Mirror Lake Creamery & Grill

I know many, many people dislike this place. Their loss. Stay away, and let those of us who enjoy cool places have this for ourselves.
This place used to be called the Rathskeller back in the day. It has those olde worlde buttressed ceilings that make you think of the restaurants in WW2 movies where they show Nazi officers threatening locals in Europe and saying things like, «We will be keeping a close watch on you, Mr. Nick Rivers, etc…» But now, this joint has been turned into a casual eatery with a wide range of wraps, sandwiches, and milkshakes. Because, you see, this place is a creamery. Meaning it is an ice cream shop (shoppe?) with food.
Can the lines be annoying? Yes, but lines are annoying everywhere from the BMV to the former Soviet satellite states.
Is this the best food you’re ever going to have? Of course not. It’s a flipping ice cream shop with french fries. But is this the best milkshake you can order within a stone’s throw of Mirror Lake? Indeed it is. Honestly, try it. I cannot believe this place exists. I cannot believe they have a Buckeye milkshake that may take a few years off your life and still make you think «It’s so worth it.» Plus, the students who work here are friendly.
Side note worth mentioning… This place smells exactly like the Ben & Jerry’s store in Waterbury Vermont. I wanted a hacky sack and a shirt with cows on it, but walked out into campus when I was done and reminded myself that I must become a regular here. Plus, if you don’t like it, and you are really a no hoper if you can’t find a reason to love this place, you can walk to Adriaticos or Hang Over Easy nearby.

Haters to the left, to the left.
Everyone seems to be hatin’ on poor Mirror Like Creamery & Grill. The reviews are old so perhaps it went through its dark phase, but my time eating here has been nothing but pleasant! It’s definitely a nice change from simply the Union all the time!
While the lake is closed for the summer, this place is open for lunch! They’ve got solid burgers and sandwiches, sides, and of course, ice cream!
I ordered the Spicy Chicken Sandwich with a side of fries and salad. The sandwich was very good for dining food! The fries themselves were bomb! I would just get that next time. Salad? Same as all the other places on campus.
The heavy hitter here was definitely the ice cream! I ordered a double dip of Buckeye (duh) and the Birthday Cake because I was feelin’ very Katy Perry today. SO GOOD. SO RICH. On a hot summer day, this was the perfect way to cool off.
Plus, one scoop is $ 3.50, but you get a lot for that! Other ice cream places like Jeni’s is more expensive so this is not a bad price. Considering the size, I’d say it is well worth it! If anything, make Mirror Lake a dessert spot after your meal!
Four stars for OSU dining here!

Oh boy. As far as convenience goes, this place is right in a high-​traffic area and easy to get to. On top of that, it’s right next to Mirror Lake so you can grab something and sit by the lake. That’s about where the pleasantries end.
For being a place on campus where most students don’t have a ton of money, this place is expensive for ice cream! $ 3+ for a single scoop of ice cream? Ouch. On top of that they are sooooo incredibly slow every time I go there. Get ready for a wait even if there’s no one else in line.
Will I come back? Unfortunately it’s too convenient for me to pass up, but if there was another option, you can bet I’d be there instead.

typical university food
crap

As far as campus dining goes, this place isn’t half bad. It’s located on Neil Avenue inside Pomerene Hall, I believe. You kind of have to know where it is because it doesn’t have a huge sign on the outside or anything like that. But if you’re a student on the OSU campus, you’ll know about it. It is one of the more popular campus cafeterias. If you’re not a student on the OSU campus, there’s probably no reason for you to come here. It’s not like there would be any easy place to park your car without worrying about getting a ticket from the OSU Parking and Transportation people. But if you’re walking around the area it might be worth a look.
As I mentioned, it’s located inside Pomerene Hall, which is the building where all the dance classes are held. I had several dance classes here myself. It’s an old building, but quite pretty and almost gothic style. If you’re around here, you should check it out. To get to the café, you can go from inside the building on the lower floor, or go straight into the café from the outside — it has its own entrance without having to go in through the classroom area.
The absolute best thing about Mirror Lake Café, and its namesake, is that it’s right on Mirror Lake. Well, maybe not on the lake, but right next to it. If you sit down near the windows on the north side of the dining room, you’ll see a great view of the lake and all the ducks that inhabit it. It is really pretty. Even though that part of the building looks a little more modern, it looks really nice on the inside and the view outside is even better. Try to get a window seat if you can.
My advice would also be to avoid the noon hour during the week, and also avoid dinnertime around 6 – 7 pm. That’s when all the students come here in droves and it will be crowded. If you go at obscure times in the afternoon, it won’t be so bad.
As far as food goes, it’s not the best. But it’s not the worst, either. I mean, for campus dining I never really had a problem with it. They served breakfast here, but I’ve only been here for lunch or dinner. The menu would sort of change here and there but there was usually a pretty good selection of typical items: Pizzas, sandwiches, salads, subs. You also have a pretty good selection of sides. I liked the pizzas here — they were single servings, but it was pretty tasty. And I always like pizza. But I also liked the sides that you could choose from. There were cookies, fruit, yogurts, and pasta salads and things like that. And that way you could really just make up your own meal. In that way it was very much typical cafeteria style. But I thought the food was pretty good. They also take Buck IDs here, of course, and it works with the meal plans. But they will also take cash and credit cards if you ever find yourself here and you’re not a student!
The prices weren’t too bad, but I think they were just being mindful of the student budget. The pizza was under $ 5, which was pretty good. I guess the prices could be better but it’s about like anywhere else.
When you go in the Mirror lake Café, you move down an assembly line to get your food! Not really. But everyone sort of goes down the line and picks out what they want. If you order something that they have to cook they call your name or bring it to you later after you sit down. But you make your way down the line to the register. Grab something if you want it, because once you pass it, it’s hard to go back and grab it! And you don’t have to eat there. They will also package it to go for you. But if you were eating there, you’d pick up a tray at one end and just put what you want on it as you went down the line. I never thought that the dining room was all that big. The building is old and the rooms aren’t that big, so it can get crowded in here pretty quickly. The drinks were also fountain pop, or they had some bottled juices and things like that. But they also served coffee and made their own smoothies, which were quite good.
I lived right above the Marketplace when I lived on campus, so I didn’t eat at Mirror Lake Café all that much since I had a better (in my opinion) dining option right downstairs. (And we had a full kitchen in our dorm, so we usually cooked food for ourselves.) But I would come here with my friends sometimes and every time I tried to grab a seat by the window. It made the experience more enjoyable to look down over the lake.
This place was also open pretty late. It might have stayed open later than the other campus dining halls. This made it a good place to go to study and get a late-​night snack. They had a few computers in there so if you wanted to use the internet, you could. It really was a good place for students and I know a lot of students who came here every single day. I didn’t mind it — it could get pretty crowded and that’s why I tended to avoid it, but it was always pleasant to go to between classes at odd times. But now that I’m not a student anymore, I’m never on campus, so I probably won’t go back there.

I have to get in on this one being an OSU grad and current employee. Like Matt, I was at OSU before the onslaught of new restaurants. As a matter of fact, I was there before Mirror Lake Café was part of the Buckeye Meal plan. Freshman year was the commons, the Buckeye Express, No1 Chinese, Catfish Biffs, Adriatico’s, and Cluck-​U 7 days a week. I didn’t gain much my freshman year… I was already a portly bastard.
Sophomore year they added the Café to the Buckeye Card… this was like «Fine dining» to me at the time. I’m pretty sure I ate there 1−2x daily throughout 2^nd year in Drackett Tower… even in December after those heinous Organic Chem classes. The food wasn’t any better, it was just ‘different.‘
Flash forward to today, I actually stopped in for a soda about 1 month ago based on the novelty of being out of the hospital for a bit… Mirror Lake Café serves DORM FOOD. I’m sure they always did, but my memories were smashed. The building looks old now and the food looked more/​less unappealing. Additionally, it was lounder than I remember, even with the beautiful lake.
After leaving I went to the Library… it is still great. I don’t dare set foot in the commons for fear of ruining past memories further.

There was a time, when I lived in the dorms and before the new wave of dining options popped up around the OSU campus, when Mirror Lake was my lifeblood. I ate it nearly every day without complaint– hot subs and crappy pizza, smoothies and a small internet café built-​in, charming, old décor and fast service– Mirror Lake was one of the better places to spend meal plans.
But I don’t have meal plans anymore, and OSU has been revamping its dining over the past few years. So while I can’t fault anyone for swiping themselves a hot grinder made to order, I’m not throwing down paper money for it. Even Subway is better for the price.
Still, it’s always relaxing to grab a smoothie and sit on the lake. If it’s the right time of year and the right time of day, you can waste a lot of time just watching the ducks.