John Jay Dining Hall

what a waste of time; you will leave here hungry and frustrated with your meal plan. the staff is nice and plays great music, they deserve better.

I think people don’t give enough credit to how good of a college dining hall John jay is. I would gladly come here over most other eating options on campus and quite frankly over other morningside heights eateries. The food is meant to feed mobs of college kids, so no, this isn’t a place where you can get food with finesse. But whatever finesse is possibly feasible is executed by the chefs who run JJ. First off, they have consistently GREAT salad bar selections. In addition to the crest your own part, which is just standard greens and fixings, they have pre-​made cold salads that can be really refreshing, like grapefruit-​avocado-​papaya salad, or spaghetti squash salad, or babaganoush. You can tell when things are just creations made from leftovers, but honestly it’s always really healthy and filling. As for hot entrees, you really do have a lot of choices, which can be daunting if you aren’t a regular at this dining hall. There’s a hot bar selection, with things like roasted chicken, cod livornese, or bbq pork, almost certainly some type of ancient grain (quinoa, barley) if you want to avoid rice and bread, and a bit veg of the day, such as candied yams or roasted Brussels sprouts. They sometimes also have great carving stations with Cornish hens or lamb roast. Other quick fix option include a grill (standard burgers/​hot dogs but also other interesting things like falafel and paella) and a stir fry/​udon noodle soup/​some type of Asian ish thing station. There’s also a HUGE dessert selection, a pasta bar, and fruits that are usually in ok condition although your safest bet is bananas lol. All in all, the variety that John jay presents is immense and I feel like people don’t appreciate it enough. They have really stepped up their game in providing nutritious options that stimulate clear minds, awake-​ness, and overall health. The name of the game here isn’t what your food really tastes like, but what you are actually eating. At least one of those two things will always be checked off, and more often than not, both come to fruition.

Salad bar-​good. A variety of salad. Fresh.
Sushi roll bar-​below average. Only two types of sushi rolls.
Pasta bar-​bad. The worst pasta. Plain pasta with white or tomato sauce everyday.
Grill bar-​bad. Over cooked egg layer and undercooked ingredients.
Buffet bar-​below average. Always chicken. Undercooked vegetables. Well cooked beans.
Desserts-​good. A variety of desserts. More than half are pretty satisfying. The best section in the entire dining hall.

For a cafeteria, this place is pretty good. There are some buffet lines that get changed out every day — and in case you don’t like what they’re serving today, you can always get the same mediocre sandwich.
Since they serve such a wide variety of food, I’m just gonna try to list off as many as I can think of:
— Brunch is the typical scrambled eggs, shredded potatoes, pancakes, and steamed vegetables. Sometimes they even combine the eggs and veggies! It’s OK because the food is kept warm by steam, not heat lamps, so you’ll never have crusty eggs or a pancake that feels like a biscuit. (Served 11 AM — 2 PM.)
— Lunch and dinner menus follow a similar pattern each day, though with different dishes. There’s usually some kind of rice/​pasta, beans, steamed vegetable medley, and a grilled or baked meat dish.
— Milk, fruits, and yogurt by the toaster, if you’re after them gainz. The apples are usually mushy, but everything else is great. They always have apples, bananas, and oranges, and rotate through sliced oranges/​grapefruit and various melons.
Wilma’s Grill is amazing, and deserves its own section:
— They have smoked salmon bagels for weekend brunch. This is the best! Pick between two kinds of bagel, four flavors of cream cheese, and they’ll make a salmon sandwich.
— Taco bar on weekend nights is amazing. Plus you can go back and get AS MUCH GUAC AS YOU WANT! Or maybe I’m just a big fan of Mexican food.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled cafeteria food:
— Salad bar with leafy greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, tofu, tuna, etc for those who like being healthy, along with cold dishes /​antipasti.
— Build your own sandwich station: a bunch of bread lunch meats, cheeses, veggies, and spreads. Plus a panini press! **Pro tip: get an omelet, then put it in a sandwich and throw some guac in there.**
— The sushi is not that authentic. Sometimes they put avocado in it, but usually it’s filled with apples, celery, and cream cheese. When they have tuna, it’s cooked. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move — it’s an «innovation» that should be cut from the menu.
— Desserts include cookies, cake, ice cream, and brownies, although I’ve never tried them because I’m not a big fan of sweets.

Honestly the fact that this place is even on Unilocal merits it a few stars.
Came on a Thursday night. I ate about 7 scoops of ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. The ice cream is UNLIMITED.
There is weird sushi, so I also ate a few pounds of that.
What really set me over the edge was the chocolate milk. tbh I couldn’t find the water dispensing machine, so I just skipped straight to chocolate milk. Haters, say what you will. Anywhere that I can hunker down and eat for three hours straight without having anyone give me the stink eye is four star material.

Special treats near holiday is good! Especially lobster night once a year!
However, daily menu is not as impressive.

Best place ever! So exclusive, this is where you can find anyone who’s an anyone. Fantastic food and service as well — definitely recommend the Nutella. You may have to book in advance though (serious competition for tables)

I’m a freshman at Columbia and I don’t know why people complain so much. I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback about John Jay from other freshmen and in my opinion, the dining hall is great. For Halloween they decorated the dining area and had candy on the tables along with a huge assortment of desserts. They serve a lot of fun desserts every day, but I really like how the food is healthy and the salad bar is always fresh. Also, a lot of the food is local and they don’t use disposable plates and silverware. As a side note, I really enjoy their noodles with fried tofu and vegetables.

I don’t know why JJ dining hall got such negative reviews. Their food was more than edible. Yes, it’s not as good as — say Cornell dining hall — but it gets us through just fine. The brunch was pretty good. There’s a variety of waffles, cereals, salad bar, fruits, drinks, etc. I loved the chocolate soy milk. But I guess, it’s too pricey for their quality. Was it $ 14 without meal plans? I will also complain about the to-​go sandwich box; it was horribleeee. Cheap cold sandwich with a bag of chips and cookies… for 14 dollars? Anyway, overall, it is an acceptable dining hall.

I hear the food improves during the academic year, but when I was there in the summer, it was consistently horrendous. And the lack of air conditioning certainly didn’t help.

I know most freshmen are pretty bitter when it comes to John Jay, because it’s expensive ($ 11 every meal! including those days when you just want fruit + yogurt), and being in New York, there are so many better places to eat, right? If a meal plan wasn’t required, John Jay is pretty decent. There always is a salad bar, which hasn’t let me down so far. Sure, you might get a couple rotten grape tomatoes here and there, but everything else is alright. There’s always a «fancy» grain, like quinoa or wheat berries, and everyone likes hummus.
Coming from another school’s dining hall, John Jay is pretty decent. Although all their rules are a little annoying (you only have 15 min. to load up a to-​go box?!), the place runs pretty smoothly most of the time. It’s too bad that they don’t change up the menu more often because a pizza/​pasta/​omelette can only be palatable for so long. But they always have 3 waffle batters for brunch and soo much cereal!
The dining hall itself is quite big, with its tall ceilings etc. It’s cute how the dining hall page gives little facts about how «cool» John Jay. For a student, this place is alright, but I don’t know why the public would come here.

I am being just a tad facetious. However, John Jay is a privately operated eating establishment that is open to the public. Admission gets entrants seating among a gaggle of Columbia (mostly) freshmen, as well as all you can eat crappy, wilted lettuce, hit or miss salad bar vegetables, depressing looking burgers, and food service pizza. Most of the entrees tend to be bland and loveless. However, weekday mornings feature Wilma’s delightful omelettes, the cranberry muffins are delicious, there are lucky charms, the bacon’s bacon, the mac and cheese is surprisingly solid, and occasionally, the entrees can actually have flavor. You probably won’t eat here unless you have to, or are partaking in some ironic scavenger hunt.