Navigating through the deadly or decent campus food at UT.

In August of 2016 I was 18 years old, recently graduated from highschool, and christening my Smiley Hall dorm room with my roommate Joey at the University of Tampa with bags of Wendy’s Baconators and patterned wax paper from the campus Grill. If one were to say that I ate well my freshman year, that one would be wrong. The majority of my eating freshman year occurred either after a night out once I’d found my way back to campus, or more accurately, The Grill, or on campus again, but this time during the day. Campus food is notoriously less than satisfactory at most universities. It was even the source of the majority of my friend’s jokes during my freshman year, “wanna hit the cafe?” “No but yeah.” Though as the semesters went on and my capacity for eating terrible food thinned I began discovering ways around the nauseating menu options on campus. I began finding places that weren’t terrible and finding the few items that could suffice on the menus of places that were in fact terrible. 

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For starters, there is zero quality cuisine at the University of Tampa's dining halls, so if you are looking to eat well, and aren’t limited by a meal plan, go elsewhere. But if you have found yourself in the position I once did, constricted by a campus meal plan and limited spending money, these are the places that won’t kill you, if either from food poisoning or a simple inability to stand poor cooking. Firstly, La Havana is an americanized cuban food place between the slightly better than mcdonalds Grill and Chick-fil-a, which didn’t make the cut because it simply isn’t campus run. Havana is a good portion to pay place. For one swipe you get a tray full of rice, chicken or pork, blackbeans, a side salad, plantains and a piece of bread. I’ve yet to finish an entire portion in one sitting and I tend to eat more than I should. The quality of the food is decent but in truth it’s fairly hard to screw up rice and they do a fair job on the meats so once it’s all mixed in it’s a good eat overall. Second comes the Rathskeller, a subway-esc downstairs sandwich and crepe shop. All of the meat is Boars Head so there’s at least some quality there and in my experience the bread has yet to be stale and they serve fairly large portions. You’ll likely leave unsatisfied or still hungry. Third and possibly the best on campus is Panache. The reason I’m reluctant to call this place better than the rathskeller or havana is simply due to their notorious inconsistency. One day they’ll be serving incredible authentic asain food with each entree and side combating the next for best, beating out almost every strip mall China One in town. Unfortunately, just as often they’ll be serving impromptu American-Middleastern fusion experiments with awkward portion sizes and flavorless ingredients. The food is never terrible and you’re more than likely to always find at least something worth eating but in the end, it’s truthfully hit or miss. 

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Eating on campus is not always an enjoyable thing. In fact, it’s often particularly unenjoyable. But like most things in life, there is a proper way to do it and an incorrect way to do it. If you follow the rules I’ve listed and only visit the better of the crappies, you are likely to enjoy at least one or two meals during your time at UT. 

PS: The Cafe is terrible, don’t let anybody, even yourself, ever convince you otherwise.