Alferd Packer Grill

I really love the Alferd Packer grill, and I eat there almost every day since I work in the UMC.
My favorite thing about the Alferd Packer grill is that it’s really opened my horizons – after eating many of the wonderful food options they have to offer, I’ve really reconsidered the internal conceptualization that I have of food. Alferd Packer’s deliciously viscous soups challenge our societal conceptions of what is «edible». Their pay-​by-​weight salad bar let you construct (or deconstruct) what it means to feed yourself.
Not only is Alferd Packer an awesome place to eat, but it’s the most wonderful piece of performance art that I’ve ever seen! The overall point of the piece is driven home by the fact that it’s named after a famous cannibal.

the paninis are sub par but everything else here is not good at all. They have the same soups year round and they all taste bland and old. The soups are the only thing that make sense economically in terms of price. Everything else is priced like a sit-​down restaurant and is below elementary school cafeteria standards. Too bad it’s run by the school and will probably never get shut down.

Low quality food and extremely over priced. Another component of the University of Colorado’s scheme to nickel and dime its students and staff.
Why cant the degree churning machine that is CU at least provide some healthy food at a reasonable price?

Here’s the truth. They’ve turned things around. Go back and give it a try.
The grill has your hamburgers and french fries, el cannibal has your Mexican favorites, the lodge has paninis, and the tabor has unique homestyle favorites.
Step outside the box and try new things! I’ve had things from southern style chicken, to make your own noodle bowl, to even the tapas I got the other day. Apparently the chef just got back from Europe and bought back some recipes to serve at the tabor. Seems lie they’re really trying to step up they’re game and serve more interesting and tasty things.
I call it my little gem, but happy to share so everyone can get a little piece!

I’m not sure it’s safe to eat here. Seriously. I used to like to swing by here and get the generic breakfast they have for, like, $ 6? It’s alright, you get some eggs, a bit of pig, and some hashbrowns-​which are the problem. I am pretty sure that they are prepping them with rancid oil. They are foul! I am both bold and poor, so I even tried again after I got disgusting foul hashbrowns once, and they came out the exact same, some kind of funky I can’t even describe. Avoid the hashbrowns. I do hit up the salad bar and grab chili occasionally, because I am stuck — there are no good options on campus, and so I settle for this junk from time to time. Oh well…

Alferd Packer does what it’s supposed to — provide food for students on-​the-​go. I’m not saying that it’s outstanding fare, but it works. Standards like fried stuff (chicken fingers, fries, tots if you’re lucky), sandwiches, burritos are all fine but not spectacular. I have had some really nice soups on occasion — but they don’t have the same stuff every day.
If pre-​made stuff isn’t your thing, there’s a huge pay-​by-​the-​pound salad bar with tons of options. It would be nice if they focused on providing more organic, local produce but it’s not deterring me.
Quite honestly, 80% of the time I run in here before or between classes to get a prepackaged snack. They also have lots of normal convenience store items: chips, cookies, fruit, candy, gum, drinks.
Staff is surprisingly friendly! And patient! I know college kids are not the, um, most gracious group, but people here are extremely nice.
Even if everything isn’t stellar, it’s a well-​priced, convenient option for when you don’t feel like going to the Hill for food.

Get a panini

I LOVE THE NAME, but I’m not so sure about the food. It shows a great deal of humor on the part of CU with a café name like Alferd Packer!

Looking at all the other reviews a few things popped into my head. First thing, they are all over a year old, except the last one that is 4 words, not much of a review. I’m new to Boulder but people say that they have re-​done the Alferd Packer Grill and it is much better now, I cant vouch for that, just what I’ve heard. Second, I see people complaining about them not offering healthy foods. I was just in there and they offer organic spring mix, a full salad bar (none of which looked canned, except for the beans) 3 soups with one veggie one (Chicken Curry Soup is awesome!) and 3 chilis, one veggie chili, 1 beef chili and 1 pork green chili. There is a chipotle-​esqe burrito bar, a panini grill area, a Tabor, which serves home style meals. The other things is, it may be boulder, but not all college kids want «health food», or can afford it. I have only eaten at C4C 3 times, but the food at the UMC seems to be of better quality, and guess thats because its not just an all you can eat buffet. For all the healthy people, point me in the way of the health food place on the hill that you are always going to, is it half fast? the $ 5 Chinese place? Smelly Deli? I would suggest everyone give it a second try.

Good service, bad food

This place is wrong. Just wrong. This is Boulder, land of organic-​food obsessed health food nuts… and they can’t manage a food court in the CU student center that has edible food? This is the single most convenient food place for me to eat in the middle of the day, since it’s on the way from class to class, and if I’m too strapped for time to go anywhere else, I have decided that I would rather go hungry than eat here. My stomach can be growling and complaining, and all I have to do is think about one of their greasy yet dry burgers and cold, stiff fries — and my stomach magically shuts up! It’s like, ‘okay, okay, you win! I’ll shut up! Just don’t feed me Alferd Packer — please!’
Alferd Packer is really a food court with five different ‘restaurants’ inside, all of which you pay for on the way out with your tray. So — like an airport food lounge. There’s Slumgullion Pass, home of the aforementioned terrifying burger and fries. The meat and veggie panini stands, which have tempting menus full of yummy sounding ingredients, but all have the same effect — oil puddles everywhere. And the predictable second effect, which is feeling like a nauseous oil slick for the rest of the day.
In case either of these options don’t float your boat, there is an equally oily Mexican place called ‘El Canibal’. I’m not sure if I’m getting my point across here: OIL.
You’d think that CU would have an interest in feeding their students healthy food with actual nutrients to energize their brains — not foods that weigh their bodies down and fog over their minds. And I certainly don’t think they should be charging $ 5.99 for a McDonalds quality burger.
There is a salad bar inside of the Alferd Packer Grill, but both times I ventured to grab some greens there, everything tasted like it’d been browning and gathering dust in some storeroom for weeks. The hardboiled egg pieces were virtually inedible and there is something seriously wrong when peas taste like sulphur.
The healthy options for students in the UMC are all outside businesses — Subway (kinda), Wok’n’Roll, Jamba Juice, Celestial Seasonings. There are other, better businesses scattered around campus — the Laughing Goat, Folsom Street Coffeehouse.
And you KNOW a place is bad when I’m actually recommending someone go to Folsom Street freaking Coffeehouse instead.