Campus Life

The food on campus and all around campus is very diverse and is available to a wide variety of taste buds! There are American, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Mexican, Italian, and many other types of restaurants here in the Urbana-Champaign area. There are always coupons that a student can obtain online or through mobile applications too so price is never an issue in most restaurants on campus.

i am not going to lie, despite having one of the largest campus dining halls in the country, bigger does not always mean better. many of the meals are prepared by student staff workers under supervision. students are sometimes tired or lazy so the food is never perfect and you cannot count on the same dish being prepared exactly the same way every week. not all of the dining halls are of equal quality either. most students will agree that the ikenberry commons dining hall, far, and par dining halls are consistently better quality than the dining halls located in allen hall, isr, lincoln hall, and busey-evans. however, students are allowed to eat at any university housing dining hall using their university meal plan. despite these setbacks, i find that there are a lot of options for people with all types of dietary restrictions, from being vegetarian, to gluten free, to vegan, the school tries to take every dietary restriction into account. similarly, for people with allergies, the dining hall will make note of popular allergens contained in certain dishes. also, for people trying to count calories, those are also noted at each food station. something i did not know coming into college was that the dining hall works as an all-you-can-eat-per-meal system as are most university dining halls. something to mention are the specialty meals provided frequently throughout the year. for certain international special occasions, such as hanukkah, diwali, and chinese new year, the dining hall will announce that they are having themed a themed meal for the day. this is a simple way in which students are invited to explore new cultures, foods, and traditions through food and celebration.