Do you love the quality food that Sodexo provides in the student cafeteria? Neither do I. Sodexo provides food in both the student cafeteria and the Bookcliffe Café in the University Center. It’s odd. The quality of food in the cafeteria is, at times, surprisingly poor, but more times than not Bookcliffe Café provides some pretty good food. Another oddity is that in the history of the Criterion, CMU’s student newspaper, we have never reviewed the restaurant 10 feet below our office.

As a freshman living on campus I’ve spent my fair share of both Mav money and real money at Bookcliffe Café. Whether I’m running through the University Center on the way to class and stop in to grab a Gatorade, maybe it’s my alternate to eating in the cafeteria that night, or if I am rushing to class and grabbing a pop-tart, I know Bookcliffe pretty well. But the time I frequent Bookcliffe more than any other is late at night during the week.

I love Bookcliffe because of its hours. Living less than a block away from Subway, Little Ceasers, and Jimmyz Burgers is great, but it doesn’t do me much good when they’re closed and my hunger is still open. Bookcliffe is open till midnight every night of the week, and I gotta say that I think that is just swell.

My favorite item at Bookcliffe is pizza. Not only are the slices cut the way all pizza joints should cut their slices, it’s actually pretty good pizza. Like Sodexo’s food service, the pizza can be hit-or-miss. Sometimes it’s over cooked on the bottom, which tends to happen more often than not.

My typical order is two slices of pepperoni pizza, with an order of curly fries from the grill, and a Pepsi. By the way, this is my official start to a campaign of bringing Coke products to the campus of CMU. In a recent survey, eight out of 12 journalists prefer Coke products over that of current CMU soda incumbent Pepsi.

Another great thing about Bookcliffe is the dessert freezer section behind Jazzman’s coffee. Ice cream bars and popsicles galore are a nice change from either chocolate or vanilla half mixed soft serve in the cafeteria.

The Subcorner is great if you’re in the mood for a sandwich, and the grill makes cheese burgers, double burgers, chicken fingers, and quesadillas.

One thing that pushes Bookcliffe over the student cafeteria is the fact that you can actually take food out of the University Center with you. If you try to take more than an ice cream cone, you’ve got undercover secret service Sodexo agents on you.

With all the variety in Bookcliffe, it really is a great place to grab a quick bite while you’re on campus, or as an alternative meal to whatever the student cafeteria is serving that day.