Why can't the Y.U. student body support a good take-out place?

[cappucino]

Went to Chop Chop figuring it would be a safe bet. Who can mess up Chinese? Well...let's see. The egg roll was frozen on the inside. The wontons had a dot (and i mean, a DOT) of meat in them, they did not have any cooked fish for Sushi or any means of making tempura even though it was all over their menu. The ridiculously expensive Mango sushi was not at all good. The portions were tiny, the place was cold...
Now, I already knew that the pizza stores were horrible. Haven't tried Golan yet, but didn't hear great things. If you have a campus filled with H.S., college age people plus young couples who live there, WHY can't you have a decent (and by that, I mean passable) takeout place???

[Arinoam]

The YU meal plan is $3,100 for fall+spring semesters. It is only mandatory if you are in a dorm. If you have an apartment (like my son), you can get the meal plan but you can maintain any balance you want - you don't have to "use it or lose it" for $3,100. My son generally puts a hundred bucks at a time on his card (they have ATM-like machines for this purpose) Given the amount he drops at Golan, he will not even come close to spending $3,100 at the cafeteria. Either way - $3,100 for about 8-9 months of daily kosher food (and there is a very nice variety of quality food available) is a great deal at about $11-13/day. As far as the use it or lose it aspect of the mandatory plan. More students use up their meal plan before school is out than those who have leftover balance that they lose. In the true spirit of Achdus and mentchlichkeit, the custom is to offer one's excess food plan balance to someone else who is running short.

[molder]

At Stern, my daughter is is one of the dorms, so the sitaution is quite different. Most of my daughter's friends DID share their leftover balances at the end of the year and they were still left with extra funds. To describe the food at Stern as "a nice variety of quality food" is pushing it a bit as well. At best the food is passable.

[Arinoam]

At least Stern has quite a few decent restaurants in the area. If your daughter has an extra balance on her food card I have a tall, slim, athletic, handsome and always very hungry pre-med Junior who will gladly ride the shuttle to "pick-up" your lovely "balance" - they can go to Shalom Bombay on my dime.

[cappucino]

I have to be there again tonight. Thank you for the recs. I will try Golan. Fresh is most important to me and if that is the case, then that's enough.

[georgeliot]

Because YU has a mandatory mealplan that if I'm not mistaken all full time students must join. Its like $700 per semester or something ridiculous like that. Enrollment in the high school is down , and they are not there for dinner anyway. Neither are most of the college staff.

[bagelman01]

Ridiculous mandatory meal plan??????????????????????
Ridiculously CHEAP if it's ONLY $700 per semester. Mandatory TREIF dining plans at state universities here in CT are $2300 per semester.

[GilaB]

Seven hundred sounded cheap to me, too. It's apparently $1550/semester, with $50 available for use in local off-campus options, or $1700/semester with $250 for off-campus.
http://www.yu.edu/dining/dining-club/

[molder]

YU also pulls another fast one on its students: if the student has any money left over on his/her meal plan at the end of the spring semester, that money does NOT roll over to the next year's fall semester; it goes back to YU!!! What a deal (for YU that is)!

[GilaB]

I think that's pretty common. Every year at my (non-YU) college, you'd have students buying cases of overpriced Snapple and snacks from the campus cafe, to use up remaining credit before it expired at the end of the spring semester.

[bagelman01]

use it or lose it, this is very common at all universities

[molder]

Perhaps but at least at SUNY Binghamton, which another of my kids attended, the meal plan rolled over from yesr to year until graduation. In addition, if you saw that you were constatntly rolling over funds from one term to the next, you could get a cheaper meal plan for the next term. YU does not give thtat option to the students.

[bagelman01]

The amount I quoted was the cheaper meal plan available at the CT state University my oldest daughter attended. No rollover allowed, she must have brought home 6 cases of drinks at the end of her semester. By year 2 we had her in a dorm that was apartments with full kitchens and no manadatory food plan.

[Veggo]

It took me a moment to confirm we are discussing Yeshiva and not Yale...

[bagelman01]

That's the problem with you and me being townies. Not everything in the world revolves around NYC.

[bagelman01]

absolutely CHEAP, even folr treif

[AdinaA]

I like Golan.

[gotcholent]

You heard wrong as far as Golan goes....the place is fantastic and probably the best bang for buck NY's kosher scene has to offer. As a disclaimer, I am very friendly with the owners and kitchen staff as I got my humble beginnings with my first restaurant in the heights 8 yrs ago. I can tell you that the salads, shwarma and falafal are killer and made fresh daily. I also know few people who could actually finish the laffa size, feel free to share that amongst two peeps with some fries or Zeidi's zingers on the side. Even the quinoa is good. I can't speak for the chop chop or the deli....but the YU crowd is lucky to have a place like Golan Heights there and open until 2am.

[GilaB]

Golan's actually pretty good. You should try it the next time you're in the neighborhood.

[CWY]

Ditto. Golan is fantastic. Filthy, but fantastic. Chop Chop is an abomination.