Purdue University was recently named #19 on Best Value School's "50 Best College With The Best Food 2017-2018" article, but how do their dining courts rate against each other? After finding myself in each dining court for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at least three times, I have decided to rank them to find the champion amongst champions. Please note that this list is purely my own personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of my school as a whole nor the students attending it.
5. Ford Dining Court
Although it is the closest dining court to my dorm, I purposely go out of my way to avoid eating here. Of the numerous times I have eaten here, I find myself searching high and low for food that is not a burger, not pizza, not chicken tenders, and not Chinese food. Listen, I love all of these things (excluding Chinese food) as much as the next guy, but when it's being served almost every day, it not only gets boring but it starts to lose its good taste.
My advice to Ford is to change it up more often because I really want to make more use of you!
4. Earhart Dining Court
Of the times I have been to Earhart, I have always managed to eat the most random and dissimilar foods possible. It could be 10:30 am and I would be forced to eat scrambled eggs along with a breaded chicken breast or a risotto of some sort. No, I don't dislike any of those foods, but I do like my meals to be somewhat cohesive and only consist of one type of "meal food". However, I will note that Earhart does offer what I believe to be the BEST mashed potatoes on campus so a few bonus points for that!
My advice to Earhart is if you're going to serve food that overlaps two generally separate meals offer more food of each so students can pick and choose from more of one or the other rather than having to settle for a weird combo.
3. Wiley Dining Court
While I attend Wiley regularly, it still lacks the strength needed to push into my top two dining courts. When I go eat at Wiley I will 9 times out of 10 opt for their professional pasta bar or use the small self-making pasta right next to it. I love this pasta bar because it allows me to indulge in my favorite food of all time and the ingredients they offer to allow me to have the same culinary creativity I would if I had access to my own kitchen. However, this is where my rave for Wiley stops as much of the other food I've tried was too salty for my taste.
My advice to Wiley is to keep serving 10/10 pasta with impeccable ingredients and I know Salt Bae was a thing for a while, but maybe be a little less heavy-handed with the sodium?
2. Hillenbrand Dining Court
This is where it got hard. Between Hillenbrand and my number one choice, I struggled with determining where to place them but I finally concluded that Hillenbrand came just shy of number one. Hillenbrand is what I believe to be the best in terms of food diversity but the worst in terms of lines. I guess with great food comes even greater and longer waiting. The number of times I have waited in a ridiculously long line for the make your own Burger Bar, Wings Your Way Bar, or Quesadilla bar is too many to count. However, I continue to do so because the food is so good. Maybe it's unfair to rank a dining court based on its lines rather than it's food but someone has to be number one.
My advice to Hillenbrand is to keep the food diversity up, but work on getting it out faster because I'm hungry!
1. Windsor Dining Court
All of the many things that set Windsor above the rest are fresh baked cookies, halal options, gourmet salad bar, and make your own burrito bar. I constantly find myself eating at Windsor munching on a kale salad with quinoa, hot chicken, and Italian salad dressing or a burrito bowl that comes without the extra fee of getting double guac. I mean come on people gourmet salads and burrito bowls are all anyone needs! But let's not forget the fresh baked desserts that the amazing kitchen staff whip up, they taste homemade and are too addictive to not pass up. Bonus of Windsor? It's architecture resembles Hogwarts, which makes for an even better dining experience.
My advice to Windsor is to never change!
