After constant questioning and exploring of Marist College, you come to terms with where to eat and where is the best place to eat. A lot goes into this decision process though, quality of food, time spent in store, closeness of the café to your room or where you are headed. The decision definitely is not an easy one for Marist College students. The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that as a student of Marist College you have options. Whether it is the regular cafeteria, the New Café, the Cab, The Market Place, Steel Plant, Donnelly Café, and the new McCann Center the average student has a boat load of options on any given night. But the real question is where is the best spot is to eat. 

Students have been in an uproar of where the best place to get a meal is. For me the choice is simple. Donnelly Café, in my opinion, is the best spot on campus to get a meal in for these reasons. It is located in the middle of campus, so no matter where your crazy day is taking you on campus, most likely you will be passing Donnelly. Next, the food there is always reliable. Whether it is the morning when they are serving bacon egg and cheeses, the afternoon when they are serving Chicken bacon ranch subs or at night when they have hot dinners just waiting for you to consume. Having a reliable spot to eat on campus is huge for the students because at least they know they are getting a good meal in. Furthermore, Donnelly café is an in and out type spot. The typical student does not spend a lot of time waiting for their food to be prepared and they seem to please everyone with their service. For others the choice is not that easy.

For junior Alex Pansini the choice to eat anywhere on campus seems to be a tough one. “I never know where to go. Every night I feel myself eating the same spot over and over again. I feel the campus needs to expand to the local businesses around the school, to get them on campus.” For Alex eating on campus seems to be a struggle. Yet for senior Austin Phillips the choice is an easy one. “Donnelly Café is the best place to eat on campus. Its quick, easy and painless. I mean what more can you ask for when in your in a rush from class to class,” says Austin. 

As I walk around campus it is hard not to see the average student carrying a big white block in their hands. That block is without a doubt the vodka chicken parm from the New Cafe. Junior Clayton Barnes has this to say about the New Café, “Out of all the places to eat on campus it seems to me that the New Café fills me up the most. Although the wait time for a sandwich is insane, I know at the end of the day I will be filled up.” 

Being filled seems to be the typical answer for most students traveling around campus. Yet the question is still up in the air about where the best place to eat is.

For freshman Jack Keenan the regular cafeteria is the best spot to grab a meal. He explains, “I have unlimited swipes, so I have the ability to just come back to eat whenever I want. Whether that’s before class, in between classes, or after class the cafe is a spot where you can just dominate plates of food.” 

As I dive deeper into this troublesome argument on campus, I find it shocking that most people prefer the regular cafeteria for the best meal on campus. Maybe it’s the fact that they can just get an unlimited amount of food in one sitting, or the fact that it is more than the food. The regular cafeteria is a sit-down spot that brings people together. You walk in and you see whole sports teams combing tables, friend groups packing tables to the max and a whole lot of laughter. Maybe it is not the food that attracts people; maybe it’s the experience that matters most to these Marist College students.

At the end of the day, I found a lot out about where to eat on campus and where the best meal comes from. I found out that the experience matters and with that being said I declare the regular cafeteria the best place to eat on campus. 

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