DATA: The best and worst of Yale dining
The News looked at what the reviews from the Yale Menus app reveal about student preferences for dining halls and food items.
YuLin Zhen, Photography Editor
Yale Menus — an app that provides daily details on menus, student traffic and more — has become a staple of the University experience. On the app, Yalies can also rate and write reviews for each menu item.
Using data from the app, the News looked into Yale’s favorite — and least favorite — dining halls, entrees, desserts and breakfast foods. Wonder where your residential college stands, or if your favorite meal made the cut? Dive into the data below.
Commons took the top spot among dining halls with an average meal ranking of 3.43 out of 5. Grace Hopper, Trumbull and Benjamin Franklin colleges were the best-rated residential colleges. The Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life, which serves kosher weekday and Shabbat meals, came in fifth.
Conversely, Pierson, Jonathan Edwards and Ezra Stiles colleges received the lowest ratings.
Among around 70 meals with 10 or more ratings, Yale Hospitality’s take on japchae was the best-rated entree with a ranking of 4.91 out of 5.
Other Asian recipes were also well-received, with vegetable samosas, Gochujang glazed fried chicken and chicken katsu taking four of the top five spots. Oven-baked sweet plantains came in fourth.
In the dessert category, coconut macaroon cookies came out on top with a ranking of 4.7 out of 5, closely followed by butter pecan cookies, tres leches cake, key lime pie and brownie pudding.
Orange blossom-scented overnight oats was Yale’s best-rated breakfast item. Avocado toast, mango smoothies and buttermilk pancakes were favorites as well.
Certain dishes were not as well-liked by the community.
Miso soup and shepherd’s pie were particularly low-rated, with over 10 negative reviews. Maple-glazed French toast casserole, found on breakfast and brunch menus, was another miss. No desserts received noticeably low ratings.
Curious about how your favorite meal fares? Explore a searchable directory of 1,125 meals listed in Yale Menus, which can be sorted alphabetically, by average rating or by number of ratings.
Yale is home to 14 residential college dining halls and 16 retail locations.
Correction, Feb. 10: The link to the API for the Yale Menus has been removed at the request of the app’s creator.