Residential dining facilities across the U campus are far from the stale cafeterias featured in any number of college frat house movies or that your professors might have had to endure.

Quite the opposite, said Ken Ohlinger, campus executive chef for U Dining Services whose resume includes stints at world-class resorts and training at the Culinary Institute of America. “This is the Ferrari of dining on college campuses,” he said. In fact, he likens the U’s dining facilities more to a ski resort or cruise ship experience.

“I view this as a cruise ship. At the very beginning of the semester, they get on the ship. At the very end of the semester, they leave the ship,” he said. “So, if you have a 21 meal plan, that’s three meals a day, seven days a week for 18 weeks a semester—that’s 378 times that somebody will have a meal here.”

And with 10 dining locations spread from upper to lower campus, students—as well as faculty, staff and visitors—have a small city’s worth of choices to devour for every meal, every day.

The key, explained Ohlinger, is in meal plan flexibility. Just like the Epic or Ikon ski pass, U students can exercise the power of their meal plan pass across campus. On any given day, a student could get a protein shake or acai bowl from Shake Smart in the Student Life Center before or after a morning workout using a transfer or flex dollars, then head back to Kahlert Village after class and grab lunch at Urban Bytes—enjoying “all-you-care-to-eat” starting with a charcuterie board with local meats and cheeses from Creminelli and Beehive Cheese followed by Monday’s pozole special with one swipe. Dinner might be a grab-and-go serving of Indian food from Saffron Valley picked up with a transfer or flex dollars from the Honors Market or a salad or flatbread at Miller Cafe. A dessert treat might be gelato or a boba tea at City Edge Café using flex dollars.

“Every time we do a survey each year, it was a big ask to expand transfers and more transferability,” said Benjamin Johnson, U Dining Services marketing director. “We’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from students.”

U Dining Services also collects immediate feedback from guests on the HappyOrNot devices located near the exits of Urban Bytes in Kahlert Village, United Table in the Peterson Heritage Center, Cafe Epicenter in the Impact Prosperity Epicenter Building, Miller Cafe in the Lassonde Building and Crimson View on the top floor of the Union.

Diners can rate their dining experience from very satisfied to very unsatisfied as well as leave feedback.

“We carefully review all feedback and share it with our management team to ensure we’re addressing students’ preferences and improving their dining experience,” continued Johnson. “A good example is that we received a lot of positive feedback about our birria tacos at our Taqueria station [in Urban Bytes in Kahlert Village]. Because of this, we have added it as a weekly special and it has continued to be extremely popular.”

When it comes to campus life, dining plays a pivotal role in students’ day-to-day experience at the U, and convenience and consistency are driving students’ desires. Thanks to ordering QR codes, diners can see the wait times for individual items and also the ingredients and allergens in each item.

To keep meal choices interesting, food offerings rotate weekly through a 28-day cycle and daily specials are highlights—although plenty of favorites are available every day because part of the fun of residential dining is having access to all the quesadillas and burgers you can eat available. “We’ll always have the standards,” Ohlinger continued. “You’ll always have a vegetarian pizza. We’ll always have a pepperoni and cheese, and we do two different specialty pizzas every day.”

Yet Dining Services understands that it’s important for diners to find balanced meals and items that meet diet-specific needs. Look for symbols noting vegetarian (V), vegan (VG), avoiding gluten (AG), climate-friendly (CF) and a good source of protein (PR) at each dining location. “The chicken that we serve in the dining halls and within Chartwells or U of U dining is halal,” said Ohlinger.

Delicious Without serves safe foods for those with food allergies to the nine most common allergens and is prepared in a separate kitchen area. “We do our due diligence in mitigation through training, through cleanliness, through proper cooking technique, and where we prep in our allergen-free area,” said Ohlinger. “We have ovens that are technically only used for Delicious Without. We’re making sure that these allergens are not in this oven.”

Students can also scan QR codes to request one-on-one meetings with the chefs to discuss their allergies and what’s safe to eat and where on campus.

Ohlinger and his team of chefs also focus on sourcing ingredients locally, which not only supports local farmers and purveyors but also cuts down on the waste of products. Peterson Heritage Center (PHC) uses the chicken carcasses from their rotisserie to make their own chicken stock while the odds and ends from slicing and cutting cheese are then used to make cheese sauce. Produce and bread are delivered six days a week by local suppliers—making every meal fresher and more sustainable.

Additionally, they strive to provide the same taste and quality of the food no matter where you go across the U campus—similar to large-scale restaurant chains—because Kahlert Village serves as the central commissary kitchen for most items in all campus dining locations, from the Union to United Table in PHC. Here, cheeses are sliced in bulk, vegetables are cleaned and portioned, and chicken tenders are brined for 48 hours before being distributed to outlets around campus. So, if you love something in one location, you’ll love it just as much in another.

Living on campus comes with numerous advantages (like a free milkshake on your birthday!), and having easy access to quality dining is one of them. Students craving a hearty meal after a long day of classes, looking for quick bites between lectures, or trying to stick to dietary preferences can satisfy their tastes across the U.