Duke was surprisingly good with lots of options

My DS is at UMass Amherst and it is the best. Most food is locally-sourced, fresh, and there is a huge variety. My DS likes the stir-fry station, but they offer a variety of ethnic foods, gluten-free, etc. They have omelet bars, salad bars, and other things. Every Halloween, they have steak and lobster night, which is a huge hit.

UMass is very very good and has a lot of variety. If your kids attend parents can eat for free in the dining hall, except on lobster night.

Bowdoin is absolutely incredible. I look forward to going to the dining hall when we visit our kid.

They don't pay for a dining caterer like many schools do. They have their own in-house chefs and it shows. They take great pride in their food quality understand that community is built around the table.

My kid is raving about the food at UCLA and wants to take us to a dining hall on parents weekend .

Anonymous wrote:Duke
Cornell

Duke uses Compass group’s Chartwell catering which is the same as dozens of other schools including George Mason, Baylor, American, CUA and TAMU.

The majority of colleges outsource their dining services. Sodexo, Aramark, and Compass are some of the bigger ones.

Wesleyan’s food is really good. DD didn’t end up there, but we ate brunch after a tour. Fresh food and good variety.

Agree with person who said Duke and Cornell. It would be difficult to beat those two.
Yale is good but maybe not at that level.

Anonymous wrote:We ate at U Richmond when we visited. It was surprisingly good!

UR for the win, at least here in Virginia. Eaten there many times, both on regular class days as well as for special events. Everything is pricey at UR (except the football tickets) but at least you get what you pay for when it comes to food.

I would personally rank JMU over VT but they’re both quite good and serve large student populations (from the survey). No easy feat on a day-in/day-out, year-over-year basis.

We’re just finishing up college visits for our last and always make it a point to eat in their cafeteria. Almost all of them have been more than acceptable. ☺️

VT and JMU were great.

UMass Amherst must have the most varied and diverse food offerings of any US college, including Sichuan hotpot and Jianbing (like a Chinese crepe).

Duke
Cornell

We ate at U Richmond when we visited. It was surprisingly good!

No experience with any of the schools on that list, but of the college cafeterias i've been to, I thought Yale, UMD, Swarthmore and Rice were the best. UNC, W&M, BU and Georgetown were meh. Ymmv.

This NYT article about sushi cited the Princeton Review ranking for best food, with UMass Amherst at #1.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/dining/america-sushi.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Here’s the full list:

https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=best-campus-food

Anyone have personal experience with the food at these colleges?