UChicago dining halls, ranked

There are four dining commons, every house claims a table in one of them, and by week two you will have an opinion. These are mine. The dining hall debate is the closest thing this campus has to a sport, so nobody agrees with anyone's order, including this one.

Every hall runs the same core lines, salad bar, grill, pizza. What actually separates them is one signature station and how the room feels at 7 pm.

1. Cathey

Cathey is first and I am not alone on this. It is the dining hall at South, and it is the reason north siders cross the Midway at dinner. It is the most consistent of the four, and the back rooms with the long house tables feel like the college you imagined applying to. The stir fry station has its own reputation, and whether it deserves it is one of the standing arguments here. Go form your own position.

2. Baker

Baker is second on my list, and a lot of campus puts it first, so treat this one as a coin toss I happened to call. It sits under North and the pasta station is the draw. It is also the hall people call a hospital cafeteria, and when it hosts fourth meal the crowd is real. The food wins the argument for me. The room is where it loses people.

3. Bartlett

Bartlett is the wildcard. The same thread will tell you it is the best hall on campus and the worst one, and both comments get upvotes. The taco line is the draw, tortillas with meat and cheese and rice and salsa, and the room is a converted 1901 gymnasium with portraits and stained glass, which makes it the best place of the four to sit for two hours. Bart Mart, the little store downstairs, covers the snack runs.

4. Woodlawn

Woodlawn is last on my list, and it is the ranking I am least sure about. The people who actually eat there, Woodlawn and I-House residents, will tell you it is top two, and they are not trolling. It is solid across the board more than it is great at one thing. The honest problem is that most of campus never eats there, so it loses the argument by attendance.

The two things that matter more than the order

Fourth meal, the late night service from 9 pm to midnight, rotates between halls by quarter. Learn which hall has it this quarter before you need it at 11 pm. The commons also close early on Saturday nights, which nobody tells you until you are standing outside one. Hutch in the Reynolds Club is the standard fallback.

And sit at your house table for the first few weeks. Which dining hall you get assigned matters less than the table you sit at once you are in it.

Where Pool comes in

Pool is the app for student deals around Hyde Park, free and only for verified UChicago students. The dining halls cover most meals. Pool covers the ones where you want to be somewhere else.