After working at the University of Texas for the past 14 years, I’ve become intimately familiar with every single dining venue anywhere near campus. For an employee or student (at least those students who can no longer stomach dorm food), distance is of prime concern. Generally you’re afoot, since you don’t dare risk losing a hard-to-find parking place. This works well for most UT-area eateries, since most have zero to little parking anyway. Price is of keen interest, since most students are by nature financially challenged and UT employees are paid abysmal wages. Speed of service is also a requisite, especially when you get on the fringes of the campus core; there is a finite time allotted for sustenance in the daily schedules of most UT employees and students.
In the last year or so, there have been some new arrivals to the UT-area dining scene, and I also include one that’s been there forever but has been overlooked in the past. From Greek and Chinese to bento boxes, from pizza and sandwiches to Mediterranean, they run the gamut. Most of these newbies fit in nicely with the established mainstays of campus dining: Madam Mam’s, Dirty’s, Veggie Heaven, Crown & Anchor, Trudy’s, Hoover’s, etc. And from Chronicles past, you can also refer to “Top 10 Campus-Area Eateries,” Jan. 7, 2005, and “Campus Food Secrets Revealed,” Sept. 23, 2005, which are still relevant with few exceptions.
This article appears in June 6 • 2008.
