North Avenue Dining Hall — Restaurant in Atlanta

I have so much to share about this place. As a resident adviser at Georgia Tech, I have had the honor of being a patron at this "restaurant" for the past four years, and during those years I have seen it all.

First, the quality of the food is overall subpar, usually abysmal, and very rarely high in quality, though it is almost always edible. This is especially frustrating considering that first year students are obligatorily and heftily charged for a GT meal plan and see little quality in the $15 per meal their parents are paying for. Some of the food that stands out:

The brussel sprouts are atrocious. I don't know if there are certain chemicals in brussel sprouts that an appropriate cook time would remove, but for whatever reason every brussel sprout I have had at North Ave more resembles a rubber bouncy ball soaked in cyanide than the steamed to perfection cabbage vegetable I am always, and futilely, hoping for.

The rice is always either overcooked and soggy or undercooked and crunchy. During my time at the institute, it has been cooked correctly twice, and both times I found myself very confused and had to ask a worker why the rice was cooked correctly that day.

Scrambled eggs are not supposed to feature uncooked liquid egg mixture. At North Ave, scrambled eggs are not supposed to feature appropriately and completely solidly cooked eggs. Ever.

Quesadillas are pretty simple to make, but not at North Ave. Even though theirs consist only of a tortilla and cheese, the first inch or two of the quesadilla is always exclusively tortilla. You won't get to the cheese until halfway through, so until then it's more like you're eating stale, slightly burnt communion bread for several minutes with nothing but crunchy rice and poison brussel sprouts to pair it with (see above). Not ideal.

The green beans feature a similar problem to the rice in that they are almost always undercooked and crunchy. One time they were cooked correctly, and though I was pleasantly surprised, I became dismayed when I came to the realization that they still weren't very good.

Other observations:

If you like eating with your hands, then North Ave's the place for you. Oftentimes silverware is nowhere to be found, as every station is empty. Though North Ave is easy to blame for a lack of foresight into the silverware demand, Greek life is partially to blame as well for making their pledges steal forks from Nave for use in their houses.

A year or so ago, three freestyle coke machines were installed at Nave, but now they're effectively just water dispensers, due to the lack of effort the management puts into replacing the concentrated, microdosed drink mixtures. I don't even try to see if a drink is available anymore. Been hurt too many times.

The hand sanitizer dispensers hanging on the walls are a trap. There hasn't been hand sanitizer in them for years. Don't be fooled.

In the men's bathroom, after you wash your hands you must walk further into the bathroom to get to the paper towel dispenser. I don't know if Nave is saying I'm not finished using the bathroom yet or if they're just trying to discourage hand-washing, but I am always perplexed at this orientation.

There's a juice station at Nave, but I always eye it with suspicion, because more often than not, instead of juice it dispenses a watered down light yellow beverage that looks and tastes more like someone mixed up the vodka and orange juice ratio in the screwdriver. Try before you buy is my recommendation.

The milk dispensers are often empty as well. I'd also encourage you to try a sip before filling your cup, because it's often sour. As a general note, with beverages at North Ave, it's best to just go with water, they haven't yet messed that up for me.

Despite all this, there are a few positives. The fried chicken, mac and cheese, and wing night are all good, and the holiday dinner is exceptional. In addition, I have gotten to know some of the staff over the years and they are very friendly.

But to sum it up, North Ave needs...

This place is very very subpar for the price and I know firsthand because I eat here just about everyday as a student. They claim to be an "all-you-care-to-eat" dining option. That is a lie. For most of the menu options there is someone there to serve you, so you can't serve yourself unless it's pizza, salad, soup, or dessert. Speaking of menu options, there's not alot to choose from. Don't like today's main dish and 3 side dishes? Then you gotta go to the grill, get pizza, get a sandwich from the deli, or go to the Wok (if its open). If you want something from the grill then you'll have to wait for it. They don't do pregrilled burgers anymore, which is fine..but they also don't do premade French toast and pancakes for breakfast on weekdays, so good luck if you're in a rush. They do have vegan food, however it is usually 1 main dish a day and it changes everyday. Overall, the food is just mediocre and is generally unsatisfying. Which is terrible for students at such a demanding school. Also, $16 for dinner at this place is absolutely ridiculous. Save your money and your time and go eat somewhere...

I was disappointed with my experience at North Ave. One time, I wanted to go to North Ave beacuse they had basmati rice for dinner. I brought my own container to take food home and the front of house staff was so rude. She said that "I had to pay $5 for a plastic take out container and that if I didn't hand over my container to her, I couldn't even have dinner and I had to leave".

Can you imagine how salty this sounds? My experience at North Ave was a bad apple in the bunch. Also, North Ave is not accomodating to people with dietary needs (zero variety in choice for vegetarians, vegans, etc).

I really wish that North Ave improve on its quality of food and give more vegetarian options that actually TASTE good rather than "vegan chicken" or "vegan tofu". I would so be down if North Ave served more Asian and Indian food because those cuisines are delicious and have lots of spice for those spice-lovers out there!

The only redeeming quality in North Ave is that there are a few staff members who are courteous to the students and ACTUALLY ask "How are you doing?" Courtesy like that...