Sunday brunch at NYU Palladium Dining Hall brings people in with a variety of food greater than that of other dining halls, though it faces problems of limited space and freshness of food, according to a sampling of NYU students.
“Everyone must try Sunday brunch” at Palladium Dining Hall, declares the NYU Wagner, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service page on Facebook.
At 12:45 P.M. Palladium Dining Hall was filled with students. There were about 15 students waiting in line for eggs and tater tots at the “Global” section of the dining hall. Each person had a black tray in hand as they eagerly awaited their meal. Nearby there is a “Grill” section that prepares made-to-order omelets. Opposite to the egg and tater tots is the self-service fruit station, which displays strawberries, watermelon, pineapples and grapes.
In the other room, there are many students waiting at the “Dessert” section. It offers cheesecakes, strawberry shortcakes, cupcakes and chocolate cakes. The two dining rooms were crowded, and it was hard to find an open table. Many students had to walk around the whole dining hall in order to spot an open seat.
32 percent of NYU students have voted Palladium as the best food option on campus, according to student polls conducted by Niche, a ranking and review site for colleges. Among the 55 responses, Kimmel, Upstein and University Hall respectively gained 27 percent, 10 percent and 8 percent of the vote. Additionally, Palladium’s Sunday brunch was the winner of the 2012 “Best Event on Campus,” a NYUDining report shows.
The retail value of “Sunday Brunch Extravaganza,” provided by LifeWorks Restaurant Group at Palladium, is 15.95 dollars. It costs one meal swipe, which is about 10 to 12 dollars for meal plan members. It features food that is “local, wholesome, healthy and authentic,” the NYUDining report indicates. Students can enjoy fresh fruit, pastries, dessert, bread, omelets, eggs benedict and so on at this “all-you-care-to-eat” dining hall.
Students enjoy the dining hall for a variety of reasons. Palladium has “a lot of selections, high quality food and desserts,” said Michelle, an NYU music technology graduate student. She uses her meal plan to have Sunday brunch at Palladium once a month. Her favorite food is smoked salmon, which, as one of the more expensive foods offered at the dining hall, is sliced and served to customers by staff wearing black uniforms. She also noted that there was more fresh fruit at Palladium than Weinstein.
“Generally, Palladium is better than all the other dining halls,” stated Zhenyuan Shi, a freshman from China who majors in film and television at Tisch. Instead of going to Weinstein, where she lives, she chose Palladium. “If you eat the same thing everyday, you get sick of it,” she said. She believes Palladium is popular because it provides food with “better quality,” and students always talk about it. The fruits taste good and the salad stays fresh. Shi started with a shrimp salad, which she suggested is only offered at Palladium. However, she complained, “It is hard for me to find a seat.” She finally found an empty table in the corner of the room after about five minutes.
Alexandra, Holden, a freshman drama major who lives in Third North at NYU, made a similar complaint. Palladium is so popular that “more people come here than the amount of the seats there are.” Furthermore, she acknowledged it was noisy there. She had to “yell at him (her friend sitting opposite to her), and then he yelled back.” When talking about the food quality, she noted that not all of the food is fresh, such as the eggs benedict and pancakes. “Many boats of pancakes are sitting outside for hours. Staff will not refill it until it’s empty. Sometimes food quality is inconsistent. It varies a little bit. Stuff inside [inner dining hall] is not as fresh as outside [outside dining hall].” Nevertheless, Holden likes Palladium, as she finds it “super fancy.” She has not discovered as good a dining hall among the other colleges she has visited.
While many would agree that the seating situation is a problem, some have a different perspective on how the dining hall could create a better experience. Jonathan, a junior studying computer science, commented that there were “too many people [and] too little space” to increase the amount of seating space. On the other hand, “It could improve on food freshness.” He comes to Sunday brunch at Palladium twice a semester.
“Food could be better,” he added. Many tater tots were left on his plate because he did not find them fresh enough, as they were too dry to eat. Additionally, he found that some of the brunch food was cold, which he found annoying. However, as all of the students interviewed stated, the overall quality and service at Palladium is good. It provides customers with a wide variety of food, something “none of the other NYU dining halls do.”
“Everyone must try Sunday brunch” at Palladium Dining Hall, declares the NYU Wagner, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service page on Facebook.
At 12:45 P.M. Palladium Dining Hall was filled with students. There were about 15 students waiting in line for eggs and tater tots at the “Global” section of the dining hall. Each person had a black tray in hand as they eagerly awaited their meal. Nearby there is a “Grill” section that prepares made-to-order omelets. Opposite to the egg and tater tots is the self-service fruit station, which displays strawberries, watermelon, pineapples and grapes.
In the other room, there are many students waiting at the “Dessert” section. It offers cheesecakes, strawberry shortcakes, cupcakes and chocolate cakes. The two dining rooms were crowded, and it was hard to find an open table. Many students had to walk around the whole dining hall in order to spot an open seat.
32 percent of NYU students have voted Palladium as the best food option on campus, according to student polls conducted by Niche, a ranking and review site for colleges. Among the 55 responses, Kimmel, Upstein and University Hall respectively gained 27 percent, 10 percent and 8 percent of the vote. Additionally, Palladium’s Sunday brunch was the winner of the 2012 “Best Event on Campus,” a NYUDining report shows.
The retail value of “Sunday Brunch Extravaganza,” provided by LifeWorks Restaurant Group at Palladium, is 15.95 dollars. It costs one meal swipe, which is about 10 to 12 dollars for meal plan members. It features food that is “local, wholesome, healthy and authentic,” the NYUDining report indicates. Students can enjoy fresh fruit, pastries, dessert, bread, omelets, eggs benedict and so on at this “all-you-care-to-eat” dining hall.
Students enjoy the dining hall for a variety of reasons. Palladium has “a lot of selections, high quality food and desserts,” said Michelle, an NYU music technology graduate student. She uses her meal plan to have Sunday brunch at Palladium once a month. Her favorite food is smoked salmon, which, as one of the more expensive foods offered at the dining hall, is sliced and served to customers by staff wearing black uniforms. She also noted that there was more fresh fruit at Palladium than Weinstein.
“Generally, Palladium is better than all the other dining halls,” stated Zhenyuan Shi, a freshman from China who majors in film and television at Tisch. Instead of going to Weinstein, where she lives, she chose Palladium. “If you eat the same thing everyday, you get sick of it,” she said. She believes Palladium is popular because it provides food with “better quality,” and students always talk about it. The fruits taste good and the salad stays fresh. Shi started with a shrimp salad, which she suggested is only offered at Palladium. However, she complained, “It is hard for me to find a seat.” She finally found an empty table in the corner of the room after about five minutes.
Alexandra, Holden, a freshman drama major who lives in Third North at NYU, made a similar complaint. Palladium is so popular that “more people come here than the amount of the seats there are.” Furthermore, she acknowledged it was noisy there. She had to “yell at him (her friend sitting opposite to her), and then he yelled back.” When talking about the food quality, she noted that not all of the food is fresh, such as the eggs benedict and pancakes. “Many boats of pancakes are sitting outside for hours. Staff will not refill it until it’s empty. Sometimes food quality is inconsistent. It varies a little bit. Stuff inside [inner dining hall] is not as fresh as outside [outside dining hall].” Nevertheless, Holden likes Palladium, as she finds it “super fancy.” She has not discovered as good a dining hall among the other colleges she has visited.
While many would agree that the seating situation is a problem, some have a different perspective on how the dining hall could create a better experience. Jonathan, a junior studying computer science, commented that there were “too many people [and] too little space” to increase the amount of seating space. On the other hand, “It could improve on food freshness.” He comes to Sunday brunch at Palladium twice a semester.
“Food could be better,” he added. Many tater tots were left on his plate because he did not find them fresh enough, as they were too dry to eat. Additionally, he found that some of the brunch food was cold, which he found annoying. However, as all of the students interviewed stated, the overall quality and service at Palladium is good. It provides customers with a wide variety of food, something “none of the other NYU dining halls do.”