Good Eats

When I worked as a School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program Ambassador, I think one of the questions I heard most frequently was: How is the food? One of my fellow ambassadors literally smacked his lips when he answered this question. I think it was his favorite question to answer. It was kind of hilarious. But the food is good!

As a first-year student living on campus, you will be required to have a meal plan. Every time you eat at a Rutgers Dining location, you will swipe your Rutgers ID to use the pre-paid meals on your plan.

Rutgers- New Brunswick has 4 campuses: Cook/Douglass, College Ave, Busch, and Livingston. Each of these campuses has a dining hall and one of the favored past-times of students is to debate which campus has the best. Personally, I say Busch is the best, but there are soooo many people who would argue that Livingston or Cook/Douglass are better. The food is pretty much the same on each campus, but I guess there are different things about the ambiance at each that everyone likes better.

Cook/Douglass
The dining hall on Cook/Douglass is the Neilson Dining Hall. This dining hall is a bit smaller than the other three, mostly because of the smaller number of residence halls on that campus.

Pros: Smoothie station is open more frequently than its Busch counterpart (only these two dining halls have one), more likely to find shorter lines, close to several first-year dorms, simple and easy take-out station near separate entrance
Cons: Poor serving station set-up which can sometimes cause congestion, far from some dorms and apartments on campus (namely Jameson Hall)

Cook/Douglass is also home to two student center grills which both accept meal swipes. The Douglass Grill in the DCC (Douglass Campus Center) is alright- I used to eat there often when I lived in Jameson because it was across the street. There is also a Pizzeria Uno that you can swipe at, but I wouldn't recommend it for pizza-lovers. I much preferred the Cook Cafe in the CCC (Cook Campus Center), which makes some really delicious patty melts, wraps, and sweet potato fries (yum!). The DCC also has a Dunkin' Donuts, which accepts RU Express (Rutgers debit account linked to your student ID), but not meal swipes.

College Ave
The dining hall on College Ave is called Brower Commons. This dining hall is pretty large, but it can fill up pretty quickly at peak dining hours.

Pros: Good location, great for take-out in-between classes (which I took advantage of often when I had back-to-back classes on College Ave during lunch time), awesome ice cream/fro-yo station with more options than other campuses, separated service areas decrease congestion, lots of drink stations
Cons: It can get really noisy, the pre-cooked food is alright, the pizza

The Rutgers Student Center (RSC) has a large food court with restaurants like Subway, Wendy's, King Pita Palace (yum! the owner, Mike, is the best), Currito, Au Bon Pain, and Gerlanda's. Unfortunately, you can't use meal swipes at these vendors, but you can use RU Express. There are also a ton of restaurants on Easton Ave and in downtown New Brunswick, some of which take RU Express.

The Rutgers Club

The Rutgers Club is also another great option for more-upscale dining. On Mondays and Thursdays you can use a meal swipe and pay an additional $2 to get a fantastic buffet dinner! Reservations are required; the first is at 5pm and the last is at 7:30pm. It is really, really yummy food. You should try it at least once!

Busch
The dining hall on Busch is... Busch Dining Hall. Yeah, they got a lot less creative on the newer campuses, lol. This dining hall is HUGE. They just put an addition on a few years ago. It's my personal favorite dining hall.

Pros: Well-designed, lots of serving stations and options, the salad bar, lots of tables, lots of drink stations
Cons: Not a great location if you're coming from class (it's convenient to some residence halls and close to a major bus stop), the take-out line is right off the main entrance and it can get congested at times

Busch Campus Center (BCC) has a food court as well, but you can't use meal swipes there. The food court includes Szechwan Ichiban, Moe's Southwest Grill, Burger King, and Gerlanda's. On the nearby medical campus, Woody's accepts meal swipes as well; it is located in the Kessler Teaching Building.

Livingston
The Livingston dining hall is called Livingston Dining Commons. This is the newest dining hall and it is a whole lot better than its predecessor, Tillett. It's a really good dining hall and a lot of people consider it their favorite. It is very good, I just like Busch a little bit more.

Pros: Burger bar!! (honestly, this is the best thing ever- you order your burger on a touch screen and they serve it in a basket with fries), fireside lounge, new, completely separate entrance for take-out
Cons: The serving area can get a little busy, all the seating areas are separated and you have to walk around if you can't find a seat

The Livingston Student Center (LSC) has a few dining vendors in their food court. Dunkin' Donuts does not accept meal swipes, but take RU Express. The Rock Cafe and Sbarro's accept meal swipes. There are also a lot of vendors coming soon to the Livingston Retail Plaza, including Starbucks, Kilmer Market, etc. all of which will probably accept RU Express, but not meal swipes.

Mobile Eats
Rutgers recently opened a new place for food, the Knight Wagon. The Knight Wagon is a food truck that sells self-described "gastro-pub" food. It's an upgrade from the super fried, super unhealthy (and yet somehow still tasty) grease trucks which recently vacated the Scott Hall parking lot this week. The food truck travels between campuses each day. They do accept meal swipes and the menu is really, really yummy. I highly recommend stopping by for a "Twisted Gyro" Burger... or pretty much anything on the menu.