The Top 20 Gourmet College Dining Halls

October 1, 2008 6:00 pm     Posted in Body, Reality  Kelly - UMass g+ page

af0d41d6d5a7463ea935793a8adfa132.jpgI don’t know about your college, but the food at UMass is well, not the most scrumptious. The salad bar got old after the first week (of freshman year) and I swear the food is mixed with laxatives; I can never keep anything down (TMI, I know, my B).


By Kelly

Anyways, eating in the dining commons at my school was my least favorite option and I imagined it to be the same for every campus, until I came across an article on Yahoo about the Top 20 Rankings for Best College Food and became insanely jealous of these delicious treats.

At Wheaton College, ranked number one in this survey, Klaud Mandl, the General Manager of Food Services at Wheaton, who previously worked at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, has a menu of Belgian chocolate homemade truffles, lavender-infused pork chops with onion gravy, and cumin-lime baked chicken with avocado cream sauce. Are you serious?!?! Homemade Belgian truffles??? The closest thing we got to that at my school was a help-yourself ice cream machine with watered down frozen yogurt.

These dishes at Wheaton are created by “The Wheaton Cuisine Team,” a group of students who represent the student body and come up with ideas, new recipes and fun ways to create a staff-student partnership with the dining commons. The Yahoo article goes on to report that the New York Times recently did a story on this topic, saying “as palates grow more sophisticated and admissions become more competitive, many top colleges are paying attention to dining rooms as well as classrooms.” Nifty. Who would have thought that food is becoming as high a demand as academic?

Is this true? Well, it sure wasn’t at my school. From the burnt burgers to the sticky, over cooked pasta, there sure wasn’t any “Cuisine Team” and there definitely were no chocolate truffles (although, that may have added to the freshman 15!).

Here are the Top 20 schools for 2009…is your school on here? If so, please dish about the uber delicious foods you are chowing down on, while I stick with my daily diet of Lucky Charms cereal.

1. Wheaton College (IL), Wheaton, IL

2. Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME

3. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

4. St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

5. James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

6. Colby College, Waterville, ME

7. Franklin W. Olin Col. of Engineering Needham, MA

8. Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

9. University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN

10. Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, MN

11. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

12. University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

13. Scripps College, Claremont, CA

14. Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT

15. Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA

16. Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA

17. Miami University (OH), Oxford, OH

18. College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME

19. Bates College, Lewiston, ME

20. University of Georgia, Athens, GA

[photo by JFKlibrary.org]

28 Comments on "The Top 20 Gourmet College Dining Halls"

  1. Sara C - Fordham says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20081:18 pm 

    I'm going to go out on a limb and guess UMass' food service is provided by Sodexho, because here at Fordham we suffer the same laxative-induced, crappy froyo woes. I feel your pain…at least, I did until I moved off campus this semester and ditched the meal plan. Get out as soon as you can!

    Cornell is the only school on the list I've been to, and yeah they have some awesome food up there. Jealous.

  2. Kaylee- Bryn Mawr says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20082:02 pm 

    I go to Bryn Mawr (#16), and I have to say that the food is pretty consistently good. It is nowhere near the gourmet food that is served at Wheaton, though. Everything is cooked and seasoned well and they really make an effort to have a variety of options. They pull out all the stops for holidays and special dinners, which probably is why its so high on the list! Those days are amazing–the food is often better than a lot of quality restaurants that I've been to!

  3. Laura says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20082:37 pm 

    Been to Middlebury, it was edible – nothing too special.

    Going to U Georgia in spring, hear theirs is all kinds of awesome as far as college food goes, but not sure if that means it is anything great in general (it is on the list though).

  4. Jacks says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20083:18 pm 

    Went to Marist–yes to Sodexho, and yes to laxatives!! Yay. I've heard they also inject protein into the salad so college girls can't get too anorexic.

    And Kelly-while UMASS's food isn't quite gourmet, I've visited there a bunch of times and the stuff they have is much, much better than anything I ever got at school!

  5. beth says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20083:43 pm 

    just wondering Laura…how do you "inject protein" into a salad…it's not like a turkey or anything… I was just wondering, haha

  6. Stephanie says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20083:59 pm 

    EMORY!

    srsly.

    & UGA food sucks. = /.

  7. S.E. - Fordham says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20084:39 pm 

    Yea, Fordham's actually nationally ranked as having bad food.

    Shitdexo :(

  8. Sophia says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20085:51 pm 

    YAY St. Olaf! Our food is fantastic. There is a great selection in the Vegan station and you can create your own pasta sauce and they'll saute it for you.

    My favorite is the trans fat free sweet potato fries!

  9. Rachel says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20086:17 pm 

    What about the Culinary Institute of America. Our food is delicious and made by the students. It's why everyone gains like 30# in their first year.

  10. Hilary says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20088:36 pm 

    I’m not surprised at all that Gustavas and St Olaf are on this list. I live in Minnesota and I know that each of those schools charge almost 40,000 a year… they better feed you right, because you know after paying tuiton you arent going to have money for food..

  11. Eliza says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20087:00 pm 

    I go to VA Tech and the food is…alright. JMU is better. But perhaps it's just a case of "the grass is always greener".

  12. Danie says:
    Wed, 1st Oct 20087:30 pm 

    I go to Boston University and the food is beyond horrible. The only good things is the 'Visiting Chef Series' where the big name local restaurants cater meals for us. I have been to Bates though (19) and the food there is AMAZING. I had fresh steamed mussels that were better than most restaurants offer.

  13. ela says:
    Thu, 2nd Oct 20081:10 am 

    yeah i guess it's good at wheaton but no one ever wants to eat in the caf! it's a small town in the suburbs of chicago and in the 'old' part of the city….very evangelical christian city lol and school. go figure.

  14. Alexa says:
    Thu, 2nd Oct 20086:13 pm 

    I have heard that VA Tech really lives up to that high of a ranking, though I have not personally tried it. It's kind of sad that a lot of people there don't even eat in the caf

  15. B.A - Notre Dame says:
    Mon, 6th Oct 200812:49 pm 

    What's really interesting is that here at Notre Dame (Go Irish!), we also have Sodexho, and everyone here swears there's laxatives in the food, but we love it! The DH is always crowded at mealtimes, and even those who live off campus still spring for a meal plan.

  16. Choline says:
    Tue, 7th Oct 200812:23 pm 

    I notice besides the three CA Colleges, they are all East Coast or Mid-Western Colleges…

  17. Laura says:
    Wed, 8th Oct 20089:51 am 

    Va Tech's food actually lives up to the ranking…I know some students complain about it, but it's really just them being whiny and only frequenting the same one or two dining halls over and over again. West End, the best of the dining halls, is delicious… everything from yummy bar food (cheese fries, bacon burgers, etc.) to freshly made pizza, wraps, sandwiches..you can even get steak or lobster.

    The other dining places are yummy, too. There really are really so many options you could probably go a whole semester without eating the same meal twice.

  18. Jesse says:
    Wed, 8th Oct 20083:34 pm 

    I go to University of Wisconsin – Madison, and the food is pretty crappy. But I've been to Colby twice though, and holy balls is their food good.

  19. andrea says:
    Sun, 12th Oct 20086:09 pm 

    I was on the meal plan for 3 years at the University of Georgia and would definitely say it is top notch. There is a huge variety of food, and with 4 dining halls that offer different menus everyday it is hard to find somewhere that would not satisfy your hunger. It was a challenge leaving the meal plan, but being farther away from campus forced me to learn how to cook for myself. I agree with our ranking and am proud that we're representing the SEC! GO DAWGS!!

  20. Ghitta says:
    Sat, 22nd Nov 200812:40 pm 

    yay cornell! yep yep, the other night for dinner my house had a themed "Prime Night". :D No good for the vegans/ vegetarians out there, but for this carnivore it was tasty tasty heaven!

    Come visit us!

  21. Leah says:
    Sat, 31st Jan 20092:35 pm 

    I'm a student at VA Tech, and tonight at dinner I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to have such fantastic options for dining. Philly Cheese Steak with WHATEVER i want on it served up greasy and delicious. For dessert? Banana creme cheesecake with raspberry drizzle. Gourmet desserts everyday and so many options at all the dining halls. The only negative thing is that there aren't enough facilities to host 27,000 students in peak hours, so things get a little crowded and you might have to wait a little while to eat..or find a place to sit..

    But Tech's food is the BEST.

  22. Rachel says:
    Mon, 30th Mar 200911:25 am 

    I go to Virginia Tech and the food is absolutely amazing. I've never gotten sick of eating here and when I come home I find myself craving things from the dining halls at school. You can get lobster and steak. Like the previous statement said, it can get crowded during peak hours, but there are so many options and the food here is definitely the best!

  23. Claire says:
    Fri, 25th Jun 201010:59 am 

    I go to UMass, and from this article I can tell you have not been there very recently. The food at UMass is some of the best food I have ever eaten. In the summer I actually miss the food there. So, either you have horrible taste or you are oblivious to good food.

  24. Katie says:
    Fri, 2nd Jul 20105:06 pm 

    St Olaf's food is fantastic :) I love it. The variety is awesome, and the dessert station is out of this world.

  25. Louis says:
    Wed, 22nd Dec 201011:25 am 

    I don't think whomever did this survey/classification on the best high education dinning halls went to most or all of the places in person they must have done it by internet because there are quite a lot of schools with very good food and quality, food should not be categorized in presentation only but also in taste, because pictures say one thing but does it tast like it looks. Thank you.

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