Bite! Squelch! Munch! After Washington University announced it is changing dining providers from Bon Appetit Management Co. to Sodexo Food and Facilities Management, Sophomore and First-year reporters, Lily Taylor and Zach Trabitz, decided they had to scout out the scene of what dining looks like at Saint Louis University (SLU), which utilizes Sodexo as its dining provider.

The Journey

We prepared to depart on the metro (yay public transportation!) before realizing James, our lovely senior editor, could drive us. Also worth noting is that we are both vegetarians, so having a carnivore would paint a more comprehensive picture of Sodexo’s dining options. Luckily, after a brief intermission, James was able to snatch us up and drive us to SLU.

As we started out on our trek across the city, we did some research on the SLU dining halls, which use a website under Sodexo to inform students of dining hours, menus, and even nutritional information for individual meals. 

Sodexo’s website features a nutrition calculator which allows you to select food items and provides the compiled calories, vitamins, etc. When we opened the menu, we saw that it (horrifying) listed the calories of every meal (gasp), with seemingly no option to disable it. Hopefully, WashU does not end up doing this, as this seems to force nutritional information upon students and promote stressful hyper- awareness of eating habits. 

The Scene 

When we finally arrived at Grand Hall, one of SLU’s primary dining halls, we passed through an entrance with stations where students can swipe their student ID. 

SLU uses a swipe system rather than meal points, which means that a student swipes their ID once and takes “all you care to eat.” As a part of their dining changes, WashU is also considering moving some dining halls to a swipe system in the future. 

In the dining hall were stations such as “Wild Mushroom,” a vegetarian station, and “Billiken Grill.” Something interesting to note is that there were significantly more buffet-style stations offered than at the Danforth University Center (DUC) or Bears Den (BD). 

The Food

We ended up getting sandwiches since a fair amount of stations were closed. We think we showed up during an off-hours period (oops). Upon approaching the station, we were asked what kind of burger we wanted. We vegetarians got black bean burgers, while James got a chicken sandwich. The dining staff gave us the proteins on a bun, but we got to choose in a buffet-style system what toppings we wanted, such as lettuce, cheese, tomato, and more. 

After loading our burgers up, we stopped by another buffet-style station offering pita chips with quinoa, salsa, and multiple flavors of hummus. We tried the regular hummus and the roasted red pepper hummus. 

We ended our multi-course feast with a slice of cheese pizza from their “Pizzeria” station. The slices were smaller but much thicker than the average WashU slice, and they even featured an appropriate and enjoyable amount of spices. 

Other notable stations included the “Deli,” which featured a Subway-style sandwich building station and pre-made wraps, and a breakfast bar, which featured waffle makers. Much to our sadness, SLU’s Grand Hall had another thing in common with WashU dining: no soft-serve machines. 

Overall Thoughts

Lily: 

Cosplaying as a SLU student for the afternoon was the experience of a lifetime (me when I lie), and the food provided by Sodexo makes me largely optimistic for the future of WashU dining. Although I didn’t enjoy the caloric calculator feature of Sodexo’s dining services (wild understatement of my dislike for it), I thought SLU had a wide variety of options, and I enjoyed quite a few of them. 

Favorite Dish: My favorite dish in Grand Hall was the pita chips with roasted red pepper hummus. Sodexo, if you’re reading this, please give us some of that hummus. 

To Swipe or Not To Swipe: Using a swipe system means that you can control how many dishes you get and how big your portions are without worrying about meal points. On the flip side, I’m doubtful that the 12 P.M. DUC scene could handle the chaos of “all you care to eat.” I’d love to see it tested. 

Zach:

My time at SLU was magical. They had a fountain outside the dining hall with some dolphin things that I thought were beautiful, and the dining hall itself was cool. I thought Sodexo’s website design was really helpful, especially as WashU’s dining websites can be hard to navigate (besides, as Lily mentioned, the way too in-your-face nutritional information).

Favorite Dish: My favorite dish was the cheese pizza slice. It looked like the most delicious thing I would ever have in my life, and while it was not that, it was still pretty good. 

Booths? Booths: The booths at SLU could easily fit three, maybe even four people, on each side. Compared to BD’s measly two to each side, I enjoyed the booths at SLU much more. You could also easily sleep on the booth cushions (24 hours at SLU?).

James: When asked for his thoughts, James said, “I thought the food was comparable to WashU’s dining options. My chicken sandwich was pretty good.”

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