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Which Colleges Serve the Best Food?

Fourteen in California, none in Oregon—and just one in Washington.

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Broccoli, tortellini, and steak salad at Bowdoin. Yum. 

Daily Meal released its survey last week of the 75 best U.S. colleges for food, and hitting number-one for the third year running is Bowdoin College in Brunswick Maine. DM praised its “skillful use of herbs and spices,” its local fishmongers and on-campus butcher shop, and an organic garden that doubled in size over the summer.

Largest scoring state was California, with 14 schools that made the list: USC at #73, UC Irvine at #72, California Baptist U at #71, Cal State Chico at #68, UC Santa Barbara at #54, Harvey Mudd at #47, UC Davis at #43, UC San Diego at #30, UC Berkeley at #28, Pitzer at #27, Stanford at #26, UCLA at #17, Mills College at #12, and Occidental at #8.

University of Washington, which last year clocked in at #60, bettered its ranking this year to #59. Contributing to its score were the registered dietitian on staff, produce grown on campus, and, bien sûr, “access to some pretty amazing restaurants right at their doorstep.”

Let the record show that six of my kid’s 10 prospective colleges are on this list; clearly the spawn of a restaurant critic. I ate at #1 Bowdoin’s dining hall last spring, and found, in lieu of mystery meat, only skillfully used herbs and spices.

 











Kathryn Robinson
Kathryn Robinson
Senior Writer Seattle native Kathryn Robinson, award-winning restaurant critic and senior writer at Seattle Met, has been anonymously reviewing restaurants for over 30 years—first as editor of the Best Places guidebook series, then as staff critic at Seattle Weekly and contributing critic at The Seattle Times and Seattle magazine.  Midcareer she spent a year-long sabbatical studying comparative religion as a Knight Fellow at Stanford University where she had been an undergrad 10 years earlier, gaining a knowledge base she now calls upon for her monthly “Back Fence” column on our collective urban existence and the meaning it holds for our personal lives. In her off hours she is a partner and a parent—which means she has no off hours.