Hub to Grub: Munching in Old Aberdeen

I am the proud owner of a trip advisor fridge magnet, which the company sent me on my 21st, and I love to eat; therefore I feel more than qualified to critique the cuisine hotspots for students on campus. Join me on a beautiful, gastronomy journey to learn where Aberdeen students are eating and why.

The Bobbin

This is the ultimate student place to dine out. It’s dark, dingy and sticky, there is always someone hogging the duke box and its proper, filling student grub.

When busy it always seems to catch them unprepared as if they didn’t realise people would be ordering lots of food at dinner time. The service is pretty informal: once our whole table had been served and finished their meal apart from one friend whose meal didn’t arrive.

Upon informing the server she replied with “Oh,” and the situation was not resolved. In essence, she acknowledged his problem but merely accepted it as fate. In saying this, for the prices – 2 meals for £6.50 and a Beer ‘N’ burger for £4.95 – can you really complain?

With its cheap prices this is the perfect places to drink whether you’re celebrating exams finishing, or drowning your woes at forever being a disappointment to your parents after doing ‘Celtic Studies’ instead of ‘Law’.

The Hub

Our high-school-esque canteen on campus and is extremely busy at lunchtime therefore you may be forced to sit at the same table as a stranger and try to avoid staring at them while they eat.

The canteen has something for everyone whether you decide on vegan, Mexican, to start your diet with the salad bar, or go for a basic pie and chips. I love that I can have a taco with wedges and coke for £4.50 there plus the server ladies are super friendly.

Grub

This sandwich haven is what my mother would describe as ‘kitche’ due to its cute, quirky feel. The sandwich choices actually stress me out a little due to the amount of choice and lip smacking combinations.

They also do yogurt so you can have a healthier snack and then ruin it all as you get to choose toppings such as chocolate buttons or nuts – but that’s the fun part.

Kilau

This is the perfect place if you fancy going a little more upmarket and a lot more pricey, also catering for the edgy who want to get served by people with tattoos and beards.

The coffee’s pretty good, like better than Tikki, although that’s not hard. You can order fancy things like ‘focaccia’ for breakfast which makes toast seem so uncreative. It’s the sort of places that serves mango salad, with cranberries, lime infusion and sweet potato because it’s cooler than your average cafe.

The upstairs looks antique and academic , go up there with you iPad, order a coffee and type away – everyone will definitely think you are a professor busy thinking about what language actually means or something.

Mrs Smith’s

Want to eat somewhere small and intimate so you can sit close to that special someone, somewhere to make you feel like you’ve returned home to mum’s baking, or just love the colour purple? This is the place for you.

It has the essence of a sweet grandmother with its homemade cupcakes and muffins. In fact, it’s so sweet you almost expect an old lady in a cardigan with floral perfume to come out and hug you. It also has pretty weird sandwich combinations like peanut butter and tomato and you can choose your own fillings, which I like as I have control issues.

There is also £2 hot rolls, for those that fancy a nice wee bacon buttie before class. My one issue is that they still have their Christmas tree up – c’mon guys its February.