Foodology Disclaimer: SFU gave me a tour of their new dining facilities and I couldn’t say no since I am a proud alumni. Everything was complementary, but I kept all my opinions pretty unbiased.
When I graduated from Simon Fraser University, the food was very horrible and unhealthy. Over the past year, SFU Dining Services is rolling out revamps all over campus to give students a better and healthier dining experience. About time eh? I was very curious about what they did over the past few months, but I was quite impressed with the changes.
SFU invited me to take a tour of the New Mackenzie Cafe and Dining Hall. Additional revamps will take place later on. Starbucks will be coming in 2013!
Whats also cool is that they have “Street Eat Thursdays“, where they bring a food truck to the Burnaby Campus. They have had Roaming Dragon, Dougie Dog, and JapaDog in the past! This happens at the Saywell/AQ courtyard.
New Mackenzie Cafe ( Academic Quadrangle)
The New Mackenzie Cafe is located in the Academic Quadrangle on the East side.
The entire interior has been updated and is now more modern and brighter.
They brought in a Subway, so you can get a Subway without walking to Cornerstone.
They have a custom sandwich and salad bar, where you can make your own salads and sandwiches however you want.
The prices are reasonable especially when you want the item made your way.
These are the different items you can put into your sandwich.
These are the items you can throw into your salad.
There is a section to order sushi and soup.
They even have asian noodle bowls for the month of October.
Pho! You probably don’t want to get any pho here since it’s not as good as what you would find at a Vietnamese Restaurant. Management is aware the pho isn’t up to par and are making efforts to improve it’s taste.
They cater to different tastes, so they have a South Asian Section with vegetarian options.
One of their signature items is the Butter Chicken. I would definitely recommend this!
There are no burgers at MacKenzie Cafe, but they have pizza! Fresh pizza too! They use a stone oven to make their pizza.
The slices are HUGE! You’ll definitely be full from just one slice!
There’s also StirFry too.
The awesome thing that they have is ALL DAY BREAKFAST! You can have omelettes with anything you want.
All the ingredients are visible, so you can see what options are available for your omelettes.
The seating area is so much brighter and comfortable to sit and chill with friends. The have installed more outlets, so you can charge your laptops or phones.
I had a sampling of the Butter Chicken and the SFU Roll. The Butter chicken was pretty good and had a lot of flavours. The SFU Roll consists of spicy tuna and cucumber on the inside and topped with yam tempura with a teriyaki sauce. The roll was OK, but it’s one of their popular items.
The New Mackenzie Cafe has gotten a facelift along with their food offerings. There are no unhealthy burgers and everything is under $10. The students have spoken and the changes are being made for better food. If the food doesn’t live up to your taste, let them know and they will try their best to improve.
Words of Wisdom:
- Lot of healthy options
- More outlets to charge electronics
- Under $10
- All Day Breakfast
Residence Dining Hall
The Residence Dining Hall had a major revamp as well. It is now open 24 hours, 7 days a week.
It is open to both students, staff and faculty. Just pay the door rate and you can eat anything you want! The door rate does vary depending on what time of the day it is. Anywhere from $4.95 to $9.95. The prices are reasonable if you have a big stomach.
During the evening, you can still get some baked goods, tea, and coffee.
There is a salad bar and a variety of soups in the middle of the food area.
Personalized sized pizza
Dessert pizza – S’mores Pizza was what they had when we were here. It was not bad at all…it was just missing that graham cracker touch.
All the pizzas are made in the stone oven just like at Mackenzie Cafe.
There are vegetarian and vegan options too.
Butter Chicken, naan, and rice.
The coolest area is the “myPantry” area where you can cook whatever you want with the items available.
Everything is located in the large fridge and if there is something that isn’t there, you can get them to order it in.
You have stoves, toasters, panini press, waffle maker, etc. If you don’t know how to cook something, there is staff on hand that can teach you!
Little herb gardens are around in the pantry area if you want very fresh herbs.
The eating area is much nicer and they have also installed more plugs for your electronics.
I like the Residence Dining Hall’s new concept since you don’t have to worry about how much you eat. You pay the fixed rate and get access to all the food.
Words of Wisdom:
- Open 24 hours, 7 days a week
- Open to everyone (non-rez students, staff, and faculty)
- Flat Fee to eat anything
- Awesome Pantry area to make anything you want
- Breakfast: 6am – 11am ($4.95)
- Lunch: 11am – 5pm ($7.95)
- Dinner: 5pm – 9pm ($9.95)
- Late night: 9pm – 6am ($7.95)
Additional Cool Stuff
Website:
http://www.dineoncampus.ca/sfu/index.cfm?
Twitter: @SFU_Dining
1 Comment
SFU has a sister community (UniverCity) that has given almost $30million dollars to the SFU student endowment and research fund through revenue derived from the sale of community “homes” and the rent from Local Businesses, Nature’s Garden, Booster Juice, Nestor’s etc. Establishing businesses such as Subway, Starbucks etc on campus so students don’t have to walk over and support the businesses at Cornerstone and The Hub does not sound like something to crow about. How is that “engaging” and building community? How is that supporting businesses at UniverCity? Giving Chartwels an exclusive contract designed to shut out the UniverCity business community does not sound like President Petter is really serious about building community at SFU……does it?