251 North Dining Hall — Local services in College Park

251 North Dining Hall is... interesting. Here are some pros and cons about this dining hall:

Pros:

Hours During the Weekday 251 let's people in until 10 pm on weekdays, and actually closes at around 10:30 pm. This allows students with later classes to still be able to grab a meal, which is pretty great.

Less People Another great thing about 251 is that it is typically less crowded, which allows people who don't like too crowded of spaces to have a nice place to eat a meal. This also means more seats available and thus less walking around for a place to sit for eating.

Food Bars There is a burger bar where burgers are grilled fresh and to order. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there is a salad bar where one can pick the ingredients they want in the salad and their choice of dressing and toppings, which is then mixed by an employee. For dessert, there is an ice cream bar where one can get MARYLAND DAIRY from a selection of options and get toppings afterwards. If one wishes, they can also transform their ice cream into either a milkshake or root beer float.

Cons: Lack of Variety There is definitely a lack of variety of food. They're are only about two different hot meal bars and they typically serve the same food throughout the week. There are also not many rotations of food and one can expect the similar selection of pastas and ethnic food. (Ethiopian, Moroccan, Nigerian, Indian, blend of Asian American)

Food Quality The food quality is not as good as the Y. Sometimes the produce is old, the food is sometimes either very bland or very salty, and the texture of foods can sometimes be concerning. But, in terms of other dining halls at other campuses, 251 is...

251 used to be better. They've started only offering the same foods every single day. I can't come here and eat the same food every single day. Furthermore, they have the same 3 cold pizzas with the toppings piled up in the center and not spread properly. At one point, they made Asian food, but it was drenched in so much oil and it was completely unflavorful. The hours are terrible too. It opens at 8am which doesn't give me an opportunity to eat before my classes, and it closes at 8pm which doesn't give me an opportunity to eat after either.

They can never cook rice properly. The rice seems unwashed, and when I try to eat it, it crushes in my mouth - it's uncooked or didn't get enough water. It's not too difficult to have the proper rice-water ratio.

The section in the center of the dining hall is an area which has different options every day. Unfortunately, they're never good. There's some fried greasy vegetables, improperly cooked fish, unseasoned "ethnic" dishes, and overcooked, mushy, nasty-looking pasta with unseasoned sauces of questionable consistencies.

Let's not forget the occasional food poisoning.

Overall, the food at 251 is very suspicious and it makes me...

This place is great for free Maryland dairy. Opening hours are flexible for late students, as they’re open until 10 PM MON-THURS. Warning: they close at 8 PM from FRI-SUN.

Breakfast here is satisfactory, with a plethora of options from cereal to pancakes to waffles to fruits to eggs to occasional muffins.

Sadly, I can’t say the same for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, they have many options such as a salad bar, Italian food, burger section, and some foreign food (usually rotates between Levantine, Indian, and Oriental). However, the pizzas are thick and lack variety, and the pastas also lack variety. Also, the foreign food is not as tasty as other cafeterias. Furthermore, the burger bar stopped providing Vegan burgers in spring 2025, and those burgers were delicious.

Having lived in Denton community from 2023-2025, I often ate breakfast here, and sometimes ate dinner here but slowly stopped, and saw myself no longer eating dinner here by April 2025.

My recommendation: eat breakfast here, it is tasty. Try out dinner sometime, but I recommend the...