Many non-academic aspects of Southern Methodist University attract a lot of students to attend school here. The campus is gorgeous and thus has been nationally ranked. The Dedman Center recently opened and boasts a state-of-the-art workout facility and tanning pool that outdo just about every other university. Not to mention the routinely changed flowerbeds and a museum with the largest collection of Spanish art outside of Spain.
With everything SMU has going for it, the school seems to lack one very important component on such a chic campus-a dining hall that suits the student body.
The main dining hall on campus, Umphrey Lee, underwent a complete renovation this past summer. Part of the goal was to create a dining experience, making it a “residential restaurant.” Supposedly, cooks make the food fresh to order and students can watch the cooks make pizzas and cookies in the ovens just behind the counter. It’s just like eating in a restaurant.
Only I find one problem-Umphrey Lee hardly compares to any restaurant I enjoy dining at, and that’s not saying much. Many students agree. Daily I hear freshman (the only students on campus required to purchase the all-you-can-eat meal plan) gripe about the food at the dining hall and their lack of desire to eat there, which many rarely seem to do.
What ever happened to home-cooked meals in college? My mom, during her reminiscences of college days, often talks about Sunday night dinner at her alma mater. Every Sunday night, the cooks prepared a meal that rivaled a home cooked meal, just like Sunday night dinner at home. The food was hearty and good, and not to be missed. It was still a dining hall, but felt and tasted more like home on Sunday nights.
Not to mention the dining halls at the Ivy leagues. Small in size, with wood-paneled walls and porcelain plates with blue patterns, students feel as if they are dining in a pretentious Harry Potter-esque hall, not a sterile cafeteria. SMU students pay no less in tuition than any Ivy, but don’t receive the same experience. Instead we have plastic plates and flimsy bent forks.
The new dining hall was supposed to be THE ultimate dining experience and end all complaints. While the new dining hall does look nicer than the old one, the food did not get any better.
We have the luxury of space for a full service salad bar. Instead we get bowls of spinach and plain lettuce strait from a plastic bag, whole (not diced) tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and extremely processed cheese, among other things. I would hardly call that selection a good salad bar. Check out Central Market, or even Sizzler, and there you’ll find the true meaning of a full service salad bar. The Umphrey-Lee salad bar station has the space, why not use it and increase both the variety and freshness of salad ingredients?
The sandwich station is another story. The same people that run Umphrey-Lee also run Montague’s. Explain to me why Montague’s sandwiches are so much better than Umphrey Lee’s, yet they compete for business? I don’t understand the logic behind having a sandwich place in a market that is 10 times better than the dining hall when the university is designed to be a residential campus and on-campus students are required to purchase a meal plan.
Montague’s has fresher meat, a wider selection of breads, plus more toppings and ingredients. For the cost of a “dining membership” to Umphrey Lee you would expect the same.
It costs more to eat a sandwich of lesser quality at Umphrey Lee than it does at Montague’s and the sandwich does not even compare. At Umphrey Lee, the turkey is slimy, the bread not as good and the sandwich toppings are less diverse.
We can’t leave out the feature station-the place that changes with each meal. Some days you get wraps, others days there’s some sort of meat, occasionally tacos, and other assortments. I stay away from there. The meat always seems sketchy to me, but I’m a picky eater. Still, am I really asking too much for a good boneless skinless grilled chicken breast? And maybe a side of market fresh green beans or corn?
Fortunately for all students, breakfast is amazing and probably the best meal of the day at Umphrey Lee. Luckily, breakfast is now set-up all day, but only available during peak hours. Last year, I had the pleasure of eating breakfast two mornings a week with a group of girls from my French class. We called our routine group “the breakfast club,” and anxiously looked forward to the made-to-order omeletes and fresh waffles.
At least breakfast still remains at the same caliber as last year, and now you can have it three meals a day. At least Umphrey Lee truly knows its strength-omelets.
You would think for the price it costs to attend SMU, not to mention the price of a meal plan, you could at least expect a little more from the dining hall. I don’t even want to know where the money goes. For the price you pay for a meal plan, one could practically dine out every meal and eat better food.
I understand mass-producing food takes some quality out of the preparation, but that doesn’t mean the ingredients have to go down too. Large restaurants manage to maintain their quality while serving demanding customers, and their facilities surely must be smaller than SMU’s.
Ultimately, the new SMU dining hall failed to create the dining experience it made itself out to have. Food hardly seems any more made-to-order than it used to be. And it definitely didn’t get any better. All the students got was a better layout and more seating.
About the writer:
Taylor Thornley is a sophomore biology major. She can be reached a [email protected].
