North Star Dining Room — Restaurant in City of Ithaca

Let me begin by saying the staff of the North Star dining hall is not reflected by the food they serve. The staff is consistently patient and helpful, however nothing they can do to counteract the horrible experience in terms of food I had tonight. Boy oh boy did I have a delectable treat on the night of 8/27 at North Star Dining hall! As a freshman at Cornell University, I get unlimited meal swipes, essentially making dining hall food free. However, you could not pay me enough to eat the meal I just consumed for a second time. I waited in the longest line for food I’ve seen at Cornell just to be served the most diabolical dish I’ve ever seen. Let me begin by describing the vegetable options. I was offered an entire bush of broccoli (unchopped to edible size and hardly steamed) and half-cooked baby carrots (that I declined). I added some mashed potatoes to my plate with high hopes (soon to be dashed). After my third bite of the potatoes, my mouth began rejecting it frantically. I felt a slight burning sensation in my mouth as if it was spicy, but forced myself to continue as every other food facility on campus was closed due to the UAW strike. After I built up the courage, I took my chicken drumstick in my hand. It instantly went limp in my hand (bone and all) and all hopes I had for the meal vanished. I took a bite and sure enough, it felt as though I had taken a bite of a rubber tire. At that point, I resigned myself to being hungry. The UAW strike must come to a fair agreement with Cornell university as soon as possible for the sake of all...

North Star (April) is my second favorite dining hall on North campus. I am gluten free and for me there are SO many more options than RPCC. Also, the choices here change more often than RPCC. Plus, it’s the only dining hall on North campus that is open for breakfast. I would especially recommend this dining hall for perspective students visiting the campus because it is really close to the Martin Yang Welcome Center. RPCC vos. Appel is strongly debated but my vote goes...

The food here is usually pretty good. I've only ever eaten here during the pandemic, so everything's socially distanced and all that. The tofu is never very good, so if you're a vegetarian that's pretty unfortunate, but the pork? Always amazing, whatever dish they serve. The people are friendly enough (it seems like everyone is here in Ithaca), and the service is good....