Dinin’ Hall

The concept of the place is just F.U.N. What a great park experience I’ve had each time I’ve dined here. Good mix of food truck vendors – instead of looking them up, I always surprise myself and show up expecting to be. Love it. It’s the Doodah Parade of food truck fun.

Dinin’ Hall is a nice «pod» space for food trucks out of the 400 W. Rich campus, but it seems like it’s in a pretty heavy state of flux.
The new addition of a coffee and pastry bar hosted by Actual Brewing on weekday mornings and afternoons is nice, but the elimination of being able to order and pay for food from inside the dining area is a bit of a downer.
That said, it still provides good seating and a nice space to meet up with people, allowing you to grab as much or as little as you want from the trucks or carts stationed there during lunchtimes.
It does look like there’s a fair bit of renovations going on both inside and around the space — hopefully some of the old features will return once that’s done, and it will continue to grow!

I love this place. Groovy décor, very laid back casual vibe. Dinin’ Hall promotes local in such a way that you have to appreciate it. Positive environment full of great folks searching for creative food from our cbus food trucks. Plenty of seating, with a farmers market one Saturday a month. Doesn’t get too much better than that! I haven’t made my 2014 visit but eagerly anticipate my reunion with DH.

Time for an update — there have been some recent changes to Dinin Hall that have diminished some of its former appeal.
Let me preface this by saying that I realize there could be a lot of factors at work behind the scenes that have caused these changes. I’m simply coming at this from a customer-​experience point of view.
I don’t know what kind of fees Dinin Hall was charging food trucks previously (if any) to offer some of the earlier genius amenities like paying inside at a single register, but many of these are no longer part of the Dinin Hall experience. Or maybe this reduction in services is temporary. I hope it’s temporary.
So, yeah, no more register inside for streamlined paying. You now pay at the truck, which kind of slows down the truck in rushes, and makes ordering from multiple trucks a little bit more of a hassle. They used to have drinks inside for purchase — no more. Now it’s whatever the trucks are carrying.
They also got rid of (again, maybe temporarily?) the little shop of local goods inside. I’d bought items from this little area on several occasions. It was perfect for picking up little gifties for office events on the fly. Awww, darn.
Also, more limited days. It used to be open all week. Now only open Thursdays and Fridays, and I think only in warm months? There’s the food truck food court at the Columbus Commons on Thursdays, so I guess this is the less hectic spot for a similar fix. To be fair, though, whenever we came to Dinin Hall previously it was always nearly empty, even at peak times. Maybe creating more demand will help. And, the rotation of trucks had been getting a little stale.
(Oh, and in my earlier review — I complained about the punny napkins. They ended up getting the BEST paper napkins in there; almost cloth-​like. Those are also gone now :()
So yeah, obviously some financial decisions going on here, which is fine. Businesses do what businesses gotta do.
Despite the disappointing reduction in services and time, Dinin Hall remains a chill place to come, get some fun food truck eats, and actually have a nice place to sit. That still says a lot. The space is still clean and warehouse-​chic, if a little less attention paid to things like centerpieces and such.
Hope some of these changes are temporary! Still a supporter of this space – there’s just a little less to glow over these days.

Wow, what a wonderful place. Long tables to share with strangers, food trucks, clean modern décor and happens to be next to some art studio/​gallery area.
After you eat and have a nice chat with your friends, you can take a stroll next door and look at some art pieces. What a great way to walk off those foodie weight!

great accommodation for food trucks and carts
Made it over to Dinin’ Hall and really like what they have going on there. It is a small building that food trucks are able to come to and serve food with places to sit and enjoy instead of the usual fend for yourself experience. The lot has plenty of space and the interior seems sufficient for people dining for short periods of time. There is a billboard with local events posted as well which is nice. Drinks and little snacks are available independent of the food trucks as well. I found everything peaceful and pleasant. Will definitely go to again.

With different food trucks rotating through this place on a regular basis, it’s hard to beat the variety and quality of food offered. Best enjoyed on a nice day when the garage door is up, the food is tasty, and the sodas are ice cold.
Making it even better is the smiles that you are greeted with, the smiles that you leave with, and a satisfied appetite for something new.

Great concept and execution. Hope to come back for more.

Great local business! They have an amazing variety of Columbus food trucks with all of the conveniences of a restaurant, like tables/​chairs/​cutlery/​napkins/​beverages/​dessert/​plus some cool local goods! Huge, huge fan!

Who was the genius that came up with this idea?! And I was not being sarcastic. Who really is the ONE that solved my dilemmas of:
#1 Finding a place to sit and enjoy my meal after I pick up my order from a food truck. I don’t know about you, but it feels awkward when a passerby glances at you while you stuff your face… in your car… by yourself… in an empty parking lot. To me, that glance is the equivalent of making eye contact with the person at the urinal next to you. Or are those food trekkies judging me because I’m not wearing a seatbelt, but my bag of fries is nicely secured with a lap belt. What you looking at fool?! Can’t you see I’m on a date with my duck fat fries and I’m about to make a Rico suave move. Yes, I’m aware she’s a bit meaty, but she treats me well and full of personality. She fills my empty heart like only a cardiologist would understand.
#2 Having to stalk a food truck daily. Do I really have to follow you on facebook or twitter to find out which intersection you setup shop today?! It’s much easier to track my ex-girlfriend’s every step using «Find my iphone» app.
Ok, now that I just established that I’m a Creep… go ahead, play the Radiohead song.
Anyway, just a cool scene to dine. Has that bit of an underground vibe to it. There are a few art studios in the building. When you pull up into the parking lot, it just looks like a warehouse docking area.
Just be prepared to pay close to $ 10 for small burger and a drink on some days.
Keep an eye out on the website calendar for which food trucks will be dishing out!
And Hey Mr. Dinin’ Hall! Why aren’t you open on the weekends? My stomach doesn’t take days off on the weekend. If your establishment worked as hard as my stomach did, maybe one day you might match all the excess deposits and prime real estate around my waistline.

The food truck craze has definitely taken Columbus by storm. When I first moved here, there were a handful of food trucks and lots of taco stands. Now, oh man!
The lovely folks at Dinin’ Hall have taken this city’s love of food trucks and made it more comfortable and accessible. They’ve converted a great warehouse space in to a casual dining room with a funky vibe and filled the lot with an every growing, rotating list of food trucks and carts. You can find 2 or 3 here on any given day of the work week and for special events. Order what you want from the trucks you want, take your tickets inside, they’ll ring you up, get you a drink if you like, hand you your ticket number stand, and send you off to find a place to wait for your food and eat. Since it’s open seating, you sometimes wind up sitting next to complete strangers, but that’s okay because it gives you a change to meet and talk to interesting new people.
If I had one major complaint about Dinin’ Hall it would be that the hours are limited to times when I simply can’t make it except on a rare occasion.

Combine a casual dining space with interchanging food trucks and you’ve got the genius that is Dinin’ Hall. This cool concept of a place is located in Franklinton in what appears to be an area with old warehouses. Upon parking at this location, you’ll see two food trucks near the entrance. The trucks change daily so be sure to check out the calendar on their website to see who will be there. Place your order at the truck and you will receive a ticket. Pay for your food at the register inside the dining area and the food will be brought out to you when it’s ready.
I tried Sophie’s Pierogi and while I don’t really have anything to compare them to (I’ve only had the frozen kind), I will say that they were buttery and really satisfying. I definitely recommend trying this truck if it is there.
The atmosphere of the dining hall was cuter than I thought it’d be. The long tables had airplants for centerpieces. I hear that they will have heaters come wintertime.
If I worked a regular person’s work schedule during the daytime, I would frequent this place for lunch regularly.

Can’t believe I didn’t get her sooner… local food trucks, funky area of town what’s not to like. Very nice set-​up inside. Mostly large communal tables, but enough small ones to conduct some business if you need/​want a little more privacy. Friendly staff and CLOTH NAPKINS. So its super casual food in a up-​casual hipster, local, eating environment. Great idea, props to the owners and props to the food truckers.
Check it out, man!

A Bootiful Fallish Talk Like a Pirate Day brought me and my bud Eric down to the D-​Hall for lunch with the two truck choices of the day being Ajumama and OH! Burgers. After seeing the pic of the mini burger on the Dinin’ Hall Facebook page earlier this morning, my destination was the pirate bannered OH Burger truck.
Placed our orders for a duo of Sliders, Sweet tater chips and Pirate Rum (less) Punch, scored our number, paid inside and found a sunny table close to one of the open bay doors. Our orders were delivered from the truck right to our table in decent time by the great friendly wait staff.
Tasty eats that change daily, interesting surroundings and décor, how can you not like the Dinin’ Hall? If I lived closer I would be here daily indeed. If you like food trucks this is THE daily destination to sit down and truly enjoy some great food in a great place.
Keep On Truckin’…

So many wonderful things about Dinin’ Hall. First, I’m so happy that Tim and Eliza (the creators of Dinin’ Hall) have brought the first food truck pod to Cbus. Using a rotation of wonderful food trucks and an old, remodeled loading dock in Franklinton to house a cafeteria that helps feed the masses is 5 stars in my opinion.
I’ve eaten there about a handful of times, enjoying food from a different truck everytime. I can’t evaluate every truck I’ve had, but the variety is what is key. I go to try a new truck, because I generally don’t have the time or the patience to locate where a truck may be at a specific moment. Dinin’ Hall posts which truck they’ll feature everyday via fb. I’ve had Street Thyme, Ajumama, Swoops, and Foodfetti. Still so many more trucks to try.
FYI, when you place your order, you don’t pay at the truck. You pay inside where all the transactions are dealt with. I think this is smart as it allows the trucks to take more orders and focus on making the food instead of running a cash register.
Dinin’ Hall is starting to expand to the weekend as they know weekday lunch hours just isn’t enough.

This was my first experience with Dinin’ Hall. My friends and I came for the Columbus Underground meet up on July 28^th. The space was clean, open, and well staffed. I was able to place my order fairly easily and to my delight, Dinin’ Hall accepts credit cards!
The facility is BYOB but has several beverages available for purchase. It’s great to have so many options since several food trucks are parked right outside the seating area.
I ordered the jerk chicken slider & tots from Swoop Food Group. The chicken was crisp and juicy. It had just enough heat and spice to not be overpowering. The tots are homemade and were AMAZING. They didn’t even need ketchup and I LOVE ketchup. I got one order to share with a friend and let’s just say that I now know that these tots are too delicious to share.
I also picked up some cake pops from The Cake Chick. I couldn’t decide which ones to get so I got two. The Chocolate Chai is everything I love about a chai latte (cinnamon!) with chocolate cake. The Dark Bacon rocks the marriage of salty/​sweet with bacon hiding inside dark chocolate cake.
The crowd was diverse and you could tell that everyone was having a good time. I’m excited to stop in again. Probably during the week for lunch.

What a beautiful concept. This is SO PERFECT for the couple who can’t decide where to go for cheap-​o date night. (And you don’t want to be embarrassed at Wendy’s with his Chipotle burrito!) We were able to get a milkshake at Street Thyme, he got a gyro from Pitabilities, and I got this amazing shrimp Korean «pageon» thing at Ajumama.
One stop shop! We paid for everything at once and they brought all our food right to our table inside. Delicious!

My wife and I checked out Dinin’ Hall for lunch this week and we were impressed. The idea is a good one – get a few food trucks together in one place, and then have a centralized room where you can pay for everything, pick up a drink, and have a table.
Ajumama and the Market District Foodie Truck were there. Both had delicious Eastern-​inspired foods that I had never tried before, but really liked. The people who worked at Dinin’ Hall were extremely friendly and outgoing. As a new business, they smartly asked a lot of questions to try to improve their business.
This is also a great project for Franklinton, which seems pretty rough right now, but is primed to take off in the next few years. Congrats to Dinin’ Hall, both for getting into the neighborhood on the ground floor and for helping move the area in the right direction.
Definitely go check out Dinin’ Hall sometime soon. The trucks there each day rotate, so take a look at their website before you go. Enjoy.

What a great concept! Rotating food trucks and a nice open air dining room. Check the website for the schedule and menu.
There’s protected parking to combat the sketch neighborhood. Orders are taken at the truck, then you pay inside, and wait for your food to be delivered. It’s like a restaurant with a rotating kitchen.
Pro-​tip, there’s a nice selection of drinks inside of you don’t like the ones the trucks have.

I have been anticipating the opening of Dinin’ Hall for a month now. When I first heard about it, I was immediately intrigued by the concept. I love food trucks but it can be a hassle tracking them down sometimes. Having a central location is a great way to try out different ones without traipsing all over Columbus.
I went on the 2^nd day and they were still working out some minor kinks but I thought the execution was close to perfect. Ordering is easy, paying inside is easy (they accept credit card, yay! but prefer cash), and getting your food is easy. You can also take your food to go.
I love the look of this place as well. Very minimalist and well-​designed. Not surprising since the husband & wife team that own it are architects. I had the chance to chat with the wife (didn’t catch her name) for a few minutes and she was so sweet! Nothing better than supporting local businesses run by awesome people.
Other things I loved: delicious, free cookies in celebration of the first week and all the items they sold at the register. I think I saw chocolate dipped oranges, pattycake cookies, macarons, and thunder kiss coffee. Snacks for the drive home!