spring roll had chicken, lettuce and bean sprouts but not much else, and they weren’t really mixed together. You had to eat through one ingredient to get to the others. And I didn’t want to do that. The roll itself looked suspiciously like a clear Trojan Magnum with two closed ends, and the rest didn’t taste much better (except for the chicken, which wasn’t bad).

As I sat there, torn between finishing my spring roll (for Intermission!) and stopping right there (for me!), I observed the restaurant one more time. Say what you will about Ciao!’s spring rolls, but they’ve got an absolutely huge selection of drinks and snacks.

I finally decided to abandon the effort. The spring roll just wasn’t working out for me. My friend agreed. As we threw away our trash, a sign reminded me that Ciao! offers biodegradable containers for just a little bit extra (15 cents, I think). I felt a little bad for forgetting about that. I would have done it had I remembered.

Notebook in hand, I took one last look at the menu before heading out. Most of the paninis are about $5.50. In addition to my friend’s meatball panino, they also have chicken, turkey, and veggie options, or you can design your own. The rest of the menu includes salads (from $3.50 to $6.50) and a few more daily specials (such as chicken piccata and prosciutto), all under $7. You can also stop in for muffins, bagels or coffee for breakfast.

It was good, but not great. Damn Web site.