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Camille’s faces Columbia’s main quad and keeps most dishes under $10, but that’s still not enough to make it a college hangout. The dim subterranean room is low both on patrons and on personality: It has faux stained-glass sconces, assorted bank-quality art, and cream-colored and brick walls. Camille’s also fails to operate on student time; closing is 10 p.m. At least the portions are mammoth and the flavors solid. The fresh mozzarella appetizer stacks half-inch-thick milky buffalo mozzarella slices between full-bodied tomatoes and douses the pile in balsamic vinegar. Chicken marsala is passably executed as a thin filet in an evocative mushroom-based sauce with traces of garlic. Al dente baked ziti combines grilled eggplant, fresh chopped parsley, and chunky tomato, then compromises with melted ricotta that has a bland, processed quality. Still, it’s a definite step up from the campus cafeteria. — Kate Appleton

Chicken marsala, $8.95, baked ziti, $8.50, fresh tomato, $6.95