Mass College of Art – The Dining Commons

Okay.
Kennedy has some okay dining commons.
We’ll ignore peets even though it really is part of the meal hall.
There’s a lot of seating, the checkout lines are an okay speed, service is also an okay speed. Limiting factor for speed is usually not the cooks and cashiers but people who don’t know how to order or have money ready.
Prepackaged food is always overpriced, this includes bottled beverages.
The food that they make is reasonably priced and isn’t –awful-​, it’s definitely edible anyway.
Specials are okay and there are usually a vegan or vegetarian option for them.
The pasta sucks so don’t eat that.
Place is full of college kids, obviously. There are also firefighters sometimes.
Around 2pm on weekdays it gets flooded with tiny tiny children from whatever that school on palace road is. I recommend not letting them in that entrance either, it requires an ID, make them walk around.
This isn’t even the worst food you can get for your money. It’s okay.

The dining hall has changed considerably for the better since 2010 after renovations. Props to it being more contemporary, spacious, and brighter. 1 star for that.
Another star for convenience.
Honestly since my days of dorming at MCP have been over, I’ve bought food from here less than 10 times over the past 3 years. Dire circumstances and laziness will only drag me here to buy something. Man, freshmen 15 is a given during anyone’s freshmen year with the portions and American based food/​diet they serve. Not kidding, I gained around 4 kg spending my meal points there for a year… never again. Lost it all going back home to healthier options.
Crossroads in MCP serve sushi these days so if you’re an MCP student looking for sheer convenience and a healthy option, I recommend that. Or move ‘yo ass down to Longwood Galleria where the staff there don’t give you attitude or hate their job as much.

This is my first year at MCPHS and we have a meal plan and one of the few places we are allowed to use our meal plan in The Dining Commons, which is the closest to the MCPHS cais mpus excluding the small food place in MCPHS. The food is alright for cafeteria food, but it is definitely not some place you would want to eat everyday, which in my case I have to unless I go to Beatty Hall. The food is very unhealthy I have to say, the only thing that seems healthy at all there is the salad bar, so if you were looking to keep a good, healthy diet during college… This is definitely not the place to be. Honestly, if you eat here you will probably need to go to the restroom an hour later. One star for convenience and another star just for the variety of selections. I mostly just get pizza or pasta because those are the best options in my opinion.

DISGUSTING. Overpriced for the low-​quality food. I stick to the prepackaged food and drinks. Coffee is either watery or burnt… or both! The only thing (sometimes) that is edible are the waffle fries and tater tots, but that stuff is unhealthy to be eating everyday.
*The most disgusting feature: cold-​cuts; UGH! PLEASE Chartwells, use BoarsHead!
Not to mention most of the employees are creepy/​incompetent/​rude convicts. I definitely don’t want them to touch my food with a 10 foot pole.

One star for convenience if one takes classes at mass art. An additional star for at least attempting to feed the veggie student population and have a decent selection (because we’re going to eat here nearly daily).
The vegan «chicken» fingers are damn tasty, as are the fries.
However…
My attempts to find out what exactly was going in to my food (i.e. milk products, eggs, gluten/​wheat for a friend…) were met with a shrug of the shoulders, rather than an attempt to locate an ingredient list. The cashiers typically are unaware of the posted prices at best, and rude and creepy at worst. The food is overpriced for what it is, but cheaper than Longwood ave fast food.
Note to students: There *is* a commuter café, complete with refrigerator an microwave upstairs in this building. I recommend bringing your lunch/​dinner there if you’re going to be there all day.

I honestly want to give this 1 star, but alas I will give it 2 because it has upgraded its food quality (somewhat) since last I visited.. .which was sometime last year.. .so I am assuming the food hasn’t changed or gotten worse (but hey I wouldn’t be suprised by that either)
So when I would eat here as a freshman so long ago.. . I remember vividly how much I hated eating the food.. .the menu never changes, its the same stuff on the same days.. .with the pasta always tasting like it was left out in the buffet pans for days, and it was lathered in water, butter and oil.. .then they would dump «meat balls» and red sauce over it.. .yummy, just like the way my mom would not make it (and she made good spaghetti and meatballs)
The only decent thing to grab at Chartwells, for that is what it is known as to the college students and unfortunate locals who are forced to frequent there is the Buffalo Chicken Wrap, simply because the hot sauce drowns any other weird flavors that may possibly be tasted.
The place has a sandwich bar, salad bar, burger and wraps, pasta bar, some crappy asian grille that pumps out things worse than Nan Ling (thats my new nickname for the worst possible place that could pass off as a legit/​legal place to serve/​sell food) and some «Southern» style cuisine area.
The place is complete crap, and the food make me crap 10 minutes after I ate it.
Oh and the place is so overpriced and the service is terrible.. .I’ve met friendlier tollbooth attendants.

Overpriced mediocre food & bad service. But first off, I must say, I don’t have much expectation for cafeteria food, but this is just really bad. I know of a time when a woman who worked there really yelled at a girl for subsituting a vegetable in her (overpriced) burger with spinach. The woman actually told her to take out her few leaves of spinach and put them on a separate plate to weigh in at the register. What? Are they going to take the tare out? I think the plate might be even heavier than the few spinach leaves.