Hello Everyone! I was interested in learning about your impressions about the campus food at Yale. This question is directed toward current or former students at Yale, but anyone familiar with the food is welcome to answer. I was wondering if most of the students eat on campus or off-campus, and how is the variety like? Also, does it get too repetitive after a while?
Thank you in advance 
I will answer based on DS’s reports. He eats mostly on campus, with the off campus meals being associated with social events (dates and group outings). He says that the food is generally good, but a bit repetitive. Breakfasts apparently are not as good as in previous years.
All Yale students who live on-campus MUST take the dining plan – you cannot separate the charges for room and board. Student’s who live off-campus, have the option of getting one of the dining plans, paying for individual meals at Yale, eating on their own at home, or eating at any of the restaurants in town.
Check out the menus: http://www.yale.edu/dining/menu/menu_standards.html
My son is a senior at Yale. I visited last week and had lunch with him in Saybrook, one of Yale’s 12 residential colleges. Given the complaints I’ve heard over the years, the food was better than I had expected.
I think there are several issues with the food – and this is a challenge for any university:
(1) University dining is serving hundreds of students in a short window of time, and most of the food has to prepared in advance, as few items are made to order. It’s sort of like how a caterer would do a large wedding or event. So, the food we ate 1pm was probably made around 11am and reheated prior to serving. Anything cooked that far in advance starts to loose it’s flavor and texture.
(2) Any single restaurant can be wonderful for one meal, or maybe ten meals. But, if you had to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same restaurant for 4 years – even at a high end restaurant – you yearn for a change.
After four years, my son is yearning for change. That said, the food at Yale is much better than the food at Harvard, or at least that what my kids have said, as each have eaten multiple times at each other’s school.
While Yale’s food is still college dining hall food, it is far and away better than some of the crap I’ve seen at other schools. Repetitive yes. But so is my menu at home. Heck, I eat chicken almost every night.
Thank you to everyone who responded!!!