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Catered Halls Food

turnonthebrightlights

How is the food in catered halls?
Is there a lot of choice? Anyone got any idea of a typical menu?

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Reply 1

arturo291

I second this query.

University of Exeter

Exeter

Reply 2

granny smith

There does tend to be alot of choice, suppose it depends on where you go though. But, alot of students end up out of pocket when they go in catered halls. Some dont go for breakfast, others go straght to the pub at the end of the day, so it depends if you think you will get value for money?

There's also the case of any special diets to consider. Alot of places say the foods veggie, but contains calfs stomach, eggs from cages hens, food cooked alongside meat etc. But if you just eat a general diet, and aren't too particular, i suppose its ok for alot of people, especially if they do not like cooking or food shopping.

Reply 3

lmcorr

Stay away from the 'chicken' bolognese.

They seemed to reckon 'Shark steak' was one of the fish dishes at one point.

Don't expect any culinary magic, it is cooking en-masse to a fine expenditure margin.

Oh and as for breakfast, that '3 item' rule was quite frankly, infuriating. So a whole buffet of cooked breakfast, yet you can't get a full english.

Reply 4

neomilan

one of the LSE halls has a nice restaurant upstairs and is quite cheap and good food

Reply 5

Kahani_Moon

I'm not a fussy eater & found it fine. You usually had quite a good choice & at least 2 veggie options. Plus they started doing a salad bar, where you could take as much as you like. As for the 3 items for breakfast, you can have as much bread/toast as you like & it wasn't hard to take stuff out for lunch. Weekdays you only get breakfast & dinner, both of which are quite early 7.30-9.30 am & 5.30-7.30 (or something similar, was a while ago now!) Weekend breakfast lasts all morning & you can get as much as you like, plus the food was excellent for lunch - filled rolls & cakes were super!
I also liked the social side of it, as my group of friends always went down together, whereas now we're in a shared house we eat at different times & have lost some of that. Also, catered halls arrange formal dinners every term that are a lot of fun & usually have live entertainment.

Here's an example of a weekly menu: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/accommodation/current/documents/MicrosoftWord-MenuAOUpdated.pdf

Reply 6

Persipan

There's always a choice of different things, so it'd be unusual not to find anything you like (unless you're really picky). Granted, it's not exactly what you'd make at home (mainly because at home you don't have to cook for several hundred people) - it's slightly more canteen-y. Think chicken pie, lasagne, chilli, stuff like that. Generally there are a couple of carbohydrate options (e.g. rice or saute potatoes; mash or noodles) and a couple of veg, and it's pretty much mix-and-match (which can lead to some slightly odd combinations if you're like me and just pick whatever looks interesting - I once ended up eating vegetable chilli with potatoes, cauliflower cheese and green beans. All very nice, just p'raps not what you'd normally put together.) There's always salad if you want it with your dinner, and fruit or yoghurt if you prefer it over whatever the main dessert is.

Reply 7

Angelil

Mass catering is just NEVER good; it's also expensive.
I've also done both catering and self-catering so am better informed than most...

Reply 8

lmcorr

Self Catered is more flexible. Choose that option.

Reply 9

turnonthebrightlights

I did initially think I'd rather be self catered but the choice at Exeter for SC isn't great and I've heard the hall atmosphere is better in catered and you meet more people etc

Reply 10

Angelil

Rumours about atmosphere being better in catered halls are just that - rumours. Lafrowda always had a brilliant party atmosphere, imo...

Reply 11

lmcorr

Its all subjective anyway. Prospective students seem to worry too much about minor things within halls whilst not looking at the bigger picture. You'll have fun wherever you go. I wouldn't say theres really a lack of choice for self-catered, in my opinion. Depends where you'd want to be on campus. Personally I prefer to be around the Cornwall House area as most of the facilities I need to use on campus are so proximate. And town is a 5 minute walk down the road too.

Reply 12

Sephrenia

My boyfriend was in Holland last year, and said it was really unsociable cos you had no access to corridors that weren't your own (or at least very few). In Cook Mews we were insanely sociable - just about every flat had their flat door open and you had access to all the doors of every flat =P

Reply 13

dolly123

Breakfast:
Full English option = you are allowed 5 items (bread and fruit counted within the 5)
Sausages, Bacon, Beans, Scrambled egg, Hash browns, fried egg

Cereal option = you are allowed 3 items (bread and fruit counted within the 3)
Rice crispies, Museli (basically oats with raisons in), corn flakes, Porridge (often lumpy and foul)

Banana, Orange, Apple
Bread, milk and orange juice (toaster- self service)
8am – 9.30

Dinner
Every day there are a microwave cooked baked potatoes available (however beans are only available on a Saturday and Sunday = so some days its just butter or cheese).
There is also self service salad available (allowed as much as you like): Everyday there is Lettuce, Cucumber, Tomatoes (random days there is: cold sweetcorn, beetroot, cold pasta and a selection of beans)

There is always one or two different types of fresh vegetable:
Carrots, Green beans, Broccoli, Cauliflower (rarely and flavoured with cinnamon :/), Cabbage, Swede, sweetcorn , peas

You are allowed either a piece of fruit, a yogurt, cheese or a real pudding
Fruit- banana, apple or orange
Yogurt – think cream random selection
Cheese – small plate of a selection of cheese and 2 or 3 biscuits
Pudding - alternates between, chocolate ice creams, sponge and custard, lime cheesecake, chocolate cake and custard, rarely magnum ice creams and pink mouse things.

In terms of main course you will have the option of what looks like a full roast dinner on Sunday.
The rest of the week = fake curries (water based/mass produced), boiled potatoes, chips, cottage pie, tuna pasta, plain couscous in a pepper, mashed potatoes, filled mushrooms, roasted vegetables, spaghetti bolognaise, rice, Quran sausages, pork sausages, chicken (quite large at that), steak, tuna slices, battered cod (rarely) and salmon in dressing.

Water is the main drink at dinner time, tea is also available

Reply 14

dolly123

Catered =
Pros:
Communal/social
Do not have to worry about making dinner every day.
Microwaves in some of the halls.

Cons
Breakfast is *not* "whenever"

Would seem daunting if one doesn’t have anyone to eat with.

Water left on the table for over an hour so can be discoloured / not fresh. More often than not water jugs are empty as others used it all up.

Lack of spoons and salt after a few weeks into term (everyone steels them).

Lopez have to remove their leftovers into a rubbish basin, instead of just placing the whole tray (and thus leftovers) on a rack for the catering staff to clean up.

Food is mass produced so can be foul and watery.

Fresh salad does not always seem fresh (tomatoes brown).

Older catering staff monitor your every movement and count your items (so you cannot take extra fruit etc).

Towards the end of term people cannot wait to get home to eat “real” food.

One often finds themselves spending extra money on food and milk for their rooms (remember you do not get lunch) which means that so much more money is wasted.

Reply 15

lmcorr

Catered is such a con, in terms of the food. I was stunned into disbelief after I asked for my sausages, bacon and hash browns for her then to stop me dead in my tracks - where was the rest of the proper cooked breakfast!

By the way, Hope has the best kitchen ever. Best cooked breakfast I've ever had, by an Afghan mile.

Reply 16

CocoBean

Further to what Dolly123 said: Baked beans are available all days of the week with the Jacket potato, and also toast is unlimited on weekday breakfasts. Obviously there are slight differences between the halls.
Generally I personally like the catered and would recommond, but as you can see there are a wide range of opinions!!

Reply 17

dolly123

CocoBean

Baked beans are available all days of the week with the Jacket potato, and also toast is unlimited on weekday breakfasts.

Baked beans are not available with a jacket potato every day of the week (otherwise I would have them). The difference in halls isn’t that big a deal as hall food is supposed to be consistent throughout all the halls

Toast is only "unlimited" if you choose it as one of your 3. For example you cannot have cereal, banana, a yogurt and unlimited toast. It would have to be; cereal, banana and toast or yogurt.

Reply 18

sophisticated

dolly123

Catered =
Pros:
Communal/social
Do not have to worry about making dinner every day.
Microwaves in some of the halls.
Breakfast is whenever

Cons
Would seem daunting if one doesn’t have anyone to eat with.

Water left on the table for over an hour so can be discoloured / not fresh. More often than not water jugs are empty as others used it all up.

Lack of spoons and salt after a few weeks into term (everyone steels them).

Lopez have to remove their leftovers into a rubbish basin, instead of just placing the whole tray (and thus leftovers) on a rack for the catering staff to clean up.

Food is mass produced so can be foul and watery.

Fresh salad does not always seem fresh (tomatoes brown).

Older catering staff monitor your every movement and count your items (so you cannot take extra fruit etc).

Towards the end of term people cannot wait to get home to eat “real” food.

One often finds themselves spending extra money on food and milk for their rooms (remember you do not get lunch) which means that so much more money is wasted.

I'm confused...in another thread while listing your cons of Exeter, you had early-morning breakfast down as one of them. Here you say breakfast is whenever. Which one is it? :tongue: