Salvaging dining halls by uncovering the lesser evils

During my first few weeks on campus, I realized how fortunate I was to have attended a high school that served atrocities for lunch and to have a mother who was reluctant to cook; while my fellow first-year students were complaining about the gruel served up in the dining halls, I actually enjoyed the increased quality and variety. So, I won't beat around the bush. A good piece of advice on dining at Yale: if you don't get your hopes up, you won't be let down.

JOHN YI/YH The high ceilings in Silliman's dining hall make it a popular choice.

Nevertheless, do not fear! With a little creativity and effort, dining can be a pleasurable experience, even here. Food and food substitutes aside, the dining halls are excellent gathering places that pulse with the life of your residential college. The dining halls provide unique locations where a majority of students with the same college affiliation congregate in one place, at one time. Meals are a great opportunity to get to know the people you'll be living with for the next four years. But you'll also meet upperclassmen, the Dean, Master, and even professors—all of whom can provide pearls of wisdom gathered from experience and become your friends in their own right.

While enjoying the familiar atmosphere of your dining hall, take risks and try new things. The salad bar offers a variety of condiments, sauces, and seasonings that can be sprinkled, spread, and smeared over just about anything, from entrees to salads to sandwiches. Mix and match—creativity is the name of the game. Make use of microwaves; they soften up the stalest of breads. RiceKrispie treats, tuna melts, pita pizzas, quesadillas, and countless other options are just a quick nuke away. Believe me, the chicken that has been served on the buffet line five times by Friday is so bland that it will taste like a completely new dish with a different garnish. But if you're like me and quantity matters more than quality, you're in luck—all undergraduate locales serve all you can eat. "Self-serve is the way of the future," Bob Alberino, Commons manager, said. "You don't get more than you want with self-serve, but if you can eat five pork chops, God bless you." To the incoming vegetarians and vegans, I can only offer my condolences. The dining halls will perpetrate vegan shepherd's pies and other weird concoctions to accommodate you. Your best recourse may well be to eat at the professional schools or try the Pan Geos Pasta bar in Morse and the Grains bar in Ezra Stiles.

To break the monotony of your daily culinary routine, gather up a bunch of friends and venture out to one of the professional or graduate schools. While you pay per item (food is covered by your meal plan up to a fixed price), the quality of the food is a delightful change. The law school offers a superb, delicatessen quality sandwich bar. The medical school is well worth the four-block walk for its burgers and veggie burgers prepared to order; it also offers an additional better-than-undergraduate-average main course that changes daily. Science students find Kline Biology Tower's dining hall convenient, and it has the benefit of a 13th floor panoramic view. The School of Management and the Divinity School are treks, but they too beat undergraduate options. The Slifka Center Kosher Kitchen is open to the entire Yale community. Its Friday afternoon pizza bagels become a tradition for those cool DS-ers filing out of lecture.

To mix things up even more on this wild gastronomical ride, colleges occasionally offer theme nights. Look for themes: they make food better. Davenport's catered Indian food dinner drew large crowds, and Branford's Mardi Gras and Margarita nights stirred up much college excitement. And the previously-mentioned Pan Geos bar offers even more variety for pasta and grain lovers. Also, the newly-renovated dining halls are rumored to serve better food. I'm not convinced, but it's worth sampling for yourself in the course of visiting all of the dining halls in order to find your personal favorite.

Your meal plan will enable you to eat at any on-campus location. However, the meal-plan options available to freshmen are limited. Most freshmen choose the 21 meal plan, which enables you to eat three meals a day. An added inconvenience is that you aren't free to choose when you eat—each meal falls between specific hours; come a minute late to breakfast and you have to wait several hours until lunch. The unlimited meal plan, on the other hand, gives you much more freedom. You can eat as many times as you want, whenever you want. It's particularly handy for quick snacks between classes.

The key to navigating Yale's cuisine scene is exploiting the variety. At each dining hall there are enough options to put together a well-balanced meal. You have almost as much choice with where you eat as with what you do to your food. Get familiar with your own dining hall, since you'll spend most of your time there. Treat yourself as much as you like to one of the dining facilities at any of Yale's other schools, and remember, in moments of desperation, ketchup goes with anything, or even by itself.

Back to You are Here...