A non-comprehensive review of the best on-campus eating spots
Long live Denny’s
As someone who has lived on campus for the last three years, I’ve become very familiar with the on-campus eateries spread throughout campus. For your viewing and future eating pleasure, I have created a list of my top seven on-campus spots to eat. For this list, I focused only on restaurants that accept meal swipes, including VIP.
The Suwannee Room
I don’t know what they were thinking, but that is not brisket.
Suwannee is one of two dining halls on campus, and it’s the one closest to my dorm so it’s the one I frequent. I will admit that Suwannee has come leaps and bounds since my Freshman year when the food was barely tolerable at best. This year it has reached its peak for me with it’s new decor, better music, and significantly improved food (they even have a vegan station now). However, with its small portion sizes and forever lukewarm food, it has a long way to go if it wants to reach higher on my list. For now, it lands at the bottom.
Pollo Tropical
Pollo takes the second-t0-last spot on this list, mostly because I’m not the biggest fan of Carribean style food. Whenever I’m feeling the urge, I’ll stop by and grab a fairly priced TropiChop, but the wait times for getting what I think is a fairly simple meal (especially since most if not all the ingredients are pre-prepared) are not always worth it. Pollo is also very commonly out of toppings for their TropiChops, and if you’re a picky eater like I am, that can get very annoying very quickly.
Denny’s
These were the bomb until they started serving the marinara sauce cold.
Denny’s, which takes the fifth spot, is a place where you will most likely be spending a lot of your time. It’s biggest selling point is that Denny’s All Nighter is exactly what the name suggests – a twenty-four hour restaurant, and it’s the one on campus. This is great, because when you find yourself starving during your all night study session, you always have a place to go that is open and accepts VIP and Flexbucks, keeping that cash money in your pocket. Unfortunately, unlike a proper Denny’s, ours has a very limited menu, so you don’t have that much to choose from. The service also tends to be incredibly inconsistent; one night I’ll wait ten minutes for my food and the next night I wait an hour, and a lot of the times the order is wrong. They do have great music in there, though.
Chick-Fil-A
My fourth pick is Chick-Fil-A, and its critiques are pretty much the same as Denny’s. It is also not a full-fledged Chick-Fil-A, so the menu is limited to chicken nuggets, the original chicken sandwich, a spicy chicken sandwich, the grilled chicken sandwhich, and a couple of salads. The wait time once you get through the (sometimes) monstrous line is actually pretty good considering the volume of orders that the staff is dealing with. However, Chick-Fil-A suffers from constantly being out of products on their menu, sometimes in the middle of the day. Despite that, when you get your food, you’re never disappointed and those fries could put a smile on anyone’s face, even in the two weeks of hell that is the end of the semester.
Subway
Subway takes the third spot on the list with its consistent delivery and easily customizable subs. Subway is a great place to go when you don’t know exactly what you want because the options are pretty varied, and they normally have some sort of special sub you can try as well that’s not on the normal menu (try out the new Thousand Island dressing – it’s the bomb). It’s also a great deal – with the 6 for 6 combo meal, you can get a six inch sub, a small drink, and two delicious cookies or a bag of chips for under six dollars (meaning it’s covered by VIP). The only reason it’s not higher on my list is that on most occasions the sandwiches are quick to fall apart and eating it can be kind of a pain in the butt.
Miso
Miso was not even on my radar until this year, but it has quickly won my heart. Until this year, Miso didn’t accept meal swipes so I had never gone over to it, but this semester that changed and so did their menu. It’s true that they are now only limited to stir-fries and sushi, but the stir-fry is customizable from the choice of carb to protein to vegetables to toppings (I always go for sesame seeds). The amount of food that comes in the stir-fry is unreal – it fills me up for most of the day, so Miso has become my go-to place if I know I’m going to be busy and need a big lunch to keep me going until I can manage to get dinner. The sushi is also pretty good – and that’s coming from someone who is not a sushi fan – and you can get made-to-order rolls as well.
Seminole Pies
One of the newer eateries takes the number one spot on my list. Along with 4Rivers (which is also great), Seminole Pies opened up for the first time this semester and it has quickly become a regular staple in my routine. I was nervous at first as Seminole Pies, a generic brand, took the place of Papa John’s, but my anxiety was quickly settled after my first bite of their pizza. With a thin crust, delicious sauce, and perfect layer of cheese, the pizza is absolutely delicious and the slices are bigger than my head. Seminole Pies also offers several varieties of pasta dishes and even a meatball sub. The wait for the pastas is a little long, but considering it’s being made to order I’m can’t complain. The quality is always pretty high and I’m never unsatisfied when I leave.
Unfortunately not every restaurant could make the cut, but I hope this helps anyone on campus in their decisions on where to get their next meal.