Hampshire Dining Commons — Restaurant in Amherst

Wow! I had heard that UMass Amherst had the best-ranking campus dining food, but I didn't expect it to be this good! Aside from the obvious appeal of the all-you-can-eat buffet and the very reasonable $14.50 per person price tag for outsiders and visitors, the Hampshire DC provides countless options for diners of all stripes, from the omnivore to the gluten-free, and the pescatarian to the vegan. I had a hard time deciding what to eat because everything looked so good. What I ate was amazing! The winter melon noodle soup with pork ribs was delicious, as was the sauteed Chinese broccoli. The spicy tuna roll in the sushi station was made to order, and it tasted fresh and very flavorful. The baked white fish was tender and succulent, as was the stuffed portabella mushroom. Fresh-squeezed apple juice, chai latte, and berry smoothies pleasantly accompanied my meal. In fact, the food was so yummy, I had to go back the next evening for dinner again! This time, I had ramen noodle soup with sliced pork, sauteed yu choy, polenta with quinoa, assorted stir fry entrees, a shrimp roll at the sushi station, Salisbury steak with creamy mashed potatoes, pan-seared potatoes, and wild mushrooms with balsamic vinegar. Everything was just so satisfyingly filling and savory. Topping the extravagant meal with dessert added to its delight; chocolate bread pudding and blueberry peach crumble more than satiated my appetite! Time to fast now and recover from such a...

The food is really, really good, my 2 star review has nothing to do with that. My problem is with the managers. There's one, I don't know her name but she's short with short blonde hair and more or less always wears a blue dress shirt. Very uptight. It's not exactly a rule or whatever but people take food out of the dining hall all the time in their own containers and whatnot. I've literally been taking food pretty much whenever I feel the need to, and no one ever says anything to me. Today I was taking fruit, mind you I cut it up in pieces so it looks like a lot. She had been sitting a ways away from me and was clearly watching me as I cut up and put the fruit in my container. She then proceeded to tell another worker to tell me I couldn't "take all that fruit with" me. She watched me as I dumped the fruit back onto my plate and then went back to work. Suffice to say I do not like her or her attitude and she needs to...

Early May 2024 We were at UMASS for an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament and boy was it fun. One of the points of coming to pick up our boy was the discount at the Cafeteria. A great perk for having the tournament there. We went in and it was STAR WARS day and there were lightsabers and vader aprons and blue milk. I went straight for the Peet's Coffee since it was a long day. Then I walked around with my kids and chose item after item after item. There were screens showing one of the Taken movies which was hard to pull away from but overall the team came in and it was somewhat hard to find a place to sit for a big group. One thing I noticed was everyone was on their phone and not many were sitting and talking. Interesting. Great food and great atmosphere. When someone dropped something and it broke the whole place busted...