Campus food is important—you’ll be eating it for two years. I toured some schools where the campus food was a little questionable, but fortunately, Miami has great food! It’s not quite gourmet, but the selection and quality are pretty impressive, and Food Services wins awards every year. When I was looking at colleges, I made sure to pick schools that always had vegetarian/vegan meals (most colleges do, so that wasn't a problem), and it was another plus if all of the ingredients were listed somewhere. Miami's food information is online, and the menus actually show up on Blackboard. How convenient!
Where to eat on campus:
1. Alexander! It’s too bad that Alexander is wayyyy down on Western because I’d probably go there every day. There are two buffet-style dining halls on campus that have a purely vegetarian option, and Alexander is one of them. Also, I think the salad and fruit bar deserves a mention—where else can you get plain yogurt and choose your own fruit? The Greyhound Market also has an impressive array of organic and vegetarian food.
2. Bell Tower is closest to where I live, and I go there for probably 80% of my meals. It’s an a la carte dining hall, and there are so many options—well, except on the weekends because most of the options are closed. I’m a fan of their stir fry (choose your own veggies and meat/meat substitute), Miami Spice (pasta dishes), and their veggie burgers deserve a mention, too.
3. I’d like to rank Panache higher, but it’s a little too expensive for me to eat there every day. If I had to describe Panache, I would call it a semi-upscale restaurant that takes meal plans. My roommate and I try to go there once a semester, and I have to admit that we’re predictable customers—we always go for the Penne Pomodoro.
4. Hamilton just feels friendly. Like Alexander, it always has vegetarian dishes, but unlike Bell Tower, the dishes can’t be customized. It’s one of the smaller dining halls (probably the smallest a la carte place), but it serves a pretty dedicated clientele, which means that you always seem to run into friends there.
5. If you want a sub, the best place to go is Scott, even if you have to walk halfway across campus to get there. Scott also makes mini pizzas, which I haven’t actually tried, but their cinnamon bread is great!
6. For students who live on MET quad (that would include the two Honors freshmen dorms), Harris is the buffet-style hall of choice. Harris is also home to a new Italian “restaurant” (a la carte place), which I’d like to try sometime in the near-ish future.
I'm trying to find out what my readers want to learn about campus... it's a little hard when you only have a known sample size of 2: Jared (the other blogger) and Olivia (his editor/SO, who is also in one of my English classes). Would you prefer to hear more about campus, my life, random musings, or something else?