FreshElephant

what kind of food do they serve? are they open all day? etc.

Skraylor

Well it of course depends on where you eat...

http://www.dining.columbia.edu/docs/...ons/index.html <-- hours for all locations

all the non-dining hall places are good food. think about 5-7$ (points) for a meal tho

the dining hall is very hit or miss. only open for brunch (10-2) and dinner (5-8) there are like 4 "stations" in it i guess, wilma's grill (always hotdogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, fries, etc...also some kind of "special" of the day...also really good omlettes for brunch) then there's the 2 other stations...there are probably like 15 menu's for them that rotate every day and sometimes they have good things (fried yucca is actually pretty tasty, as are the chicken dishes and the fish tends to be good too usually) then there's always pizza and a salad bar. also cereal and waffle irons for brunch (usually 3 kinds of waffle batters are out, all tend to be good)

as far as the food at the dining hall in and of itself goes, it is 99% of the time edible. maybe 30-45% of the time it is actually "good" but if nothing else you can always eat a salad and burger.

um...that's all i can think of right now, anything more specific i can answer later

Columbia2002

I found the dining hall food inedible and hardly ever went there despite being forced to pay for it, as did several of my friends.

Skraylor

remember the last time C2002 ate in the dining hall was probably...8 years ago?

i know a bunch of people that think the same thing but i think they are all just whiny little kids. i've eaten at schools that truly ARE inedible (Carnegie Mellon and UVA come to mind) and columbia doesnt compare.

Columbia2002

Yeah, I guess 1999 or 2000.

Just for some context on my opinion, the other school I did an overnight at when I was picking between colleges was Cornell, and I found that they had awesome food.

Skraylor

i will agree on that second point that cornell has better food

123orange

is it convenient to go off campus to local cafes since columbia is in NYC?

Columbia2002

Yes, there are tons of dirt cheap to moderately priced places to eat that are within a 5 minute walk (or will deliver). The quality's generally worse than other parts of NYC, but there's some decent places.

koifish

Cafe 212 has some good stuff (wraps, sandwiches, deli style things) and there's bubble tea available. And smoothies down from John Jay's are great. Again, price can be high.

The general stuff was okay compared to other schools. Definitely doesn't beat Tufts or Yale.

FreshElephant

How expensive is NYC though (since I've never been there)? I know it's all subjective, but for example, how much would a slice of pizza and a soda cost from one of the campus places? thanks

Skraylor

i dunno if i agree with that. havent tried tufts but from my experience yale's food wasnt really all THAT much better. i think yale has us in consistency of "good" food but on average i wouldnt say its "great". (note: i've eaten there maybe 10-20 times since i have a good friend there i visit fairly often)

Cafe212's sandwhiches/etc are about 5-6$. JJ's Place smoothies are 5$ too (expensive i know but really good as an occasional treat)

lower manhattan can get pretty expensive, but like C2002 said, there are a bunch of places near Columbia that are well priced. the only place that sells pizza on campus is ferris booth and i think a nice size slice is 2-3$ usually as either plain or a special w/bunch of toppings.

off campus is the place to go for pizza tho. personally i dont like either familigias or the other place on 114/Bway that i'm blanking on the name of...they tend to offer specialty pizzas with lots of toppings for about 2-3$...personally, and i'm sure i'll get blasted for it, i like koronets. 2.75 for a 90sq.in. slice of pizza (tho 1$ per additional topping) is a deal that (for a plain slice) cant be beat.

also, as a college student, you'll most likely give up spending money on drinks when you can either a) steal them from the dining hall or b) realize water is free

kareniscreepy

haha the name of this thread made me laugh. i remember on a tour in china there was this HUGEEEEEEEEEEEE guy who said he wanted to go to UCLA over cal because UCLA had better food. hahahaha what awesome logic.

Denzera

yeah, it may not be a great way to decide where to go to school, but it's a fair question.

I happened to like the food at John Jay. Skraylor's opinion reflects the majority, in my view: i.e., it's always edible, there are some staples you can always count on, and 30-40% of the time you'd consider it "good". I happen to think that a dining hall that always delivers a wide variety of fresh veggies, half a dozen options of entree (which are different every night), as well as a grill and carving station, maybe 10 kinds of dessert (some of which are awesome), and truly varied breakfast options deserves to be considered "good". Every night, I can get a meal my momma would approve of. That has to count for something.

Every few weeks, they also have some sort of special night where outside vendors come in and bring a particular cuisine to columbia - you know, "chinese night" or whatever. Those are the nights the upperclassmen come back to John Jay in force.

---

As for non-dining-hall options, NYC really is what you'd think it is. Within a 5-block radius of alma mater are 3 24-hour supermarkets, multiple 24-hour delis, half a dozen bars, and literally dozens of restaurants, most of which are Zagat-rated and a few of which are even date-worthy (i.e., i'd bring a girl I was trying to impress to Max Soha, or Pisticci, etc). The supermarkets make such a huge difference, I can't tell you. You don't have to keep tons of food around, and if you need something, it takes you literally 5 minutes to go and get it. If you want to cook one night, you can go get $20 worth of stuff and make dinner for 4 (although not if you live in Carman/John Jay, really). And if you decide, while studying at 3am, that you just want some lemonade, dammit, you can walk a block or two and go get your lemonade. And that's to say nothing of the chinese places that'll deliver as late as 2am.

On-campus options are also pretty decent, although that's probably the weakest part of the dining options. There are about 10 on-campus cafes, maybe 8 of which take the dining dollars accounts that you buy. You can get the same snacks and sandwiches at most of them, although Uris and Cafe 212 will have sushi, parfaits, and a few other things I happen to like. The cafe in the SEAS building, Mudd, has lunch on the grill on nice days and a halfway decent lunch buffet (comparable to what i've seen in the financial district, actually) year-round. It's not too shabby, but the variety is lacking.

Late night, JJ's place is open till 4am most nights (yes, 4 in the freakin morning). They're known for their chicken fingers, and their smoothies are good too. They also have basic dorm room foods available - everything from soda to 10 kinds of cereal.

Hope that helps.

Skraylor

JJ's place is such a horrendous ripoff for groceries (think 20$ for bread and milk) i'd rather chop off my arm than shop there. the actual grocery stores around are much better than that tho.

and yea, i forgot to mention desserts at John Jay dining hall....i cant tell you how much the cookies'n'creme frozen yogurt makes my LIFE. their cakes tend to be good 75% of the time and the cookies about 50%...

and yea, the specialty nights are really great. the first one this year was a latin american one and was excellent. health services also put on one where they gave away virgin drinks, bonbon like things, condoms, and glasses...everything to make a weekend

Shraf

unfortunately Uris no longer accepts dining dollars or first year points....it was actually one of the best on campus places to eat, rivaled only by ferris booth. The cafe in mudd (carleton) is not what denzera makes it out to be....it is ridiculously overpriced and the food is barely edible.

the other pizza places around campus are stroko's (which closes fairly early, 114th and amsterdam) and pinnacle (open 24 hrs, 115th and broadway).