Although they are not five star restaurants, college Dining Halls, or cafeterias, deserve your respect.

During the summer after high school graduation, and before my first year in college, I heard many stories of the college life from older college friends who had returned home for the summer. While the stories ranged from last-minute studying and boring professors to crazy weekends, many linked back to the college dining hall.

From listening to these stories, I became convinced that dining common food was terrible. When given advice about the dining common food, I was told to bring my own snacks and try to eat out as much as I could. However, my own experiences with the dining hall food have proven to me that dining hall food gets a bad reputation and deserves better.

After sliding my college ID card through the scanner, I was allowed into De La Guerra, one of the University of California’s dining commons. The dinner menu was scribbled on a large whiteboard. The variety of the menu caught my eye first. I could choose the roast beef with broccoli and baked potato, pick up a chicken enchilada, snag a cheese pizza, and make my own salad. If all of this food didn’t appeal to me, then I could always eat the sweet and sour pork and cap the meal off with warm French apple pie. Or I could get everything.

No matter what kind of food a student craves, most dining halls will have something to sate an appetite. This variety is key for dining commons. Keep in mind that, depending on the size of the university, dining commons must prepare food for over five thousand students for every meal of every day. As a result, the quality of the food can be mediocre.

When the chefs are forced to bake hundreds of pizzas a day, in addition to all of the other food, the cheese may not be melted enough on one of the slices. The variety, however, can make up for the mediocrity. Students can choose whatever food they desire, and even mix foods to create a unique meal.

One of the tricks to eating well at the dining common is to discover what the dining common makes best. Suggestions from friends can be imperative when you are deciding what to eat. Long lines form for the barbecue chicken pizza at UC Santa Barbara, but the dry pork loins are often left untouched.

In order to keep from gaining the “Freshman 15” students should try not to get too carried away with the buffet-style food. Make use of the salads and limit how many entrees you bring back to the table. Unfortunately for the students concerned with purely organic food, most dining halls do not offer a wide assortment of organic, “Trader Joe’s- style food.

Online menus are especially helpful when universities have more than one dining common and students want to know the best place to eat on a particular day. Joseph Flynn, a student at UC Berkeley, said, “I use an online menu of the different dining commons so I can look online and find the best place that night.”

A student at the University of Puget Sound in Washington, Robert Thorson, said, “At my school, the sandwich area it the best by far. It is the freshest place…But then every Friday the school has homemade Mac and cheese, which is amazing as well. The worst food by far is the Asian food.”

Learn what the chefs make well, and know what to stay away from. Asian food requires diverse spices and sauces and is a dining hall food that you may want to avoid. However Kyle Bradley, from San Jose State, claims that the “orange chicken kicks ass.”

Paying for meals at college dining halls is different for every university. Some universities put students on a “meal plan” where students can choose how many meals they would like to eat a week. Other colleges offer a “point system” and assign points to both students and the different foods. Students can then use the points to their discretion and choose the more expensive onion rings, or settle for the krinkle-cut fries.

As for vegetarian eaters, all dining halls offer food devoid of any meat products for every meal. The labeled food will usually show a “V” or “Vegetarian” to signify it is suitable for vegetarians. The label will also confirm if the dish contains nuts, aiding those who have serious allergies.

There are no guarantees to how the food in a college dining common will taste, but rest assured that you won’t have to eat out for every meal. Most dining commons make quality food, whether it be in the sandwich bar or the Asian grill. Even the best tasting of foods starts to taste bland after eating it for nine months straight, so don’t hesitate to explore the variety of food the dining hall has to offer.