Is Dining at UVa Vegetarian Friendly?

<p>I am definetly going to UVa so I am just curious as to whether it will be hard for me to find vegetarian meals. Even if it is bad, I don't have to dine at the university after my first year, right?</p>

<p>You can go on the UVA website and look at the dining hall menus for the week, and they have both vegetarian and vegan options. Here’s the link for O-Hill.</p>

<p>[Welcome</a> to CampusDish at University of Virginia!](<a href=“http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSMA/Virginia/Locations/ObservatoryHillMenu.htm?LocationName=Observatory%20Hill%20Menu&MealID=16&OrgID=113745&Date=3_29_2009&ShowPrice=False&ShowNutrition=True]Welcome”>http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSMA/Virginia/Locations/ObservatoryHillMenu.htm?LocationName=Observatory%20Hill%20Menu&MealID=16&OrgID=113745&Date=3_29_2009&ShowPrice=False&ShowNutrition=True)</p>

<p>NO…it’s pretty bad. I’m a vegan and while at UVA, I didn’t have a meal plan. But since you HAVE to your first year, I guess talk to the people at dining, I did but they weren’t very helpful…I had to be like…ok, so vegans don’t eat things like chocolate chip cookies or fish, and they still were pretty dumbfounded.</p>

<p>Being vegan and eating in a college dining is difficult almost anywhere. Being vegetarian is not.</p>

<p>The dining services are run by Aramark. They management is more than familiar with different sorts of diets, but I could see them not being able to provide extraordinary variety for vegans. </p>

<p>There are plenty of options for vegetarians at UVa, but the more restricted your diet gets, the fewer options you’ll have at any college dining hall.</p>

<p>Canefanatic, good question! I am a vegetarian and I do not eat off of anything that has cooked or touched meat, no matter how thouroughly it has been cleaned. I also do not in restaurants. I plan on getting the meal plan while it is required and just not using it.</p>

<p>novaswim7 that’s a bad idea, because you are shelling out about 1,800 dollars per semester, so you should use it. OHill has a nice salad bar and there’s pasta too.</p>

<p>^ I agree. UVa has pretty good variety for vegetarians.</p>

<p>No one can deny that the food at UVA is not the best, whether it is from Newcomb, Runk or O-Hill. Just because they have pasta, bread and lettuce, does not make a “good variety” for vegetarians. I wish getting a meal plan your first year wasn’t mandatory, it is SUCH a rip-off.</p>

<p>^^ If the alternative-food scene (e.g. cooking) were a bit stronger in public presence and cohesion, then maybe could get that requirement dropped at some point. I have a feeling the requirement was part of a backroom contract agreement in order to give ARAMARK some guaranteed profit. </p>

<p>I can’t stand UVA dining’s advertisements … I mean, I often find the food good, and there are times when O’Hill is awesome, but there can be times when the food isn’t. I love how dining seems to completely overlook cooking by saying it offers “savings” such that you don’t have to eat out or get delivery. <em>rolleyes</em></p>

<p>My daughter was wondering the same thing. We have visited a lot of colleges and ate at most of them (not UVA) and some are great and some not so great. Tech does a wonderful job with vegan options, and Mary Washington was decent. I really hope they have soy milk at UVA at least. I was hoping that with such a large campus they would have at least a few vegan choices.</p>

<p>Well, they don’t have coffee-flavored soy milk, only plain and chocolate. Coffee-soy would rock.</p>

<p>They do have vegan choices – I actually would say they dominate way too much of O’Hill. :p</p>

<p>"They do have vegan choices – I actually would say they dominate way too much of O’Hill. "</p>

<p>lol nice. Then hopefully my first year is set, food-wise. I’m definitely not having the full food plan after the first year.</p>

<p>it all depends on how “vegan” you are, I’d say the options are there for you, again UVa dining is nothing to write home about, it’s on average “ok” with some great themed meals and dishes sometimes.</p>