Brian Cui | Student Life

Food stations in the DUC dining hall. The Qdoba is slated to open in the Delicioso taqueria station this fall. (Brian Cui | Student Life)

WashU will open a Qdoba location in the Danforth University Center (DUC) this fall, dining administrators confirmed to Student Life July 14. The forthcoming Qdoba will join Subway as one of two fast-food chain offerings on campus and will replace Delicioso, the current taqueria station located in the DUC.

Qdoba is a self-described “fast-casual Mexican restaurant with more than 800 locations in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.” Denver-based Qdoba was founded in 1995 as Zuma Fresh Mexican Grill, but changed its name to Qdoba in 1999. Qdoba does not translate into English and is not an acronym, although a 2019 ad campaign claims that “Qdoba stands for flavor.”

Raven Lumpkins, Director of Marketing and Communication for University Services states that Qdoba  “ranked in the top tier of student preferences” from a dining preference survey that circulated last fall.  

“[Qdoba] aligns well with WashU Dining’s long-term plans to offer customizable, high-quality dining options on campus,” Lumpkins wrote in an email to Student Life.

She added that the University’s dining services provider, Sodexo, supported the addition and helped move it forward and that Qdoba’s hours will likely align with typical DUC hours.

The introduction of Qdoba to the WashU dining scene comes after students and parents expressed a slate of concerns last school year about the affordability and nutritional value of on-campus food offerings.

In response to these concerns, WashU Dining committed to a two-to-three-year overhaul of its operations which includes integrating national and local brands, expanding its All You Care to Eat program and reconfiguring its meal plans.

Rising senior Juana Derdoy said that she is enthused by the prospect of an on-campus Qdoba.

“That’s great news, and I’m very excited about it,” she said. “I feel like it’s equivalent to a Chipotle, so everyone loves that.”

She added that she is planning on eating there in the fall if they take meal points. 

Lumpkins confirmed that Qdoba will take meal points and Bear Bucks. She added that Dining Services hopes to have the restaurant on Grubhub for order-ahead and pickup, but those plans have not yet been finalized.