A hungry 14 year old would like to know how you think your (kidās) schoolās food rates.
Is it tasty?
Is there enough? (really, heās hungry)
Best dish?
Worst dish?
Dining hall hours good?
Everyone orders Uber Eats anyway and this is a hidden expense to account for?
Bonus points if you list a great shelf stable dorm snack (like an apple from the dining hall, sliced, dipped in Skippy pb.)
Weāve been so busy looking at websites and videos and handbooks and Gateway. Then it hit him: I will not get my mumās delicious and unlimited meals for months at a time.
I have enormous respect for the incredible staff who serve three square to hundreds, every day. They are amazing. I also realize that it will be a huge adjustment for most kids.
phillips exeter food ratings
(we only have elm and elm tent right now but wetherall should be done soon and it is rumored to have a bakery!)
taste: sometimes itās really good! other times it makes sensitive stomachs throw up
best dish: impossible sweet chili nuggets, alfredo penne, FRIES, onion rings, the panini press is always an amazing option. SOFTSERVE MACHINE
worst dish: the vegan patties and vegan icecream
dhall hours are ok but i wish they were longer on the weekends. youre never gonna starve on campus tho cuz thereās grill and usually students have an ample supply of snacks.
uber eats and doordash: lots of people use it but there are plenty that donāt and there isnt much of a social pressure to do so imo
fav dorm snacks: grill cookies, instant ramen, from dhall i steal some lucky charms sometimes haha, bananas, seaweed
tbh people complain about the food at exeter but itās pretty yummy sometimes and thereās always a variety of food options for picky eaters. hope this helps!
exeter has its school convenience store (Grill) that sells fresh chocolate chip cookies for 50 cents each(grill cookies)!! you also get āpointsā on your student card (6 points per week and each point is 2 dollars) so even if one doesnt have money on their card they can still pay for grill stuff with points.
Nice detail about the points. The enormous wealth disparity among the students is something we have been curious about in terms of socialization. I like that everyone can hang out and grab a snack and not feel left out. Thanks for pointing it out.
Deerfield Academy here.
I believe we have the best food of any school- no dining service, actual cooks!
Itās always pretty yummy.
There is always enough, and for the most part the dining hall hours are pretty good. We also have sitdown meals almost every day, where you are with an assigned group and a kid brings the food out. Itās a really nice vibe and often refills.
Best and worst are very subjective, but there are no meals that no one likes. I know a lot of people will order food on weekends or walk-through meals, but I never have and it is really not necessary!
Lastly, some of my fav snacks have definitely been frozen things (grapes, yogurt, even some microwave meals!)
Thanks @tothe9s! This is very interesting and reassuring. Glad you think it is yummy! Mr. Hungry is curious about sit down: what do the really hungry kids do? Is it impolite to hope for a second serving? How does that work? He does not want to sound greedy. But he is basically a baby giraffe in a growth spurt. Do you have access to a freezer to keep your frozen food?
Overall my child reports the food at Lawrenceville is very good. (better than most of the schools we sampled).The school has its own farm supporting farm to table (inc lamb, pork). Bruch is my daughterās favorite. She likes the steak and tacos. The turkey is her least favorite (sounds like many agree). Meals are not formal sit down which works with the studentsā varying schedules.
Seniors have their own cafeteria (thinking Harry Potter) but take meals on the weekends and winter in the main dining hall. The second formers (freshman) have an area upstairs in the main dining room with their own identical food lines. This works well for the youngest students to have their own space and easily make friends across the grade. The third formers (sophomores) and fourth formers (juniors) sit on the main floor of the cafeteria. There is a massive salad bar, sandwich bar, soups, multiple hot entrees. There are muti-burner wok/pan stations that the kids love to create at. Dessert incs. ice cream and 2 choices. There is a huge array of drink options. Fresh fruit is out at meals and throughout the day for students to grab in addition to snack bars, etc. Students can stop in some of the Deansā rooms where there are closets of snacks for the kids during the day.
There is also the Bath House where students can purchase drinks, sandwiches, sushi, etc. The few store fronts across the street offer an array of food incl. pizza, desserts, etc. and there is a Starbucks (these are considered on campus).
Certainly door dash makes multiple appearances. I think it depends on the kid and the family. There are also Saturday night feeds (BS calls them this) where students are provided late night snacks/meal in their house. Additionally, there are some school sponsored trucks and also some food for sale fund raisers. I cannot imagine a student, even a growing athletic boys being hungry at the school as they can have as many servings as they want and fill their own plates based on their own needs.
As far as money is concerned my child does not feel the need to spend a lot of money on extra food as she usually can find things that she wants. There are times she wants to join in with friends on door dash or go out in Princeton with friends, but nothing that feels excessive. We do donate a fair amount to the dorm for feeds/events, but that is at each familyās discretion. (I wish someone had mentioned this so I am mentioning it here.)
Deerfield is in the middle of building a swanky new dining hall which is scheduled to open in Winter 2025/2026. This should allow the entire student body to sit down to meals together (the old dining hall had a couple of āoverflowā rooms to the side and in the basement). The meal set-up is an integral part of the culture at Deerfield and I feel that it is one of the things that keeps Deerfield such a tight community. Sit-down meals seem to be one of the things that students considering Deerfield rate as a negative. But, when we talked to kids at Deerfield, or kids who have graduated, sit-down meals often rank as one of the best things (taking your turn as first or second waiter for sit-downs is not the best, but everyone does it and it only happens twice a year!)
Kid reports that the food is fine(but prefers momās cooking and the well-stocked fridge and pantry at home). The new dining hall will have expanded kitchens, as well as student seating, so that is likely to improve food choice.
There are two cafes (The Greer and The Koch) that are popular for socializing, homework, group work, and snacks. Doordash popularity depends on the student.
Dorm feeds, where the faculty resident brings out food to the students after study hall, are hugely popular. Brownies, sushi, noodles, cereal, anything really. Happens more often for the underclassmen (I got the feeling that they were used for freshman to get the students out of their dorms and socializing with each other at 10 pm many nights. Feeds also depend on the commitment of the dorm resident; I have a feeling that my kid got relatively lucky.
When athletes are away from school and will return outside of dining hours, there is always a plan for food. Sometimes parents will coordinate and deliver something like pizza or chipotle burritos to the team. A few weeks ago kid was horrified because, after an all-day sporting event, coach produced limp wraps made from the dining hall to eat on the bus on the way home (that was unusual but necessitated a DoorDash on returning to school).
hi i go to a school in nj called the pennington school
tasty? sometimes. itās really hit or miss but the staples (chicken, rice, etc) are normally underseasoned and dry. they do have a sandwich bar which is pretty good tho. + once a month on a monday we have āformal dinnerā which has way better food than usual
yes you are allowed to get unlimited meals as long as its during meal hours
sushi which we get a few times per month
the chicken in general
breakfast is from 7-8 on weekdays brunch from 10-12 on weekends and dinner 5:30-6:30 during the week, 5-6 on weekends
yeah doordash is huge but we also have a market and cheap restaurants in the area (pizza, burger king, sushi)
honestly now my days are so busy that the best thing i can recommend is a good stash of energy drinks
Thatās a hot take. The food does its job, but it isnāt great by any means.
Yeah, nobody knows where they get all the turkey from.
Agreed, I probably ordered out ~once per month. I was also a day student, though, so I got to eat pretty well at home. I think my boarder friends would order more.
I canāt believe you didnāt mention the wok bar! You can make your own stir fry dishes. I would have it for dinner every day my senior year. Hereās what the station in Abbott (senior dining hall) looks like; I think that on the day from these images, I made a fried rice with chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, and sesame garlic sauce.
