VCU Dining Services — Attraction in Richmond

Poor customer service, value and quality of food is horrible. Food selections for swipe users is ridiculously limited to the point where you can only get one small item that isn’t worth the cost of one swipe AND, you can only use swipes at roughly 4 restaurants daily, and the food choices you get are tbd. Plus some places are only taking swipes on certain days or at certain times (ie. Chick-Fil-A/Subway, etc) basically anywhere that actually serves a half decent meal. And an upcharge for lemonade at any restaurant has to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of... Workers have to be some of the rudest and unprofessional people I’ve ever met, we literally witnessed two of them bickering and fighting today at Market 810 (10/03), and constantly see others arguing and fighting on a daily basis. The choices daily at Market 810 are limited. You could look online for their menu for the day and see something good, only to walk there and be disappointed with them not serving food that is ON THEIR PUBLISHED DAILY MENU. And if they do actually by chance have it, it’s either old, or not plated. And don’t ask for a serving of it if it’s not plated, you will be seen as an annoyance by the staff, and half of the time they won’t notice you waiting patiently. The place is constantly understaffed and you really can just feel the tension in the air when you walk through the doors. The only true restaurant that has their stuff together is Bento Sushi in Market 810, they deserve a stand-alone store to save them from the disaster they currently work in at Shafer. For being such a big campus, for the price I expected more options for food and better service for being in such a big area. But I was disappointed again by VCU. I honestly have had better food and service from a McDonald’s than here. Hell, even smaller colleges that I’ve been to like Roanoke College, Emory and Henry and Radford University have twenty times better food and customer service than I’ve had here. And they don’t even have the options we have here and they still win. It’s sad that for what you pay to have a forced meal plan here, that it couldn’t be better...

If you're looking for the world's most expensive diet, look no farther, VCU dining is terrible. Since getting to this school I have lost 30 lbs, simply cause there is nothing to eat. The swipes are the stupidest things ever invented, it's meant to save you money, but you end up just wasting a ton of it instead by ignoring this piss-poor dining plan and ordering in. YET IT REMAINS REQUIRED for first year students. So few places actually even use swipes. Some places have swipes only on one day of the week only for like two options. I like to forget that Shafer even exists because every time either I or my suite mates go there the food quality is pathetic (like so bad that we've all had food poisoning) and the "service" is terrible. If you go at anytime before 6 pm the only food options are salads, sushi, and pizza. DON'T TRUST THE SUSHI. As someone with dietary restrictions, there are no options. The only thing worth your money is dining dollars, but they go so quickly on the required dining plan (200 swipes, 300 dining dollars) that it doesn't make any sense. I wish that the swipes were equal to dining dollars but NO PLACE ROUTINELY ACCEPTS THEM. The cost of the dining plan is horrendous for the quality and reliability of the services. If it wasn't a requirement I never would have used this...

I wish I could give VCU dinning a 5 star rating, but however they do not live up to what they say they are. The healthy options on campus include places such as the dinning hall (which has not very fresh food but rather very processed), shake smart (which has a limited menu), and Crutons (which gets tiring over time). VCU offers swipe exchange for many of the popular places to eat such as CFA and subway. However, they only swipe on weekends. Which causes very long lines and waiting times. While many of the options to eat are closed on the weekends. The mandatory dinning plan they have for VCU freshman is also money scamming. I feel like I don’t get my money’s worth and many of my swipes are used up for little things such as smoothie from Freshi. I wish VCU would listen to the students...