<p>Just wanted to let everyone know that I did an overnight at Columbia and I got to experience John Jay food firsthand. Everyone told me it would suck and people there said it's pretty bad, but I LOVED IT. I probably downed a solid 2500 calories for dinner; it was that good (I'm a cross country runner... I'm not fat by any means). So ya, people out there who may be worrying about the food at Columbia, FEAR NOT! Also, I got to check out the really cool restaurants, diners, and bars (they don't card) around campus/Columbia. And of course, if you insist on saying John Jay food is bad, there's always all the NYC food.</p>
<p>Wow, Columbia was amazing... hope I get in there RD.</p>
<p>The JJ food is terrible. You might have liked it because of the novelty of experiencing a college dining hall for the first few times.</p>
<p>The restaurants around Columbia are pretty bad, for the most part. Of course, NYC is filled with amazing restaurants. Morningside and Columbia just happen to have terrible food.</p>
<p>columbia2002, I've visited many schools dining halls so far, and I enjoyed the JJ food. The French fries were very very good. I also ate breakfast at Tom's Restaurant (right behind Seinfeld) and it was some good, cheap, breakfast food. JJ suits my tastes. Plus I was trying to bring some positive feelings to the Columbia forum.</p>
<p>i have no idea what two of you are talking about. if hunger is the best condiment, you two must have been near-death starving. (jk) but seriously, i've had food at a load of college dining halls, and john jay food really doesn't compare. are you sure you didn't eat at lerner or barnard?</p>
<p>Are you going to eat french fries every day for 10 months? The actual "food" food is horrible. And, if you actually eat there instead of going out, it will get depressing eating the same crap over and over. Tom's is OK for breakfast, but is mediocre otherwise.</p>
<p>um, i stayed there for the summer and ate at john jay everyday.
i don't see how anyone would enjoy the food there. especially when you exit, theres this stench coming from the kitchen. uhhh....i dont know, but i have to agree with you with NYC restaurants and bars around there. The Kitchenette (125th ave) IS A-MAZING. GREAT GREAT, PERHAPS BESTTTT FOOOOOOODDD</p>
<p>I also stayed there over the summer and the food was terrible. When I did overnight, it was a bit better, but more of something to eat when you have nothing else better to eat.</p>
<p>actually around Columbia there are good restaurants</p>
<p>Per Tutti, Le Monde (Patisserie, Brasserie, whatever you call it), Nacho's, Deluxe (kitchenette, luncheonette, whatever), koronet pizza (18 inch radius pizza), Mill Korean, Ollie's (Chinese), Indus Valley (Indian), Cafe Swish (pan-Asian), and others serve good food, in my opinion</p>
<p>John Jay gets monotonous. There are basically one or two meat items (almost always chicken), and the rest are starchy vegetables or very nondescript and quite lifeless non-starchy vegetables. Sometimes they leave out the meat and just do pasta with the vegetables.</p>
<p>Barnard is pretty good, with good pizza. But it might take a bit of acrobatics to get safely from the cups to the milk and back. i.e. it can be a bit bustling sometimes</p>
<p>Other options are cafe 212, ferris booth, and some others.</p>
<p>Or you could cook your own food from time to time to get away from the cafeteria, and live in Wallach or Hartley, which have kitchens, and do grocery shopping. But you just better wash your own dishes.</p>
<p>Other than Koronet, all those places that jono names range from mediocre to horrible. You're a subway ride away from all kinds of great food, so avoid the local places for the most part.</p>
<p>Pertutti is tasteless. Le Monde is overpriced and horrible. Mill isn't bad. Ollie's gets the job done, but I wouldn't call it good. All the local indian places are bad. Swish is just Ollies.</p>
<p>i agree with Columbia2002. the only great place in the morningside heights neighborhood is The Kitchenette which is not even really near columbia. couple blocks. But they have another location in Greenwich or somewhere in Lower Manhattan</p>
<p>Nacho's Kitchen wasn't too bad when I visited. Some of the stuff was uber-spicy (I thought the "hot" was going to be the normal run-of-the-mill hot that you get everywhere else...boy was I wrong).</p>
<p>hot food = my favorite.. lol hard to find restaurants that sell food that are actually "hot"
so.. anyone wana comment on chinese food around the area?</p>
<p>The Chinese places in the area aren't "authentic" (and consequently not "hot"). They're your basic Americanized take-out places that serve stuff like General Tso's chicken, beef w/ brocolli, orange chicken, fried rice, etc. There are good places in Chinatown (queens or manhattan) and elsewhere throughout the city. Just not in morningside.</p>
<p>If you like "hot," the Indian places near Columbia might work. They're not good, but vindaloo sauce is what it is. There are, of course, better Indian places elsewhere in the city (Murray Hill and East Village).</p>
<p>i agree, you won't find real chinese food anywhere in manhattan other than chinatown. ollie's though, even if it's chinese selling itself out, isn't so bad. maybe it's not what it used to be, but ollie's is pretty good now.</p>
<p>i'm not a fan of koronet. try out famous famiglia.</p>