Student opinions on dining center options

While eating at the West and Residence Dining Centers these past few months, there are some foods that are super good and others that are not. I hear people complaining about the food as often as I hear the food is really good.

This week, I wanted to investigate more on people’s opinion of the dining center and their food. But first and foremost, I want to thank the dining center and all of their hard-working staff for bringing meals to us, whether it is in the dining center or in our dorms. My personal favorite? It’s the Homestyle counter. I love the meals that remind me of home and bring me comfort. Whether it is Belgian waffles, lasagna or pasta.

For others, it may be Global, Healthy Eats, the Grill, Wood Stone or the salad bar. Or as a friend who told me, “I could eat pasta for every meal.” Another who says, “Nothing looks good today, I’m just going to stick with the yogurt.” Honestly, there are some days where the yogurt parfait hits different, I love it.

Changes I would make to the West and Residence dining centers would include bringing back soft serve ice cream, have more cooked veggies, other protein options-besides chicken and have a bigger variety of foods, so that we’re not having the same meals every few weeks.

I was curious about what others thought of the dining center and
their food so I asked a variety of people. Some questions I asked people were what is your favorite food, least favorite food and what would you change about the dining center?

One of the biggest concerns about the dining center was that there is no
late-night on weekends. Many students stay on campus for the weekend and get hungry at night. For my friends and I, we can’t just go to the dining center later in the evening, all because late-night is not open on the weekends. Off to a restaurant or Target, we go!

Who wants to spend their money when they could use their meal plan to get a free meal?

Another said they would change the salad bar by actually having good lettuce. I would have to agree with this, every time I have had a salad the lettuce has not been good. I would describe it as dry and unappealing, it also has no taste.

Along with the salad, some say to add more dressings or better-tasting dressings, as they believe there are not very many options. A few of my friends said they don’t like the eggs, for example, they are
always very bland and tasteless.

While talking about people’s opinions of the dining center, I think I should talk a little bit about mine. As a freshman, the first week of dining center food was pretty good. I was pleased with all of the options available, even though there was no soft-serve ice cream.

Now three months into freshman year, my opinion has changed. A lot of the food is repeated, there is never anything new. It’s almost like the dining center is on a certain rotation just like many high schools were. Every week it’s the same foods, but the more I eat these same foods, the more bored I get with them.

I think the dining center needs a change, switch it up, give us a new recipe or maybe a whole new rotation of food.

Even though there are some changes people want to see in the dining center food, there are positives of the dining center. The staff is friendly and is always ready to make your food, whether it is a bagel or a sandwich. I also think that we should all be grateful that our dining centers have any options available to us right now, with all of the different varieties of food, especially during a pandemic.

West and Residence dining centers, thank you for bringing us meals every day, and pretty much any time of the day. However, give us more options, spice up the menu, treat us with something good. We pay a lot of money to be a Bison, let’s make the dining center better.

And… bring the condiments back, and we beg you, bring back the soft
serve ice cream too.