Rating: Three Globes out of Five
I will admit, in the past few years The Globe has published some not-so-nice things about Point Park’s Dining Hall, but I am here to try and do my best to give you the most unbiased perspective solely based on the food’s taste. Since I was a freshman, I’ve commuted from Westmoreland County to Downtown Pittsburgh, so I have never had a meal plan and have never been required to have one. The only other time I ate at the Dining Hall was during my orientation week in 2022 when, for a day, all the meals were free for freshmen.
After trying multiple dishes I found one word to describe pretty much everything sold: processed.
Walking past the salad bar and through the all-you-can-eat area back to where the pizza is, I quickly remembered my first experience at the Dining Hall when I first saw the self-boil pasta. The first time I tried it I didn’t realize this and ate it cold. This time, with my new knowledge I made sure to boil my pasta, although as a germaphobe, it was mildly concerning to watch the pasta boil in the water that everyone else’s pasta touched.
The noodles had a weird, chewy almost elastic texture and the meat sauce that I put on them had way too much sodium, but without it the pasta tasted far too bland.
Next, I tried the dinner brisket and rice special they had. The students I sat with at my table were pretty optimistic about the food, but I figured they had to be since that was what they ate every day.
The rice tasted like it did at my high school cafeteria. Super dry, bland and almost rubbery. Rice should be white and sticky, but the brown rice they serve is flavorless and reminds me of huge flakes of cereal or sand the way it falls against gravity. Rice should fall like one big chunk, but this rice had no hope of sticking to itself.
The brisket, on the other hand, was worth trying and had a strong herbal taste. The kids at my table said that the rice specials they often had were usually good and tasty. Apart from the extremely bland rice, I agreed with them.
Next I, of course, had to try a slice of pizza which, to my surprise, also had an herbal taste like the brisket. Although Genoa’s pizza would still beat it, as it was a bit cold, the slice was decent. It made sense when the student sitting across from me said that the pasta and pizza usually were good options when everything else in the cafe looked unappetizing.
The waffle fries were probably the best thing I tried. Although I wouldn’t recommend filling up on them, the crispness and seasoning on the fries were satisfying.
The strawberry yogurt also tasted great, but I assume that’s because the school buys it rather than makes it like their other desserts.
Although they were tasty, one of my main concerns was seeing that the dessert bar didn’t have labels for each of the dishes. The girl sitting to my left even said that one time she tried the banana cake by mistake and it caused a non-threatening allergic reaction in her throat due to it being unlabeled.
If you don’t have flex dollars or a meal plan I would never recommend going to the cafe. Although, after checking my bank transaction I saw that after everything I ate, I was only charged a whopping $8! I seriously thought that it cost at least $10 or $12 to eat at the Dining Hall. So, if you’re starving, broke and want really processed food or cheap dessert, the third floor of Lawrence Hall would be your prime destination.
