Pictured from left to right, Mediterra’s Harissa fries, a falafel pita and a build-your-own bowl. Photo courtesy of Lexi Zef.
Mediterra has officially joined the SUNY New Paltz campus dining menu, offering students, staff, faculty and other patrons a bold and refreshing shift in the university’s dining. Operated by Sodexo, the company that primarily manages dining services on the university’s campus, the new location is the first of its kind and a significant milestone, as it is focuses on bold, inspired flavors from the Mediterranean coast.
According to Sodexo’s website, Mediterra came together over winter break and caters to Gen-Z students with an “appetite for authenticity and bold flavor.” The location held a ribbon cutting ceremony, attended by President Darrell P. Wheeler, on Jan. 28, marking their first day of operations. The excitement was certainly palpable, but wait times were outstanding, with some students waiting one to two hours for their food to be prepared. While the long lines were likely due to high anticipations and demands for a new campus dining location, it is important to accommodate to the high speed and buzz of the Student Union Building, a long-standingly popular location to eat between classes.
At the SUB, time is always of the essence when one is seeking sustenance during the 15 minute break between classes, where time seemingly passes by twice as fast. Student reviews have been fairly mixed, which is consistent with varying opinions of campus dining. The serving area behind the glass features colorful arrays of food, various greens, legumes, meats and grains, lettuce, salads, basmati rice, lentils and harissa chicken. They offer meal exchanges and other food that can be purchased with dining dollars or retail payments. The menu features pita sandwiches, such as crispy falafel and hummus, and Mediterranean harissa chicken pita and bowls that offer pre-selected ingredients like spicy feta and harissa beef meatball bowl, as well as an option to build-your-own bowl.
When trying Mediterra’s cuisine, I ordered a falafel pita with hummus, baba ghanoush, slaw, pickles and cucumber salad. For sides, I chose fries and hummus. The fries were hot, flavorful and seasoned to perfection and the hummus was just as delectable. The pita was hard to bite into and the falafel was quite underwhelming.
Julia is a vegetarian student at SUNY New Paltz who has been dining on campus for the past four years. She loves Mediterranean cuisine and has tried numerous dishes, so she was excited to try this place but was not terribly impressed by the vegetarian options. She mentioned that the new hot spot has significantly less vegetarian offerings than Hugo’s Fresh Nest, the business that held Mediterra’s previous spot. Hugo’s Fresh Nest “had protein, like eggs, and the beyond tenders … at Mediterra there is no vegetarian protein option except falafel, but it’s a falafel that I don’t like so much,” Julia said. This prompted a question of whether it is worth it to reach out to dining services with feedback on Mediterra and other campus dining establishments regarding offering more diverse and palatable vegetarian options. “They want to hear what students have to say for the most part, so I feel like they would be open to adding new options for students with dietary restrictions and needs,” Julia said.
Beth, a third-year student at SUNY New Paltz greatly enjoyed the chicken harissa bowl, saying she loved the avocado inclusion. “Where else on campus can you get fresh avocado nowadays?” she said.
There is a great deal of optimism from students about the new location and the potential to evolve menus to offer more vegetarian options, and the wait times are ultimately worth it according to students eating there.
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Dining and Cooking