The Castilian, Austin TX

I currently live here and I think it is the perfect dorm for freshmen. Interested in Greek life? You can find your friends here. Not interested in Greek life? You can still find your friends. Not only is it cheap, but it’s off campus so you’re separated from the university and in the heart of west campus where everything happens! It truly is the ideal freshman experience without feeling isolated on-campus or super overwhelmed by complete Greek life like many other off campus freshman dorms. AND you get great amenities like a media room, gym, dining hall, laundry room, and game room. Live at the Castilian if you want to make the most out of your first year (s) as a college student!

As far as a freshman year dorm goes, this place is amazing. It’s is very clean, the amenities are awesome, and the food is really good. The only bad things are that the washers/dryers almost never work and the elevators take forever. Other than that, Castilian is the place to live.

Very clean, cafeteria staff is very nice, except washer, dryer (some dryers charge $2 instead $1.25) and sometimes the printers get ruined. Other than that very nice and it’s cheaper than jester.

The Castilian’s location on west campus makes it one of the best apartments to live in during the school year. Right next to Guadalupe and campus makes it super easy to get food and get to class. The gym is super nice, and the meal plan is excellent.

Living in this place was one of the biggest mistakes I made at UT. The management was completely irresponsible and kept the AC off the entire winter break. The amenities were decaying; the pool was not available for a good chunk of my stay; and the vending machines often did not work without any return of money. The service ladies at the cafeteria were very rude. They spilled coffee on my shirt and offered no apology. Drunk students making noise at night is a normal scene on the weekend, and I've seen someone puking on the lounge sofa. Not sanitary at all.

You would think that since you have you pay for laundry, it would work.

IT DOESNT. EVERY SINGLE TIME.so annoying

I don’t recommend this place. The elevators are about a 10 minute wait so you have to leave early to get to class on time, the rooms have fleas and roaches and no matter how many times you put in a work order for exterminators they never show up. The heating and AC don’t work, so you’re pretty much going to feel exactly how it feels outside in your room while you’re trying to sleep. If you’re staying in a room near the elevators, like I did, you will constantly hear them going up and down all night long and they are super loud! It’s not just a little humming, it’s dramatic metal clanking and banging right through yours walls all night long. On top of that, there are roaches in the cafeteria. I would add a picture if I could but I opened one of the bread boxes and a roach crawled out of the food! The staff is incredibly nice and I’ve never had a problem with them, but the whole building is honestly just gross and uncomfortable. It’s convenient to get to campus, but that’s it. The rest of your stay here will be horrible. I don’t recommend it at all.

I do not recommend this place for the lack of variety of food, the worst wifi speed, and that the elevators are extremely inconsistent. Looks nice but doesn't work well.

Food is ok. Staff is nice, but so many bugs and flies everywhere! Flies swarm me as I try to enjoy my meal! Please get rid of your pest problem

Staff are nice warm and friendly, especially the dining hall staff who make it feel like home:) had a great roommate during my stay (spring 2019 sem) there and the air conditioning is great, hot water works well and staff do their best to make sure the place is clean (just that some people living there trash the place and do not clean up their own mess, expecting the staff to clean it for them).

other than that, a good place to stay taking to account that it has meals covered daily (food is fine for me: way better than coop food imo unless youre really picky)

walls can be on the thin side so if youre planning to run riot choose somewhere else.

Living at Castilian was nice because I happened to get a great roommate and the cafeteria staff were really nice but, upon leaving, I left behind no damages and my roommate did. They said that if I clarified with them that it was my roommate then they wouldn't charge me for the chipped, However, the didn't keep true to their word and charged me anyway! Oh yeah and the cafeteria policy seemed great until they enforced strange hours and didn't allow you to take food out (which wouldn't be a problem if they had flexible hours). And since the dorm is off campus, there is no on-campus food options required for your time at UT.

Elevators are a little slow and cafeteria doesn’t have the most convienent hours, but i’d say a really great freshman experience!

This is a great place to live. People who work here are nice and easy to get along with. Definitely one of the nicer and more reasonable places to live for your first year

Tristan Rogers is a solid fellow. His knowledge of The Castilian and Block properties is unbeatable. Also, he’s so dashing. I mean look at him. Wow.

The location and rooms for Castilian are amazing however the A/C and printers rarely work. Also the dining times are very very inconvenient. Our bathroom in particular got mold twice and our soap dish fell off three times after they fixed it! Overall this is an okay place.

Castilian was a good choice for my first year because it is extremely close to campus and offers a great meal plan. The cafeteria food is really great and the staff is super friendly! The only downsides are that the washer/dyers break often and the rooms are pretty small. Other than that the building is clean and definitely secure.

Would recommend this place for a number of reasons:

* Super friendly staff from the main desk/office, cafeteria, cleaning, to the maintenance crew (Shoutout to Chris, who's really friendly and told me to leave a review)
* Super friendly residents - If you're shy and awkward like me, don't worry, everyone's friendly here. I managed to make a good amount of friends here without trying too hard since the people here are naturally amicable and easy to approach.
* Nice atmosphere - the 11th floor has a nice lounge where you can either just chill or study. Almost every floor has its own personal lounge with either setup A (4chairs, a table, and 2 booths) or setup B (2 couches and an armchair)
* Nice Amenities - There are multiple study rooms, a mini theater, and a gym
* Efficient package delivery system - can get packages from either the office on the 1st floor or the Amazon hub lockers
* Good food - a decent amount of variety from pizza, vegeterian, the main meal course, fried stuff (frenchfries, onion rings, etc), and burgers everyday. For breakfast, you can also have them cook you an omellete. Also there is no limit on how much you can eat, it's a buffet
* Decent Room Setup - For a shared room of 2, it includes 2 desks, 2 beds, 2 drawers for clothes, shelves for books and misc, 2 closets kinda connected together but seperated by some square shelf chambers in the middle, 1 sink, 1 mini fridge, 1 microwave, 1 bathroom shared with your suitemate (s), and 4 lockers. Even though my room is shared, I have no troubles with storage and space - I'm content with what I have
* Fantastic location - Few minutes away from campus and right behind Guadulupe street and the bus stations. Target in Dobie is just a 4 to 5 minute walk from here

The cons, though, include:

* Super expensive prices - About $1350 a month for both the room and meal plan. Also if you lose your keys or forget them in your room, you would need to pay a fee to borrow a master key, even if you just need it for a few minutes, you need to pay still
* Terrible laundry machines - The machines are old, so they often malfunction and won't start at all. Really inconvenient and made me frustrated a number of times
* Slow Elevators - There are 4 of them, but even so, you'll often find a slightly big crowd gathered around and waiting for elevators to show up. Also they sometimes break, so not all 4 may be working at the same time
* Sometimes slow Internet - During the day, it's fine. But in the evenings, your Internet may slow down, probably since that's the time everyone is using it
* Dirty staircases - Most of the time they're clean, but there are some days where someone left their trash there and it ends up not getting cleaned after like a few days. I remember there was some apple gunk that were on the stairs for awhile, had to step around it every time
* Outdated AC system - The building is old, but has been renovated. Unfortunately, the AC system hasn't changed, I believe, so it has to switch to either the coupling or heat mode, depending on the weather outside and that takes time. So if one day the weather is super hot, but become a cold the next day, they'll put the system into cooling mode but not change it back to heat mode for the next day.
* Weird cafeteria hours - Cafeteria closes at 7 PM on weekdays and 6: 30 on weekends. I get it that they did that so the cafeteria staff can leave home early, but then again, residents pay $350 a month for the meal plan. Castilian needs to implement a better system that will still prevent overworking their workers and keeping their residents satisfied

Even though I listed quite a number of cons, I think the pros outweigh them.

I really enjoyed living here my first year! The staff is really friendly & the location is unbeatable (right between UT campus & west campus)! It also has a really nice gym and study/lounge area on the 11th floor.

Very clean, friendly staff, food is consistent and the rooms are comfy. Would recommend to any freshman.

I’ve lived here for 2 years and it’s been a very good experience. The greatest benefit is the unlimited meal plan and the 11th floor, which has great resources for a typical college student.