UNie Life

A student review of the Dining Hall:

Kelley Warre Multimedia Coordinator

A a student who experienced the controversy that the announcement of the new Dining Hall brought last year, I must admit that I was skeptical at best about the new food options. Walking into the dining hall feels awkward to me. I

am not a fan of the tunnel effect that the design choice creates. The old cafeteria flowed with the rest of the campus. This

stark white dining hall entrance feels alien.

Aesthetically, I would feel more at home if the design was more cohesive: either staying with the architecture of the rest of

the university, or closing the dining hall off

entirely with doors. However, aesthetics are truly not that important in the grand scheme of things.

The layout of the food and the options being served were a more positive experience. It is immediately clear that

you get a lot of options and choices for your money, which makes you feel a little better about spending the $10 for a single entrance or the $2000 plus for the semester-long meal plan.

I really liked the make-your-own salad bar. Being able to put in exactly what you want by yourself is incredibly convenient and welcome. | also picked up a small cup of coconut curry soup and some sushi

for round one. This brought me to my first major annoyance: the lack of trays in the dining hall. I was later told that the lack of trays and small plates was

a purposeful decision to keep students from over-serving themselves and contributing to food waste. While this made me a little more understanding of the decision, it did not make the balancing act of two plates, a cup of soup, cutlery, and a glass of Sprite any less difficult.

Some of the food was mediocre: the

sushi was lackluster, with a non-optimal rice-to-fish ratio. However, some of

it was really good. The coconut curry soup was delicious, and I thoroughly enjoyed my salad. While the small plates were not really a problem, I found the small glasses incredibly inconvenient.

I was constantly getting up to refill, because the glasses were child’s sized.

I finished two more rounds, tasting a

little bit of everything. I appreciated the small serving sizes for this reason--tasting multiple items in such a way was not an option we had last year. The food itself was pretty good, and the quality has definitely increased. If you utilize the options well, it is definitely worth the price. Most new and returning students I spoke to felt the same. If you break down the price of the meal plan and compare it to restaurant meals, you definitely come out ahead, and there is less stress of having to figure out meals.

There are still parts I am skeptical

of. My Pantry, for instance, sounds wonderful on paper, but may not live

up to our expectations. The kitchen is quite small, so I am unsure how it could accommodate all the students who may want to cook their own meals, especially once they start removing the kitchens from the student residences next year. For students with specialized dietary restrictions it will be nice, but for others it may be more hassle than it is worth. While it stocks fresh ingredients and

an array of spices, there seems to be a reluctance to stock premium ingredients.

Ultimately, my final verdict is that the new food options are neither better nor worse, they are merely different. The Dining Hall is not bad enough to make me actively avoid it, but it is not good enough to drag me out of the Thirsty Moose either.