CZEREPAK: Ranking of Rutgers dining halls
Column: Luke's Light
Hello again, and welcome to a very opinionated column that I believe — with the help of my friends and people I have asked at these dining halls — can collectively give you a really good understanding of which of the four dining halls is the best.
A quick background check before jumping in. Rutgers has various retail locations, such as Cafe West on the College Avenue campus, that accept meal swipes. Though, students can only use a max of three meal swipes per day at these locations. For the purposes of this article, I will not be covering these locations but will instead be talking about actual dining halls.
Anyways, at Rutgers in the Fall 2022 semester, there are four all-you-can-eat dining halls open to all students who purchased meal swipes this semester. Those are Brower Commons on the College Avenue campus, Livingston Dining Commons, Busch Dining Hall, and Neilson Dining Hall on the Cook campus. My goal by the end of this article is to tell you why I believe Livingston Dining Commons is the best and why Brower is the worst.
Coming in last place at number four, which feels generous, we have Brower. This dining hall has the feel of the District 13 bomb shelter from "The Hunger Games" — there are no windows and no fresh air.
As a student who only visited twice, the first because I was curious last year and once again this past week for this article so that I could taste the food and talk to some other students, I can confidently say that it is not the best.
The food served, besides the pasta station and maybe the breakfast options, is not very attractive for students. Some even go to other dining halls to avoid Brower altogether. If Rutgers wanted to make Brower better, the first and only step would be to improve food quality overall.
Next up, in third place, we have Busch Dining Hall, which is overcrowded at times and offers some poorly cooked food options that might make students upset. Personally, I believe that not all the food options are as bad as people make them out to be. It is bearable to some degree. The pasta, salads, stir fry, sometimes soup and occasional main weekly courses can be decent.
But, as I said, sometimes the soups can be a complete hit or miss alongside the weekly main entree. The burger station, in particular, is pretty terrible. The long lines, though, are the absolute worst part. The pasta station can and will have a line out the door, where if you show up too close to closing time you will not be served because the wait is simply too long.
Otherwise, it is a pretty decent-looking place with a grand entrance and a lot of windows with a sweet fireplace. All of these things combined make it a mediocre dining experience. Take-out at Busch Dining Hall is also a little weird. The main entrance is at one side, and take-out is at the opposite end, hidden in the back.
In second place, we have Neilson — a very cozy dining hall, in that mostly only students on the Cook and Douglass campuses would be the daily users. It was also my dining hall as a first-year, and personally, it should be in its own category. The food is very good the vast majority of the time. The style of it being in a circle allows for everyone to see their friends eating when you walk in, allowing groups to meet up.
The only real issue I have with Neilson is the lack of a burger bar and the possibility of eating and/or encountering undercooked chicken. At Neilson, most of the food served can and will not leave you feeling like you had to throw out your plate because there was no flavor or consuming the food would make you sick.
Coasting into first place, we have Livingston Dining Hall, the newest and best dining hall at Rutgers. Livingston Dining Hall is simply the main character. The food offered is actually cooked well, between the burger bar with its own separate ordering service to the very unknown Rutgers Club in the upstairs portion of the dining hall open to private venues and students. Livingston Dining Hall is a very well-put-together experience that has a restaurant feel.
The only problem with this dining hall, especially during the middle of the day, is the lack of seating and poor phone signal. The influx of students who also eat here does cause issues similar to Busch Dining Hall where there can be lines out the door, but you will get your food, and it will be good. These are issues that are unrelated to the quality of food, which is why Livingston Dining Hall comes in at number one. Thank you, and have fun eating now more informed at dinner tonight!
Luke Czerepak is a sophomore in the School of Engineering majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in economics. His column, "Luke's Light," runs on alternate Fridays.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations in our print newspaper, letters to the editor must not exceed 900 words. Guest columns and commentaries must be between 700 and 900 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to oped@dailytargum.com by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day’s publication. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
