This past summer, I spent three weeks eating in the main campus dining hall of a major university across the country. My time there definitely increased my appreciation for Swarthmore Dining! If you walk around campus asking Swatties about the dining hall food, you’ll probably get mixed reviews. College food seems to be something that students universally like to complain about; but I think any student here would tell you that there are many foods in the dining hall that they enjoy. I certainly appreciate all the food options we have here at Swarthmore.
The dining hall, which opened in the fall of 2022, has 9 different stations:
The Grill always offers standard “fast-food” style options: hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken sandwiches, french fries etc. During the morning, they make eggs-to-order; one fried egg on toast is my go-to breakfast choice. A bonus is the short chats I have with the friendly employee who miraculously knows the name and order of all of her “regular customers”.
Field of Greens is a build-your-own salad bar with a wide selection of fresh veggies and other salad fixings. There’s also a rotation of specialty salads, like southwest kale salad, caesar salad, and mediterranean quinoa salad. As far as fresh fruit, apples, oranges, and bananas are always available with other options in season. There is also yogurt and granola to make parfaits during breakfast hours.
The “Fired Up” Station offers a selection of yummy pizzas fresh out of the oven every day for lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. This station is out in the center of the dining hall and it’s fun to watch the chef making the pizzas. I personally am a huge fan of their pizza; the crust is so thin and chewy and they often have unique options beyond the basic pepperoni and cheese. If nothing at the other stations excites me (which is a rare occurrence), I know I can always fall back on a consistently good slice of pizza. The fired up station also features soups and bread.
The “Free Zone” caters to the dietary needs of students with food allergies. The meals there are prepared outside of the main kitchen and are free of the top nine most common allergens, including sesame. Preventing contamination is taken very seriously; students aren’t allowed to bring food or even dishes from other stations into the Free Zone.
“Verdant & Vegan” provides several vegan and vegetarian entrees at each meal. The dining hall reaches out to the vegan / vegetarian club on campus to get student feedback and I’ve heard that several significant changes have been instituted based on the feedback they’ve received (ex: more protein-rich entrees). There are also a few other vegan/vegetarian options scattered throughout the other stations (ex: vegan pizza) but students can always count on multiple options at this station. The fresh berries at this station on some weekend mornings are a special treat!
The “Classics” station offers what are described as “traditional homestyle meals”. It seems to me that what Swat students consider traditional and homestyle varies greatly! Maybe “American comfort foods” would be a more accurate description, although I feel that recently the options at this station have expanded: greek chicken with orzo, popcorn shrimp and Old Bay fries, ravioli, flank steak with roasted potatoes, crab cakes. One of my favorites from this station is their macaroni and cheese – they have a few distinct recipes and they’re all so good!
“World of Flavor” and “Spice of Life” are the stations I eat from most frequently. Like their names suggest, they provide dishes from cuisines all around the world, and there are just so many delicious options! We’re not talking about just Mexican, Chinese, Indian and Italian dishes. There’s food also from Mongolia, Portugal, Brazil, Nigeria, Jamaica, Morocco, Korea, Spain… and more. I especially love the chicken tikka masala and naan, and the ancho chile lime pork tacos. “Spice of Life” generally focuses on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines and has a halal entree option. The “World of Flavor” is generally home to “pasta bar” on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. It sounds repetitive to have pasta twice a week, but in addition to the faithfully recurrent but less inspiring penne and sauces, there is always a more exciting pasta dish like pasta bakes, gnocchi, or ravioli. Seeing the wild mushroom ravioli on the menu genuinely makes my day and the garlic knots are also a crowd favorite.
The “Daily Kneads” (a.k.a. desserts) station is one of the shining stars of the dining hall. In addition to the ice cream bar, there’s always approximately six different freshly baked desserts. I love that the chefs are always trying new things to expand the dessert offerings – this year, they developed a delicious creme brûlée recipe. I don’t know about you, but I’ve only ever seen creme brûlée in fancy restaurants, so the fact that it’s being served in our dining hall is really awesome! I am such a big fan of the dessert station that I wrote an entire post about it last year – if you’re a fellow dessert fanatic and want to read more, check it out here: New Dining Hall… Delicious New Desserts.
In accordance with the Quaker tradition of all eating under the same roof, we only have one main dining hall. But keep in mind that in addition to all the options in our dining hall, we also have three on-campus cafes where students can use dining dollars from their meal plans. There are also the restaurants in the Swarthmore “Ville” at the base of campus and further afield where students can use Swat points from their meal plans. With all these dining options, I think Swatties can agree that there’s always something yummy to eat!
