SU students crown the “best”
dining halls

Should we meet in the dining hall? That’s a question nearly every university student in America has asked on no shortage of occasions, and Syracuse University is no different.

But which one of the campus’s six dining halls students meet in is a constant point of discussion. There are many factors – geographic proximity, size, and food quality – and students sometimes feel quite strongly about which is the best.

An Orange Pulse survey this month found that survey participants across all years have two clear favorites, though the reasoning behind those preferences varies dramatically.

Graham Dining Hall – perched atop the Mount in the middle of campus and connected via tunnel to Day and Flint Halls – is by far the most popular among surveyed students. Roughly 48% of all students surveyed named Graham as the “best” dining hall on campus, with more than half of juniors and seniors selecting it as such.

Interestingly, despite the residence halls on the Mount being primarily associated with freshman housing, freshmen chose Graham by a narrower margin, with approximately 41% stating it was their favorite dining hall.

“Graham just does it better,” said freshman Grace McCloskey, who has already tried every dining hall except Shaw Hall. “For example the mac and cheese … compare it to all of the other dining halls, the mac and cheese is so much cheesier, and it is my favorite food, so that’s a big thing.”

Photo by Jessica Nester

Graham Dining Hall sits atop the Mount and mainly serves students from Flint and Day Halls.

“All the other dining halls are just so repetitive all the time, but Graham is always trying new cuisines. All the other places just have the same soggy dumplings, pizza, salad, and rotten food every day.”

There was also a clear second choice. Ernie Davis Hall, located just a few minutes walk from the heart of campus, was another consensus pick, with 25% of all surveyed students saying it was the best, split fairly consistently across all four years. Sophomores ranked it the highest, clocking in at just under 30%.

Photo by Alex Calabrese

The inside of Ernie Davis Dining Hall, commonly ranked one of the best on campus.

It’s worth mentioning that not all students have experienced each of the six dining halls. For those who did not live on the Mount, Graham Hall can require quite the trek, so eating there is not usually a regular occurrence for most. Nevertheless, those who spent their freshman year meals there do seem to remember it rather fondly, and it is easy to see why.

“It was a really good dining hall for freshmen and sophomores because we had a nice little community there,” said Will Werner, who lived in Day Hall during his first year. “You could recognize everybody, and the food is better in my opinion. It’s a smaller dining hall and there is almost like a whole neighborhood on the Mount.”

Since his freshman year, Werner has spent most of his time in Ernie Davis Hall, based mainly on its proximity to campus, and has only returned to the Mount sporadically. Now a senior, he has continued to purchase a meal plan even as he lives off campus.

“It’s in the heart of campus, so regardless of where you’re coming from, you’re always going to be near Ernie,” Werner said. “It’s the most convenient and it has good food too, which is getting better in quality.”

Only two dining halls had clear preferences tied to a specific year, and they are perhaps unsurprising. The Brockway Dining Hall, which is connected to Boland and Brewster halls and is nearly a half-mile from the middle of campus on foot, is geographically isolated similarly to Graham.

However, unlike Graham, while 25% of surveyed freshmen list it as their favorite dining hall, almost no other years thought the same, indicating that it is not remembered as fondly by BBB alumni as Graham is by those who lived on the Mount.

Orange Hall, the newest dining hall on campus, is located in what used to be the Sheraton Hotel and is still popularly known by that name among upperclassmen. 11% of sophomores say it is the best dining hall, but juniors and seniors, who have rarely had a reason to go there, showed much more indifference.

Besides dining halls, most students do purchase some meals elsewhere, including at the Schine Food Hall. Most students across all years answered that they spend, on average, between $11 and $20 on individual meals, with spots just off campus, such as Collegetown Bagels, Popeyes, and Chipotle, all popular attractions on Marshall Street.

Students in Prof. Dan Pacheco’s JNL 221 Foundations of Data and Digital Journalism class who curated the surveys for this story are Jamieson Vincent, Lucy Fries, Jonathan Regini, Jonah Lipson and Hannah Beam.