The Commons Student Culinary Center

It’s a dining hall. It’s amazing the first few times you go, but if you’re a student it can get really old.

The Commons at Kennesaw State University is supposedly one of the top college dining halls in America. It came in at #4 on The Daily Meal’s ranking of the 75 Best Colleges for Food in America for 2015 (
) behind Bowdoin, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia. It also showed up on Thrillist’s ranking of the 14 Best College Dining Halls in America (
). Impressive.
I give The Commons 4 out of 5 stars. Ultimately, the food is more along the lines of 3 stars (OK). I’m awarding an extra star for value and quality of ingredients. The dining hall is an all-​you-​can-​eat format and it is open to the public. At breakfast, the price is $ 8.50. At lunch and dinner, it’s $ 12.75. It’s a good deal for a fine college buffet. Just don’t expect anything fancy like The Buffet at Wynn (
).
As far as other college dining halls go, I don’t really have anything to compare The Commons to. The only other dining halls I recall eating at are the Brittain and Woodruff dining halls at Georgia Tech. However, I ate at those when I was a student and that was a long time ago. At that time, I remember Tech got its ingredients from Sysco. Things have changed since then because there are now 4 dining halls on Tech’s campus and they are known as «Community Restaurants.» Tech came in at #41 on The Daily Meal’s ranking. They must have improved because if Unilocal existed when I was a student, I probably would have given Brittain 2 stars at most.
It’s neat that almost half the produce served at The Commons is locally sourced. About half of that comes from three farms operated by KSU. Eggs come from these same farms. Meats and seafood are locally or regionally (Georgia) sourced. The cafeteria brines and smokes its own meat as well as produces its own cured meats, sausages, and cheeses. There’s an on-​site herb and mushroom garden, hydroponic systems growing lettuce, and a flour mill. Breads are made from scratch. The building is LEED Gold certified.
The dining hall is large (54,000 square feet) with two levels of seating. The setup is much like a food court with a variety of different stations, each specializing in a different type of food or drink. According to KSU, over 130 different items are served each day.
We visited on a Saturday at 11:00am and indulged on a variety of breakfast and lunch items. The serving stations included:
* The Grind Coffee Co. — in-​house coffee bar
* A breakfast station with milk, cereals, waffle making machines, breads, and bagels
* Another breakfast station with hot foods like eggs, hash browns, sausages, biscuits, and gravy
* Miso Caliente — Asian and Hispanic food
* Stone Mill Bakery — sweets, desserts (only 2 items allowed at a time)
* Apron Strings — various entrees & sides
* Globetrotter — various entrees & sides
* The Campus Green — salads, fruits, vegetables, and other healthy stuff
* Drink stations with Coke Freestyle machines, vitaminwater on tap, tea, etc.
Overall, it was a nice selection of food. I like how there’s a coffee shop. The selections are limited to hot and iced coffee, Americanos, espresso shots, lattes, cappuccinos, and macchiatos with caramel, mocha, and vanilla flavors and 5 milk options including soy. I tried a cappuccino as well as an iced vanilla latte. Both drinks were A-​OK. There was only one barista working and since drinks are made to order, there was a short wait here.
There was no wait at any of the other stations. I suspect this place is busier on weekdays.
I mainly hit up the breakfast stations. I had a plate of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, and biscuits and gravy. This was probably my favorite station. Aside from soggy hash browns, the rest of the plate was great. After this, I made some miniature waffles. They have three waffle making machines, two that make regular size waffles and one that makes 4 mini waffles. The waffle mix and syrup are Carbon’s Golden Malted brand. There are tubs with balls of maple butter and cream cheeses (for bagels). Delicious.
The Campus Green is perfect if you want to eat light. At this station, I grabbed a Caprese salad and some mango and jicama salad, apple farro salad, classic potato salad, and various grilled vegetables such as eggplant, squash, zucchini, red onion, and red bell pepper. Everything I had from this station was decent except for the eggplant, which I suspect may have been undercooked. I like how the Caprese salads come prepared individually on grab-​and-​go plates.
There was way too much food to sample everything in one visit. At Miso Caliente, you could build your own taco salad. There were also potstickers and lo mein noodles. At Apron Strings and Globetrotter, there was Caribbean jerk pork roast and Spanish seafood paella. The bakery had everything from cakes to donuts.
Park at Visitor Parking Lot (V2) on Parliament Garden Way NW. It’s free on Saturday and Sunday.

I would have given a 5/​5, but… that spot is saved for my beloved UGA’s dining halls. ;)
Parking — Yay for parking lots with loads of spots. You will have to pay though. But I rather have paid parking lots with tons of spots versus parking super far with barely any spots and not paying at all.
I paid $ 12.75 for lunch. Some people may think that’s pricey, but the food here is really good. 12.75 is quite a steal. The variety in food definitely shows to me KSaw State is a great place to eat if you’re in the area, starving, and… wanting to eat at a buffet place that’s well taken care of.
Maybe it’s because I graduated a few years ago… but I thought it was neat KSaw State had their up to date touch screen drinks availability. As well as their Vitamin Water dispenser.
The food stations are pretty clean and the food presented looked delicious. I had a bite of each station and everything was awesome. I really liked their fajitas, waffles, hibachi areas. Nom. I felt like a happy college student. The fact the food is locally grown and sourced makes me happier. :D
… Make sure to look at their dessert station. Oh my god. If I wasn’t so full from my 4 plates of food, I would have probably eaten 4 – 5 pieces of their halloween treats. Oh yeah, they themed their desserts. It was so cute.
I should probably write more details than «wow this place is great», but… really… the food is pretty damn good for a college dining hall. I’ll be back since I tend to visit Kennesaw randomly.

I really enjoyed my meal at the Commons!
First things first: logistics. There is a visitors parking lot (paid, but that’s to be expected) within site of the main entrance of the Commons, so it’s super easy to get in. You also do not have to be a student to eat here, and you do not need any special form of payment — regular credit and debit cards are accepted at the turnstyle.
The Commons is an all-​you-​can-​eat college dining hall, with a special twist in that many of the chefs are KSU students in the culinary arts program, and many of the food items are locally grown and sourced. It was really cool to see the list when we walked in as to which vegetables being served came from which farms, as well as the small hydroponic garden! I was also impressed that all of the chicken was from Springer Mountain, and the milk was all from within 60 miles of the campus. Very cool!
I sampled food from nearly ever station that was open during our 11am visit for brunch on a Saturday. While the vast majority of the food available was just sort of you better than average college dining hall food (college kids have high expectations these days!), there were some real standouts, and nothing I ate was not at least a-​ok.
The biggest standouts to me were:
Mint mocha: I loved that they had an espresso bar the moment you walked in, and the seasonal syrups caught my eye immediately. I thought the pumpkin spice latte was just okay, but the mint mocha was a sugary, caffeinated cup of goodness. This drink was SUPER sweet, but I have a serious sweet tooth, so it was perfect.
Biscuits: light, flaky and warm, and just small enough.
Carrot muffin: full of tons of thinly grated real carrot and lots of seasonal flavor, this mini muffin was also perfectly moist.
Jicama and Mango Salad: I loved this so much, I got thirds. The slightly spicy vinaigrette and golden raisins perfectly offset the flavors. This was not your typical dining hall food!
Caprese salad with smoked mozzarella: Just yum! I love caprese salads, and I loved that this one came pre-​plated for just the perfect bite.
Moon pie: while this technically was not a moon pie, the icing was incredibly light and fluffy and the cookie was chocolatey and perfect.
Definitely worth checking out!

Two weekend visits.
Parking for visitors either in the deck or small lot on Parliament Garden Way. I also found parking southwest of the campus green at the intersection of Paulding and Kennesaw St Univ Rd. It was free both times (weekend).
It’s probably a zoo during the week, but on the weekends, the place is not very crowded and you can easily get what you need without waiting. The stations are well spread out with ample seating scattered about.
The food:
For a school dining hall, this is the cat’s meow, the bees knees. It’s pretty fabulous and the selection is enormous. Prepared dishes, breakfast items, waffles, salads, fajitas, and more. The bakery has quite a few things and they’re all delicious. The dessert station is not to be missed. They source a lot of food locally, much of it from KSU farms. Bottom line is that everything I have had was at least pretty good with some of it excellent.
Drinks:
They have a coffee station which is the one place I found you might have to wait in line a bit. If you prefer dispensed drinks such as sodas or water, they have several self-​serve machines.
Service:
There isn’t any other than at some stations you can’t help yourself to the food — it must be dished out for you. Cleanup is you taking your used dishes and utensils to the convenient Dish Return just to the right of the exit.
Visitors pay with a credit card (no cash). I paid $ 8.50 the first visit and $ 12.75 the second. I’m not sure but I may have received the ‘breakfast’ rate the first time. Or it was an error. In any case, even $ 12.75 is a steal.
I’m told that UGA and Spelman College also have excellent dining halls, but not having been to either, this is the best I’ve experienced. In other words, as good as it gets.
Recommended.

I met some Unilocalers here for a UYE and it fulfilled its purposed. I saw Unilocalers I have previously met, met new ones and left satiated.
The food was good and I tried sundry items. A menu of daily offerings are available on their website. What I ate included but not limited to, scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, steel cut oatmeal, cheese grits, strawberry waffle with strawberry butter, apple farro salad, jicama and mango salad. After the start of the lunch service started I had steamed cabbage, red potatoes, roast beef and chicken tetrazzini.
The coffee was good and so were the pumpkin muffins and carrot muffins. Etcetera… etcetera. The infused water was good also.
Good value for the price, $ 12.75 for all you can eat.

$ 12.75 for AYCE awesome food — but from a college dining hall? Kennesaw State University’s dining hall made the Top 14 list for top college dining halls in the U.S. and their food is no joke. My friends and I went last wknd — and we were amazed. One of the other reviews compared it to a cruise (i.e., the layout) — I agree! The best part — ALL their dishes are locally sourced, «farm to campus» — produce, dairy, meats, etc. Love it!
Read more about their food:
We went Sat at 11am, and they had brunch (e.g., scrambled eggs, sausage links, biscuits, grits, Belgian waffles, homemade granola, oatmeal) and non-​brunch foods (roasted turkey, collard greens, Mexican bar, sandwich bar, salad bar — but like caprese salad, quinoa w/​mango and proscuitto, grilled roasted vegetables). Our table favorite was putting their cheese grits over hash browns — we shared a few plates of that! Honey biscuits with gravy was a close 2^nd! The coffee bar was another favorite — I’m not supposed to have caffeine but I couldn’t resist the smell … their macchiato was yummy (and yes they also have latte, espresso and cappuccino!). Another table favorite was their Crème Brulee and NY Cheesecake among the desserts — all of us exclaimed that was the best Crème Brulee ever — they caramelized the topping perfectly! The folks working the dessert counter said those were their favorites too. FYI you can only get two desserts at a time — wise move :)
I was impressed with their dairy selections too — I think the milk comes from local cows; their soft serve ice cream is soy and lactose-​free; fresh butter — also homemade strawberry butter and maple butter!
Overall super high quality food compared to your average college dining hall, all locally sourced — and all for just $ 12.75 (same price for lunch and dinner). One of my friends went again for dinner and said the food was excellent (e.g., prime rib, Italian bar with pasta and pizza, her favorite was the hamburger, sweet potato fries and stir fry station). Definitely coming back to try dinner!
For parking, use the visitor parking lot (V2) on Parliament Garden Way which is right behind the building. I heard parking is free on the wknds but you may want to verify.

This is a student cafeteria and is not really accessible for non-​KSU students. They do not accept cash or card DIRECTLY, only KSU ID or some sort of preloaded card. There is a lengthy process to pay if you do not have a KSU ID. Visitor parking is available at a premium in the Central Deck via Parliament Garden Way off Frey Rd. There are no other parking options for outsiders.
This is an updated review. This place has improved since my last review but only slightly. A lot of problems still remain like the overtly salty and spicy food. The food will be so spicy-​hot or so salty like ocean water that it is rendered inedible. They have a new hibachi option that is pretty good and is starting to work more effectively. The staff here are all different sorts, some are as nice as can be, some are extremely rude, and some are just there and don’t want to be. This place is still a huge HIT OR MISS; sometimes there will be an abundance of tasty food and then sometimes you will wish you didn’t come because there will be nothing to eat. This place is very inconsistent. But lately, it has improved a little with it’s consistency. Their deserts here have never been good in my personal opinion, always tasteless and bland. To avoid being yelled at: if the buffet utensil handle is facing away from you, DON’T TOUCH IT! They will serve you! In general, this place is good, but it is definitely a HIT OR MISS. It is also VERY EXPENSIVE for outsiders to come and eat here and almost impossible due to payment options. Still, this place is good, but not great. Award winning, but NOT GREAT. They do sometimes serve exotic and kind of experimental dishes, so possibly check that out.

The food here is really good. When you think of college food, you’re inclined to think of the lunch lady with a hair net and some greasy slop. Quite the contrary here. The food is great!!! If you have a meal plan, you can get in with your KSU ID. If not, credit card is accepted.
It’s all you can eat here and don’t feel guilty about stuffing your face either because it’s that good. The chefs continuously prepare meals so if a particular item has run out, just wait a few minutes for fresh portions to be served (provided it’s not close to closing time or in the midst of a meal switch: lunch to dinner for example).
This evening I had steak, zucchini and squash, and roasted potatoes.
The steak tasted like a steak should. Not rubbery like you might expect on a college campus. The zucchini/​squash mix was fresh and not overcooked. The potatoes were prepared like potato wedges, seasoned properly with the coveted gold color. I had to get seconds on everything. It was a given.
You can select your drink from the Coke machine that also dispenses water. My palette preferred infused water. I went to another area near the meal stations to select lemon infused water, which I mixed with the strawberry/​mint infused water. The flavors change daily and it’s a nice natural way to spruce up regular drinking water.
Coffee is also served here but don’t wait until close to closing time to get some. Same goes for desserts. Oh don’t get me started on those desserts. You snooze you loose. I waited until closing to get some and they were GONE. The bakery section does not play when it’s closing time so hurry up, grab your items, and save them if you want to wait till later to enjoy your dessert.
The staff are very friendly too. They will put small portions on your plate so that everyone gets a fair chance at eating what is served but since this is all you can eat, you can go back for more. Use a fresh plate please! Buffet Etiquette 101.

This place is awesome, the future.

coming here reminds me of the days when I would visit UGA just to dine at their east campus dining hall.
«the commons student culinary center» is a different story. their selections are much smaller than what UGA has to offer, but nonetheless. it’s all-​you-​eat, baby! the whole time I was there, I just couldn’t help, but compare it to the largest commons area in GA area — when it comes to universities.
UGA EAST COMMONS:
— $ 9 (breakfast), $ 11.25 (lunch), $ 15.50 (dinner) for non-​uga students [more expensive than ksu]
— no discounts on big groups
— parking available to guests at certain spots of the campus and at certain hours
— there’s a cereal bar, with over 20 choices in cereal
— food is prepared by graduated ad experienced chefs
— over 10 sections/​categories with an array of diff. food items
— hours are 7am to 9pm (they close an hour early on weekends)
— food is good and tasty :)
KENNESAW COMMONS:
— $ 7 (breakfast), $ 10 (lunch), $ 14 (dinner) for non-​ksu students [cheaper than uga]
— offers discounted rates for groups of 12+
— parking is hard to get unless you know a ksu student. other than that, you have to park far away or off-​campus
— no cereal bar
— food is prepped and cooked by the culinary students, themselves
— 9 – 10 sections/​categories with an array of diff. food items
— hours are 7:30am to 8:00pm (opens later on weekends)
— majority of food is salty =/​ (I thought it was b/​c I went on a bad day, but after talking to other ksu students. this is normal)
during my visit, I found out that some of the food is actually «organic» or grown right inside the cafeteria. there are mini-​greenhouses that are placed all around the commons area. you can sometimes catch the students caring for the plants or perhaps even go up and view through the glass yourself. the vegetables that are grown within the mini-​greenhouses are used to cook the food that is available in the commons.
speaking of the food in the commons, majority of the dishes are prepared and cooked by the culinary students of kennesaw university. thus why the name of this place is called «the commons student culinary center».

Who makes a University campus dining hall a food destination?
THE SCENE
I’ve wanted to come here ever since they were featured on the TV show Georgia Traveler. Kennesaw State University has created a farm — to table — to farm food program that won them the 2013 Innovator of the year award. 90% of everything here is made from scratch. I love what Ashley from Georgia Traveler said: «A meal @ KSU’s The Commons is the most uncommon experience you’ll ever have dining on a college campus.» It’s true! This is way beyond your typical campus food. I think I actually saw more non-​students here than students.
GEORGIA TRAVELER EPISODE —

THE FOOD
There are 9 food stations included with your $ 10 entry fee. This is as close to feeling like I’m on a cruise ship I’ve ever experienced without actually being over water. So many choices I had to do a military-​style reconnaissance, scouting all the stations first to make my food attack as precise as possible! THE MISSION: To get as much deliciousness I could acquire in my limited stomach space. The stations include:
* THE CAMPUS GREEN
Although there are lots of veggies here, be sure to check out the grill. I didn’t know there was a stir fried blacken shrimp dish being served until after I had already stuffed myself silly!
* DAN’S DELI
Like panini’s? Hot soups? This is your spot.
* APRON SPRINGS
Baked potato with all the topping your flavor? What about a grilled pork chop or Citrus glazed salmon? They got it here.
* GLOBE TROTTER
Things like Jerk Chicken, Gnocchi Pasta Bowl w/​Brown Butter & Sage, Chicken Cacciatora, and Greek gyros to satisfy your international appetite.
* HWY 41
Yeah baby!!! Burgers, fries and cheese steaks! I’m all over this place! Even things like Shrimp Po’ Boys and sweet potato fries are being served here.
* WOK YOUR WAY
Too much to mention, but egg drop soup, wontons, Moo shu beef wraps, Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwiches and Philippine stir fried noodles are just some of the menu items being offered.
* THE GRIND COFFEE CO.
Yep, get your coffee fix on!
* STONE MILL BAKERY
One word… Carrot Cake! Yummilicious!!! Lots more baked goods are here too as well as a self-​serve ice cream machine.
* PIATI
Italian offerings such as pizza, Quattro Formagio Pizzarito, herb seasoned bread sticks and Spaghetti & Meatballs
Also spread throughout are soda machines and clean plates below the counters at all stations. When you are finished eating, gather your remains and take it to the tray drop-​off station. Here the waste is used in three ways; in a compost, fed to worms that create castings used to enrich soil or recycled back into the soil through irrigation.
Lunch Menu example (changes daily):

They also serve breakfast and dinner too.
— — — —
HOURS
Monday — Friday (7:30am — 8:00pm)
Saturday — Sunday (10:30am — 8:00pm)
USEFUL TIPS
A) Park in the Central Campus Parking Deck off Frey Road
B) After you pay your entry fee, all food stations are all you can eat
C) Get your table first, they can go pretty fast.
— — — —
THE VERDICT
This is guilt free dining at its best. Locally grown, all you can eat, environmentally responsible (even recycling the waste) and friendly on your pocket.
I ate so much I was in a food stuper! Nothing I sampled was amazing enough to give it 5 stars, but the jerk chicken at the Globetrotter station and carrot cake at the bakery came very, very close. Look for the chef specials on the locavore board.