Grace Dodge Cafe

Looks can be deceiving — pizzas and paninis are GOOD. This is school food people and yet… It’s solid. Staff is friendly and if you’re lucky a talented music student will be practicing on the piano– free live music in NY… It’s the dream

Great variety and a very good school cafeteria. I ate bacon cheeseburger deluxes here for a solid semester, gaining a good 10 lbs, but man, it was worth it. They were very good burgers.
On the healthy side, they have giant salads, too. Coffee, tea, you name it. The lines can get long and if there is something special going on at the school it can be hard to find a seat, but why are you reading this? You are either a student, staff or faculty and already know these things, or you are an outsider who doesn’t have the presence of mind to Unilocal such an obscure dining establishment… I guess I could be wrong…

Food is pretty average quality and a bit pricey. Half the time whoever’s preparing my food serves it with a nice side of ‘tude. There are slightly better options nearby.

This one of the best dining hall food I have ever eaten. The food is edible woot woot! thats a first right? The salads are great and there are so many topping you can put into it. My friends get them all the time and they are a decent size. I have never had their breakfast but I heard it is pretty good as well.
Everyone is friendly and the dining hall in itself is gorgeous. You can just sit there and do work without anyone bothering you.

TC café always has vegetarian options which I appreciate and the prices are great. A salad with a Salmon fillet cooked to order will run you about $ 6. Amazing for NYC! The dining hall itself is a beautiful old room which feels like a connection to the past academics who’ve walked the halls. Breakfast is good too. Always lots of options for grilled-​to-​order items, salads, soup, pizza, etc.

CulinArt is a step ahead of the previous vendor (Sage) in regards to the TC café, however with all these new fancy additions they lack on simple things. You can’t get a veggie side you must order the whole hot meal. No small side salads anymore. Pricing isn’t often available at the cashier if you order something off of main menu. It’s better than Sage for sure but they have a long way to go. The best thing about CulinArt is the sushi chef on Wednesdays.

And today I was reminded why I normally dine off-​campus. In what I guess was an attempt at promoting healthfulness, they had a promo for a free fountain soda with a wheat personal pizza. My wheat shrimp pizza was transformed, I assume in the oven, to a white shrimp pizza and rendered the only reason I went for this option irrelevant. Luckily, the pizza turned out well regardless and the cashier was very nice about it, or I’d knock my rating down to 2 stars. The fountain raspberry iced tea, however, tasted like cream soda without even a hint of raspberry.

I love the TC dining hall! It’s set up into stations: hot food, grill, salads, cold sandwiches, pizza, and soup. They have really great deals on breakfast– eggs, bacon/​sausage, and toast for between $ 3-​$ 4. The hot food options are actually pretty good and as gourmet as cafeteria food can get– they often do stuff like salmon with chutney, roast turkey with all the trimmings (my fave!), and chicken saltimbocca. What I love the most is that the cooks are SUPER friendly and nice :)
They also have a sushi station that sets up on Wednesdays only– be careful if you are in a rush, though– the sushi is good but takes FOREVER to make. I’m not a huge fan of the cold sandwiches, though– too dry and not enough flavor. Overall, a great place to grab food near Columbia (I think you’ll need a Columbia or TC ID to get in, though…)

School cafeteria?! You typically think frozen dinner style: bland, overcooked food. NOT HERE! The food is good, seriously, and cheap!
The café has a few options: hot food (like pot roast with carrots and grilled veggies), hot sandwiches (grilled chicken with tots), salad, soups, pizzas, sandwiches, ice cream, and the list goes on.
I wanted to try a few of the different stands before reviewing to get a total idea of the café and hey, because it’s 5 mins from my office!
So here’s the lowdown:
pizzas-​delish! Especially when trying to make it through the day a wee bit hungover!
sandwiches-​my go-​to place for lunch
hot sandwich bar-​avoid, takes too long to prepare and doesn’t leave me time to check Unilocal and Facebook on my break.