Dining on campus includes a variety of options

There is always a variety of dining options available for the differing tastes of students at the University of Miami. All students living on campus are required to purchase a meal plan, but there are several different ones to choose from. Freshmen must purchase a 14 or 20 meals-a-week plan that also comes with dining dollars that can be used at any restaurant on campus.

Mahoney/Pearson and Stanford/Hecht are the two dining halls located on campus. The majority of freshman students eat their meals at the Stanford/Hecht Dining Hall because it is near the freshman towers. However, both offer the same meal stations and food.

Every morning students line up at the omelet station for breakfast or at the grille for delicious burgers and hot dogs for lunch. The sandwich station is always open and is a great option if a student does not like any of the other meal options.

Beginning last fall, students also have the option to purchase the 8 Kosher Plus Meal Plan, which consists of eight meals a week that can be used at either of the dining halls along with 200 dining dollars and 500 Oasis dollars for a semester.

The 8 Kosher Meal Plan was created after the newest restaurant, the Oasis, opened. The Oasis is a Kosher deli that offers a type of food that has been missing from UM’s campus.

Mel Tenen, assistant vice president of auxiliary services, pointed out that roughly 20 percent of UM’s student body is Jewish.

“There certainly had been a pent-up demand for high-quality, strictly kosher food on our campus,” Tenen said. “The Oasis really has served to meet that need.”

Miami is a city that is obsessed with eating healthy, and the UM campus is no different. Overall, the Patti and Allan Herbert Wellness Center offers some of the healthiest food on campus. The center’s Juice Bar sells several different types of wraps, sandwiches, salads, smoothies and juices. But while the Wellness Center may offer healthy fare, convenience is crucial for most college students, and the University Center’s Hurricane Food Court is a popular dining venue because of its central location.

The food court offers the likes of Wendy’s, Panda Express and Jamba Juice, but also some local restaurants. Recent findings by Auxiliary Services indicate that Mango and Manny’s, located in the food court, is the top dining option of choice.

Unfortunately, the Hurricane Food Court is closed on weekends and has earlier closing times on Friday.

“Mango and Manny’s is extremely popular. It has terrific price points on the four and five varieties of chop-chop,” Tenen said. “The demand for the chop-chop and the rotisserie chicken in addition to everything else at Mango and Manny’s is phenomenal.”

Junior Jared Powers said that his favorite restaurant in the food court is Salsarita’s.

“I love Mexican food, and Salsarita’s provides great Mexican food quickly and at a good price.”

PLACES & TIMES

Monday-Thursday

Resident Dining

Breakfast: 7 – 10:30 a.m.

Lunch: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Dinner: 4:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Hurricane Food Court

Jamba Juice: 8:30 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Mango & Manny’s: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Market Square: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Niko’s: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sushi Maki: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Panda Express: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Salsarita’s: 10: 30 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Wendy’s: 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.

Food Court closed on weekends

Retail Operations

C-Store: 7 a.m. – 2 a.m.

Sbarro’s: 11 a.m. – 12 a.m.

Starbucks: 7 a.m. – 11 p.m.

Subway: 7 a.m. – 12 a.m.

Oasis: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.