Bon Appétit-served Colleges and Universities Top Princeton Review’s Best Campus Food Rankings
- by Peter Todaro
Students flock to Wheaton College’s Anderson Commons during the lunch rush
The Princeton Review’s 2023 Best Campus Food rankings are in, and six Bon Appétit-served schools are in the top 25!
The ranking is a result of surveys conducted of over 160,000 students at 388 colleges and universities across the country that registered with the Princeton Review. Students were presented with the question “how do rate the food on campus” among other questions.
Out of the top 10 schools on the top 25 list, Bon Appétit Management Company is particularly proud to be the only national food service provider whose schools were ranked. The other universities honored are all independently operated. Read on to learn more about some of the best dining programs in the country!
A student at Washington University in St. Louis grabs a pastry from the school’s award-winning Parkside Café
#3 Washington University in St. Louis
The Bon Appétit team at Washington University in St. Louis serves a sprawling campus of over 17,000 students, with nearly half being undergraduates. The large and diverse student body is matched by a wide array of dining options at 16 locations across campus. Locations include Ibby’s, a beloved on-campus restaurant, Millbrook Market, a retail store that features a variety of local items, as well as Parkside Café, which won a NACUFS Loyal E. Horton award grand prize in 2020.
Pitzer’s McConnell Center houses the McConnell Dining Hall and serves as a hub for campus life
#5 Pitzer College
As one of the Claremont Colleges, Pitzer is nestled alongside six other colleges and universities outside of Los Angeles, California. Overseen by Dining Services Manager Eva Szijj and Executive Chef Marcos Rios, the dining program offers a wide variety of cuisines to cater to the diversity of palates on Pitzer’s campus. Upon entering the McConnell Dining Hall, students are welcomed by global cuisines at the aptly named Global station, creative vegan and vegetarian options at the Herbivore station, as well as a lunch and dinnertime taco bar.
Hyper-local fruits, like these oranges, can be found across Scripps’ campus and in its Malott Dining Commons
#12 Scripps College
Scripps is a hop, skip, and jump away from the other Claremont Colleges, including its neighbor Pitzer, and according to one student reviewer, has slightly better tacos. Intense taco competition between Claremont Colleges aside, Scripps’ dining program benefits from a commitment to local food that extends beyond the walls of the Malott Dining Commons. Across campus, hundreds of varieties of fruit trees, herbs, and edible plants abound. The Bon Appétit team on campus mirrors the college’s approach toward hyper-local food with an emphasis on from-scratch cuisine from a variety of local Farm to Fork vendors.
St. Olaf College’s Stav Hall hosts the school’s Christmas Fest each year, which features traditional Scandinavian cuisine like lutefisk
#13 St. Olaf College
In Northfield, Minnesota, St. Olaf College’s dining program has been operated by Bon Appétit for over 25 years and, naturally, long-term relationships, both on campus and in the community, have blossomed. During her time on campus, Bon Appétit General Manager Traci Quinnell and the team have been instrumental in supporting St. Olaf Garden Research and Organic Works (STOGROW), St. Olaf’s campus farm. The team purchases seasonal produce throughout the growing season for use in the cafés on campus. In recent years, STOGROW has scaled up and become a key facet of the college’s sustainability efforts. But beyond supporting the production of hyperlocal produce, the Bon Appétit team helps to uphold campus traditions, too. Each year, the team caters Christmas Fest, a legendary Scandinavian Christmas festival that includes involves serving Swedish meatballs, lefse, and many hundreds of pounds of lutefisk.
A Wheaton College student poses with a sandwich
#16 Wheaton College
Wheaton College’s dining program has ranked highly on the Princeton Review’s Best Campus Food list for well over a decade, and it’s no secret why! The Bon Appétit team, led by General Manager Luis Colon, places their relationship with students high on their list of priorities. The team get to know students on a first-name basis, and are quick to act on feedback, recently introducing a SimplyOASIS allergen station to cater to students with food allergies. The team has long served the local community, too, having offered meals for sale to community members through a program called From Our House to Yours (FOHTY). During the height of COVID-19, they donated prime rib Christmas dinners to families in need.
Wesleyan students enjoy an all-local feast during this year’s Eat Local Challenge
#23 Wesleyan University
Led by Resident District Manager Michael Strumpf and a long-time management team, Bon Appétit at Wesleyan University has been serving students on the Middletown, Connecticut campus for over a decade. Beyond offering delicious, from-scratch food at Wesleyan’s Usdan Marketplace, Daniel Family Commons, and four other locations across campus, the team truly embraces Bon Appétit’s commitment to local food and the seasonal bounty of New England. In recent years, the team has held an outdoor bash for Eat Local Challenge, inviting students, faculty, and staff to feast on a creative and diverse array of all-local dishes.