This is a little unique one since not everyone can get access to it. But, if you are a graduate student, postdoctoral researcher, or specific faculty – or you know someone who is one of these – then you are in luck. This is one of the several cafe spots at the main Columbia University campus, one of the most popular ones. It is located inside the Graduate Student Center of Philosophy Hall.
Go though this magnificent door with beautiful architecture. The history of Columbia University is quite interesting, and most of the buildings at the main campus have rich background, with a couple of spots that has been used in many blockbuster movies.
Anyways, here you are, in the inside. The grand entrance with large windows bringing in lots of sunshine into this massive building. To the left of the entrance is where the Graduate Student Center and the cafe is located. You need an ID badge to enter through the badge scanner.
The inside the cafe was quite nice! Very high building, clean and modern. A good place for grad students to relax in peace and quiet. We went when it was not so busy, but I hear when it gets really busy, people might need to share tables with fellow students and alike.
The name “Nous” refers to Greek philosophical term for the intellect, which is very fitting since it is in the Philosophy building. It had a bright red counter where you make your selection and order. They had a really nice display of their baked goods, easy to see and choose from. You can also get some real food like sandwich, salad, soup, and few other items here.
Since the cafe is managed by Asian staffs, They do have more interesting food options, such as sushi and donburi. They also had some juice, shots and fruits.
We started off with Hot Matcha Latte (around $5) and Iced Matcha Latte (around $5). They came in 12 oz sized cups, with pretty good matcha flavor. It was surprisingly good, we were happy with them both.
For food, we didn’t order from their typical menu. We ordered one item from Today’s Special, Avocado Toast ($8) on 7-grain bread. It didn’t look like much, plain, almost boring avocado toast. The avocado was not in slices, but rather, been spread on the toasts like peanut butter. But then, after a single bite, we were in for another pleasant surprise. It was actually REALLY good! I don’t know what else they mix the avocado with, but it was very flavorful, fresh and quite tasty!
The other items we ordered were off their Donburi Rice Bowls menu. We chose Tuna Yukke Don ($15.50) and Gyuu Don ($13.75). When it came out, we were thinking hmmmm, something just don’t look right about these items… Yes, they are in square plastic container instead of usual round bowl, but that is not it. Can you guess? If you said “there is no egg” you are right! It supposed to come with poached egg, but it didn’t. So, we took it back to the staff at the counter, and the manager-looking man said “yes, you can order these without eggs.” Ummm, well, we DO want to eggs with these. The older staff got a bit confused, went to the back kitchen, and then discovered they don’t have eggs brought in yet. What!
So, after about 10 minutes of wait, they got crazy amount of eggs brought in from outside, and then made the poached eggs for our dishes. Needless to say, our food was staring to get cold, but not too bad… Finally, the egg was on the top with some seasoning, and the our “bowls” were finally complete. So, here is the Tuna Yukke Don ($15.50) that comes with tuna, avocado and cucumber with homemade sweet sauce topped with a poached egg. It was a good dish, fresh tuna cubes, lots of avocado and cucumber to make it extra refreshing. The rice had good sushi vinegar flavor to it that went well with the topping.
Gyuu Don ($13.75) is topped with beef and onion simmered in a mildly sweet sauce with dashi, soy sauce and mirin, finished with a poached egg and pickled ginger. This one was good too, since the topping was also hot, it didn’t get cooled down too much while we waited for the poached egg. It was comforting, juicy and flavorful.
To finish our lunch, we ordered a cup of Mango ($6.95) from inside their refrigerator. It had a good amount of mango in there, and they were all perfectly ripe! Juicy, sweet and a great way to cleanse your palate after having some strong flavored food.
Overall, the experience was good. The price is a bit high, but then the quality of food and drink was really good too. If they didn’t have the egg incident, it would have been much better experience, but still, I am a fan of this cafe. Quiet, peaceful and the staffs were mostly friendly and helpful.
Nous Espresso Bar – 1150 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027