Best Dining Hall: Latitude

Latitude Restaurant and Market at UC Davis on April 23, 2026. The restaurant focuses on global cuisine, with dishes from Latin American, Asian, European, Middle Eastern and Indian regions. (Miguel Chinn / Aggie)

The international cuisine food stop beat out the three other dining commons

Latitude Restaurant amasses 4,000 student meal swipes daily, from breakfast through dinner service. With geographic and cultural diversity embedded in every dish, and a naturally lit, open space for studying during off-peak hours, Latitude has successfully established itself as UC Davis’ most popular dining hall.

Behind the scenes, Executive Chef Mathew Reeves and his team deliberately plan and execute Latitude’s operations to maximize menu diversity, regional authenticity and service scale. For many dishes in their Asian, Latin and Middle Eastern cuisine offerings, ingredients are directly imported from their overseas regions of origin. Respective cooking styles are replicated as closely as possible, despite adaptation for execution at large scales. Latitude’s ingredients are also closely connected with Davis’ local agricultural scene; all the rice served is grown in Sacramento.

“It's almost like a 60/40 split,” Reeves said. “Most of it is here, but 40% we still have to import to bring in, to make it genuinely authentic.”

Since introducing their breakfast service earlier this year, 90 additional recipes have been added to Latitude’s inclusions. Within their rotating four-week menu cycle, every station’s offerings are deliberately balanced to consider differing protein options throughout the day, featuring vegetarian and vegan options as well as dispersals of popular, “heavy-hitter” dishes.

“It's a lot of process that goes into it to make sure that the guests never feel like the options aren't fair, that they’re not feeling repetitive and [that] my staff is not burning out,” Reeves said.

Latitude's multicultural menu offerings continue to build on student feedback, further refining a menu that reflects the diversity of UC Davis students. Reeves’ team regularly adjusts menu items, informed by students’ reactions.

Reeves hopes to continue extending the cultural reach and geographical diversity of Latitude’s offerings, with new recipe introductions planned as soon as this summer.

“I just love getting to grow and push past my comfort zones,” Reeves said. “As a chef, this causes me to dive deeper and have a better understanding and represent food from around the world in such a cool way. Here we get a lot of international students; they get a taste of home here, and being able to provide that — it’s a cool process.”

Written by: Thomas Wu — campus@theaggie.org