Student Reviews

• Dahlia

  The food is, to put it simply, not good. I have been at this school for three years and it has not changed. It is rarely seasoned, and EVERY DAY there is a variation of some bland tofu. The vegetables are cooked within an inch of their life. And all of this is in some questionable sauce. My dinner oftentimes is a cross-contaminated veggie wrap from the sandwich station because my other option is ONE plate of unseasoned tofu and mushy vegetables. I eat the accidentally vegan food from the omnivorous section and it’s delicious and seasoned more often than not. There are no vegan desserts, the salad station has no leafy vegetables that have any nutritional value, and there are no “side options” in case you don’t like the meal (like hummus and carrots or something small). I pay $1,800 for my dining plan, so this may sound really entitled and Karen-y, but I expect good food.
  I also need to mention that the stuff in the vegan section is NOT vegan a lot of the time. I’ve been vegan four years and have never seen audacity like it before. Sometimes my only option to eat is corn. The “vegan” section oftentimes contains milk and eggs. I don’t have any pictures of the gross food because I don’t bother getting it.
  Don’t bother eating breakfast at the dining hall, there are no options unless you enjoy surviving on cantaloupe.
  However…I do have to mention some positives. When the vegan food is good, it’s great. Quinoa cakes, roasted cauliflower tacos, and fake chicken cutlet are some examples of things they had that were delicious. One of the only other pluses of this dining hall is the individually packaged soymilk in a designated refrigerator that I take on my way out of the hall.
  I also need to say this. I do not expect gourmet food. It’s a dining hall, after all. I just have no idea how this school gets an A+ for vegan food. HOW? I would say more like a C-, and I considered a lower rating as well. I hope I am not the only one who is angry at this.

• Megan

  They do not deserve this rating. They consistently put meat in the vegan section, and dining hall employees will tell you it’s vegan. One time I asked where the vegan option was, and an employee brought out a tray of (non-vegan) brownies, and said that was it.

• Mike

  They just added freshly squeezed oj.

• Marcus

  Vegan Chicken Picatta

• Allison

  I’m new but I like the vegan options in Memorial Hall

• Jon

  There is a Vegan line that offers vegan entrees and lunch and dinner. They also offer vegan rice, beans and vegetable of the day, daily. There is a Vegan student on the IRHC Food Committee that meets every two weeks. Vegetarian options are available at all stations.

• Marcus

  The reviews are a year old and I’m new to campus but there is a vegan-only line that offers vegan meals for lunch and dinner daily and a cooler that offers soy milk. They offer vegan breakfast sausage for breakfast. They must have made improvements since the last reviews.

• Jessica Stepensky

  This ranking is completely inaccurate. CCSU does NOT offer at least one vegan entree at every meal, nor does it offer one vegan entree every DAY. For example, the only vegan lunch/dinner option they had today was “steamed corn” (aka frozen corn). There are fruits and vegetables everyday (mostly basic buffet style salad bars), but no real protein sources. The school is unwilling to work with vegan students and have been known to use meat based products in meals advertised as vegan (i.e. chicken broth in “vegan” soup.) As for meatless Mondays, I don’t even know what that means, but it definitely does not happen at CCSU. Monday’s menu for this week included: cheeseburgers, turkey burgers, chicken patties, philly cheesesteak, pepperoni pizza, and pork carnitas. I respect you, PETA, but you’re way off on this rating.

• Gretchen

  There is a vegan option Monday through Friday at select hours. There are two sides of the cafe, one side has the vegan option the other does not. The vegan option isn’t available after 7 or on the weekends.

  The vegan option is USUALLY vegan. I have to ask repeatedly and talk to a manager each day to be sure of this. They sometimes put vegetarian options on this side but say nothing and don’t label it as a dairy/egg product.

  The cafe claimed to be having a Meatless Monday during the Fall semester and released a date, but failed to do so on that day.

  There have been a couple times where I have wandered out of the vegan side and looked at the other options. I’ve seen things labeled as vegan like vegetables but weren’t vegan.

  My vegetarian friends have gotten meals labeled as vegetarians that had bits of meat in it and the cooks failed to care.

  I’ve written many complaints, but they have been ignored. There was a Food Committee meeting once where someone complained that the margarine tasted bad and they wanted to get butter. They changed the margarine to butter the next day.

  There was also a food committee meeting once where my friend requested hummus at the deli. It took over two weeks to get there even though they serve hummus every Wednesday.

  Sodexo just doesn’t care.

• Dan Manstan

  I moved off campus because of how bad vegan and vegetarian options were at Central’s single dining hall. Brown rice is hard to come by, labeling is intermittent at best, and veggie burgers are offered each day but frequently run out. The soy milk machine is constantly out as well.