Sitting in class, I can feel the hunger gnawing away at my insides as my professor rants about free-market conservatism. Like clockwork, as soon as the class is over, I run to the nearest dining hall as if there is no tomorrow.
As I finish my post-political science feast, I hear a faint noise calling me in the corner of the dining hall. Like the call of a siren, I am drawn to the sound, and I turn slowly until I see the silver machine it is coming from.
The three handles on the soft-serve machine have me questioning what flavor I should possibly choose while my feet unconsciously take me toward the other delectable treats sitting next to the machine.
While not all dining halls have the soft-serve machine, I think all have a pretty good selection of desserts that make it impossible to leave without a sweet treat in hand.
Here is my ranking of all four IU Bloomington all-you-care-to-eat dining halls, excluding Collins Eatery due to lack of data (I’ve only been once and it was mid), ranked purely based on how much I enjoy their dessert selection:
4. Goodbody Hall Eatery
While I look forward to a Goodbody breakfast almost every single day, I simply cannot rank it any higher on this list.
I really like the dessert selection for what the dining hall is; the array of brownies and cookies make a good sweet treat between classes. Sometimes I come into Goodbody just to fill a to-go container with brownies to save for later. So, the desserts themselves are good.
Even so, Goodbody falls into the last place slot simply because of its lack of ice cream and cake. The other three dining halls easily dominate Goodbody because they serve those two things.
3. Forest Dining Hall
I am so sorry, please forgive me for what may be an unpopular opinion; Forest is my favorite dining hall on campus, but when it comes to desserts, I think it is seriously lacking considering it has an entire room dedicated to desserts.
When I walk into the dessert room, I find myself always praying for something they do not have, such as cake, and the dining hall never seems to have anything stocked except for ice cream and a few hard cookies.
However, Forest redeems itself when there are “special event” desserts, like when it served king cake for Mardi Gras or crème brûlée randomly throughout the semester. While these tempt me to rank Forest desserts higher, I can’t bring myself to do so when Wright consistently has more desserts of better quality.
2. Wright Dining Hall
Wright ranks above Forest just by a hair because of its consistent stock of desserts and other fun sweet treats like muffins and donuts.
I love walking into Wright craving something sweet because I know I’ll be able to get a cookie, brownie, rice crispy treat, donut or soft-serve ice cream. The cookies are never rock-hard or too soft, and everything about the dessert selection Wright serves is perfect.
My only annoyance with Wright is when the soft-serve machine is broken, which happened often in the fall semester. Lately, the soft-serve machine has stood strong, so I think everything is okay, for now.
1. McNutt Dining Hall
McNutt ranks first in my opinion because this dining hall goes above and beyond for desserts, especially ice cream. McNutt always has cookies, the soft-serve machine has been consistently working throughout the entire year, and there are also toppings for the ice cream cones.
I always leave the McNutt Dining Hall fat and happy with an ice cream cone adorned with marshmallows and sprinkles in hand.
