The Best of NYU Dining

All first-year, transfer, and visiting students who live on campus are required to purchase a meal plan. Meal plans offer a combination of meal swipes (or meal exchanges) and Dining Dollars. Students can use meal swipes at all-you-care-to-eat dining halls (one swipe for anything on site). Additionally, swipes can be used at retail-style dining halls (à la carte–style, like food courts). Or at marketplaces as a meal exchange (one swipe equals one entree, side, and drink).

Dining Dollars are a dollar-for-dollar tax-free equivalent usable at a variety of on-campus locations. They can be used to buy snacks or grab-and-go meals at marketplaces or coffee shops on campus like Dunkin’ Donuts. What’s more, you can also use Dining Dollars on nonfood items at marketplaces like Band-Aids, pencils, and other essentials.

When choosing a meal plan think carefully about your lifestyle. “Understanding how much I use my Dining Dollars compared to my meal swipes was super important,” says AJ Sita, a Film and Television major in the Tisch School of the Arts. “For me personally, I use Dining Dollars more frequently than I would use a meal swipe. But for so many other students, it’s really different.”

So, what can you get for all this? Pretty much whatever you want. There are vegan, vegetarian, Kosher, Halal, gluten free, and Jain vegetarian options available on campus. You can use the build-your-own pizza station or order a Boba milk tea. You can create your own avocado toast at Lipton Hall, or order a truffle or donut burger at University Hall. The fare on campus is as diverse as the city’s dining options. Every day, students enjoy dishes like empanadas, birria, Thai bowls, and bao at dining locations across campus.

Here are some student favorites:

• A chocolate fountain at Palladium Hall during brunch every Sunday.
• Cluckstein, a specialty stand in Weinstein Hall that serves crowd-favorite chicken tenders, nuggets, and fries (with meat-free options).
• Weekly rotating globally inspired fare at 18 Below, under the Torch Club. Students can make suggestions on which regional fare to feature next.
• Fresh chocolate chip cookies at Lipton Hall.
• Vedge Craft, a vegetable-bowl stand at Upstein in Weinstein Hall, which offers fresh, made-to-order plant-based bowls.
• Bánh mì sandwiches at the Paulson Center are “super filling and truly delicious,” says AJ. “I’m getting a bang for my buck because I know it’s going to fill me up and taste awesome.”

Undeniably, the food gets high grades from students. “I love that everything’s so fresh,” says Agnese Salvatico, a sophomore in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study. “Sushi is made right in front of you. You can make your own pasta bowl, make your own pizza, make your own burger. They do everything right there.”

On the Washington Square campus, all first-year residential halls are a short distance from a dining hall. “In terms of finding a place to eat, my favorite is University Hall,” says John Sosa, a junior Journalism and Africana Studies major. “There’s a downstairs area where you can just have peace and quiet. But there’s everything on campus. You have places where people are running in and grabbing quick bites to go right back to class or to study. Or you can find friends sitting down having a great time talking.”

For an interactive map of NYU Eats locations and detailed menus, visit NYU Eats. Furthermore, for mouth-watering images of daily offerings, check out their Instagram.