Campus food is better than most high school cafeteria food. The meal card is like a debit card system because you pay for what you buy. There is no "pay for two meals a day" option. This way students can come in any time of the day and grab whatever they need. For food, the new Harre Union offers more choices with a café-style facility at one end and a sit-down meal area at the other. The latter (Founder's Table) has an executive chef and three other main menu options. There is always a vegetarian option, and the food is made in front of you most of the time. Salad, sandwich, and soup bars are always popular, but there is also typical college food like hamburgers, grilled cheese, etc., along with brick oven pizza, paninis, pasta, and the chef's creation.
Dining Services manages to do a pretty good job feeding the entire campus some decent food. Setting up a menu to feed 2,000 students that includes variety and choices, yet tries to maintain a certain nutritional standard, can’t be easy.
Theme nights are favorite occasions for many students. Different foods will be featured at different times of year in almost every dish. There was corn night, apple night, and duck night, to name a few. The space is decorated to fit the theme, and even the cafeteria ladies dress up in Afro-wigs or sombreros, depending on the event. A lot of students even get to know some of the cafeteria ladies. They smile and greet you whether you are sleepily stopping by for a doughnut and juice before trudging to class or sitting down with a group of friends for dinner.
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Campus Dining at Valparaiso University
jdill23
Elementary Education '15
3.8
B+
Many Options
There are two main dining halls on campus, the founders table and the cafe. Each provide a variety of food and other supplies that students might need. There are some very delicious options, along with some that aren't so great. The food is expensive, but the meal plan covers this. I love the different food stations in Founders, but it does get repetitive.
Apr 30, 2012
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Campus Dining at Valparaiso University
wstrick91
Mass Communications and Media '14
2.7
C+
Valpo Grub
The Dining Halls are centralised which means that there is only one place to get food and thats the union. the quality of food is alot better then what Ive seen at state schools but there also more expencive. There is not much variety in the food and the food tends to be luke warm. But with the meal card, you can eat alot of food like i had $300 extra in the first semester.
Mar 28, 2011
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Campus Dining at Valparaiso University
B-
Decent but Not Great
The Food on campus is all right but it needs improvement. Pasta dishes need to have firmer noodles and many dishes include too much onion. It's nice to have a gradually decreasing dining plan every year but the freshman year plan is a bit too large. There is a lot of variety in the different food dishes but they don't change much from month to month. One should use meal plan dollars to buy food in the smaller cafe to make larger meals in the dorm kitchen.
Mar 07, 2011
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User rating for Valparaiso University - Campus Dining is
3.5 out of 5
based on 19 user reviews.
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