Real food is great, but it usually costs money. Luckily for us, there’s always a party at the dining halls, where everyone is happy and everything is free. The five dining centers, scattered around the outskirts of campus, provide us with daily nourishment and a bustling social scene. We also become identified by where we eat. This brings up one of the most heated debates on campus – which is the best dining hall?

To answer the question once and for all, the highly trained Daily Orange food critics headed to every dining hall to perform taste tests, check out the architecture and find out what students thought of their local eatery.

5. Graham

Serves Flint and Day

Key features: Easy underground access, but also all the way up on the Mount.

Walking outside is a lot less fun when you live on the summit of Mount Olympus during the winter. Fortunately, Graham is connected to both Flint and Day by a tunnel that lets out right in the center of the dining hall. Inside you’ll find all the standard dining amenities and plenty of seating for the hordes that eat there.

‘The food wasn’t very good. I survived on the grill line,’ sophomore international relations major Matt Eidt said. ‘I ate burgers and fries every day. Everyone says that Graham is one of the worst, but I’ve never been able to tell a difference when eating at various other halls.’

Graham is a great place to meet new friends early in the year, since almost everyone who lives in Day and Flint is a freshman who’d love to trade screen names. But if you’re not living up there or stalking someone who is, you’re better off eating somewhere that’s a little closer to sea level.

4. Brockway

Serves Brewster and Boland

Key features: A breathtaking view of Interstate 81

They say it sucks to live in Brewster/Boland, but everyone seems to love the dining hall. Turns out it’s just their confirmation bias kicking in, because the food is the same everywhere, and to eat at Brockway you have to walk down to the darkest, sketchiest bowels of campus. (Actually, it’s not that far, but we like to torture the kids stuck there.)

Brockway’s charm and mystique are probably just caused by the fact that most students rarely eat there, rather than by anything about the dining hall itself. Oddly enough, there are also classes held downstairs, so you can just wander out and chill in the dining hall instead of learning.

3. Haven

Serves Haven, Kimmel/Marion, Booth, Dellplain and Watson

Key Features: Circular architecture makes it look space-age, but also forever brands it as ‘the toilet bowl.’

Haven serves more dorms than any other dining center, but most of those residents are old enough to downgrade to a 5-meal plan and opt for real food instead. Still, it’s smaller than most of the others, so it’s almost always packed to capacity during peak hours. It’s a long haul year-round from Dellplain, but it seems even longer when you’re bundled up and trekking through a snow squall.

Haven’s unique design not only lends it an unflattering nickname, but also sometimes confuses diners that don’t eat there every day. There’s nothing worse than getting trapped on the wrong side of the circle and having to wander with your full tray through the crowds to find your friends. The giant windows in the dining hall provide a view of the city that might make you forget that everything you’ve eaten this week has been slathered with nacho cheese.

‘I always like Shaw and Haven,’ said senior engineering and computer science major Ian Molloy. ‘But Haven was always a pain in the ass when it was busy since it’s so damn tiny. The whole novelty of eating in a round toilet bowl wears off quickly when you only have 3 inches to move before hitting people. But they always had the best food.’

If you’ve got some cash and an adventurous spirit, you’re better off checking out the competition. Kimmel is on the way and provides plenty of fast food, and Marshall Street is just a few blocks down the hill.

2. Shaw

Serves Shaw, and sometimes Watson and Dellplain

Key features: Out of the way and less packed than Haven.

To avoid the crowds and get a quieter meal, Watson and Dellplain residents can make the walk down to Shaw, the most underrated dining hall on campus. The Shaw dining center isn’t huge, and it doesn’t officially serve any dorm but its own, but it does have all the amenities of its more heavily trafficked competition.

Shaw offers phenomenal omelets, so if you make it there bright and early you’ll probably find some sleep-deprived architecture students drooling over their custom-made breakfasts.

Since it’s on the main floor on the way out of the dorm, it couldn’t be more accessible for Shaw residents. And it’s worth checking out even for those who live further away, if only just to take some pressure off Haven.

1. Sadler

Serves Lawrinson and Sadler

Key features: Sbarro pizza all the time, and the best card swiper ever.

Like Graham and Brockway, Sadler provides underground access to the neighboring dorm, but this time there’s actually something worthwhile at the end of the tunnel. The dining hall is in the basement of Sadler, but it looks out through huge windows onto the lawn and the west campus parking lots. Not the most scenic view, but it makes the cafeteria feel relaxed and open.

Sadler’s the only dining hall where we found exclusive food – Sbarro stocks it with pizza at every meal. Breakfast pizza is offered in the morning and plenty of other toppings are out for lunch and dinner, giving Sadler a hint of fast-food charm. And somehow, this pizza is a lot better than the disastrous attempts of the other dining halls, so at least you’re guaranteed one good meal when it’s too cold to go to Kimmel.

We can’t mention Sadler without talking about Irene, the friendliest card swiper at SU. Just when you’re convinced that you’re no more than a number in the sea of students that pass through the dining halls, she’ll take the time to check your ID, greet you by your first name, and send you on your way to meal-plan bliss.

Everyone gets tired of the closest dining hall, so the best way to quell your growing hatred for campus food is to switch things up. If you live in Sadler, head over to Shaw now and then. If you live in Day, call a cab and have lunch at the exotic Brockway. But no matter where you return your tray, don’t forget to separate your silverware.

Published on August 25, 2003 at 12:00 pm