Which restaurant on campus gets the highest score? ⭐
- Lemons & Beans
- De Waaier
- Subway
- Frosty's
- Restaurant & Grand Café The Gallery
- Brownies & Downies
- Appèl Langezijds, Ravelijn en Horst
- Coop (bakkerij)
- Starbucks
- Sportkantine
- Theatre cafe
- Pizza vending machine
- And the winner is...
Lemons & Beans
Lemons & Beans, located in the Technohal, is one of the uni's Appèl catering locations. As opposed to the other locations, it has an entirely vegetarian menu, ranging from freshly prepared sandwiches and pastries to fried snacks. Be sure to try the omelette or hummus sandwich, both deliciously fresh and generously filled! Lemons & Beans is also the perfect spot for delicious coffee and tea.
The soups in particular are highly recommended. Every day, two types of soup are freshly prepared on-site. Although soups are available at other Appèl locations as well, for some reason they taste the best here. In addition to the standard soups, there's often a choice of something a bit more unique, like red curry or Japanese soup. Not unimportantly, Lemons & Beans has a cosy interior, making it an even more pleasant place to enjoy your lunch. The restaurant may not be large, but this only adds to its charm. And bonus points for the service, as the staff is super friendly!
Food:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Waaier
At the Waaier you will find the largest selection of hot and cold dishes on campus. Here, they offer all kinds of sandwiches, soups and snacks as well, but with more options than the other restaurants. And not to forget, Wednesday is the well-known Fries Day at the Waaier! This restaurant is the place to be for a quick and affordable dinner; for €6.75, you can dine here Monday to Thursday between 17:00 and 18:30 (and until 18:00 on Fridays).
The Waaier has a weekly changing menu, featuring a choice between two different meals each day - one of them vegetarian. The meals are good, especially considering the price. However, The Waaier itself may not be the most atmospheric place to dine and it tends to be very busy, especially during lunchtime!
Food:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere: ⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Subway
For good, personalised sandwiches, Subway in the Bastille Atrium is the place to be! The menu is no different from other Subways, but that doesn't make having our own location on campus any less convenient. Unfortunately, Subway doesn't have its own seating areas, so it's mostly suitable for lunch-to-go. Through the Uniondeals, you can even get a Sub with a discount if you eat with a large group or get a Sub between 17:00 and 19:00.
Food:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere: ⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Frosty's
On the boulevard, next to the entrance of the Bastille, you'll find Frosty's. This place started in 2022 as an ice cream shop, but in the winter months, it transforms into a poké bowl takeaway restaurant. At Frosty's, you have a wide choice of many different flavours of (mostly) vegan ice cream. In winter, you can order a customised poké bowl for a fixed price. Compared to other poké bowl shops, the poké bowls are definitely not expensive and both the poké bowls and the ice cream are very good. Unfortunately, the restaurant is only about 15 m2, so eating your ice cream or poké inside is not an option. However, in good weather, you can sit on the terrace outside of the restaurant.
Food:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere: ⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Restaurant & Grand Café The Gallery
A restaurant less known among students is Restaurant & Grand Café The Gallery. However, this does not make it any less worth a visit! You can go there for delicious, varied lunches, both hot and cold. Think of fresh sandwiches, pasta, fries (nicely seasoned!) and fried snacks. The restaurant mainly focuses on à la carte lunch and less on takeaway, although this is possible.
In this restaurant, you mainly encounter people from the companies at The Gallery and fewer students, which means it is relatively quiet and you rarely have to queue! The restaurant itself is modern, spacious and bright, making it a nice place to sit. Compared to other restaurants at the University, the prices are a bit higher though.
Food:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐
Brownies & Downies
Brownies & Downies is located in the Spiegel, all the way on the other side of the university’s main lecture halls. Not so much a restaurant as it is a snack bar, however, Brownies & Downies still manages to deliver delicious homemade brownies and coffees. Their Oreo brownies are a student favourite, and the relaxed atmosphere of the place (along with an amazing view of the university gardens) makes for a great place to enjoy... well, a brownie!
Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Appèl Langezijds, Ravelijn and Horst
The university’s main catering service, Appèl, is responsible for several cafeterias in the university’s many buildings, including Langezijds, Ravelijn, and the Horst. You’ll have plenty of choices in all of these locations: from fresh sandwiches and delectable soup to steaming hot meals that satisfy you until the end of the day, you’d be hard-pressed to find something wrong with the food quality. Most people go here to eat, so you’ll always find people in these places no matter the hour, and it’s most lively during lunchtime. However, even though the food is quite good, some students have stopped ordering here due to increased prices.
Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐
Coop (bakery)
The university grocery store, Coop, is always bustling with people. Be it students, employees, or university workers, Coop unites people with one thing: the universal love for baked goods. From croissants to full-on tostis (toasted sandwiches), the bakery has quite a range of goods – small wonder that they always run out before the workday ends. However, be aware that the prices for their baked goods, compared to other grocery store bakeries, are significantly more expensive. Moreover, their cheese croissants leave a bit to be desired for some reason, but we can never really pinpoint the reason why.
Food: ⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐
Starbucks
Good old Starbucks. Everywhere you turn your head, you see one: the university’s no exception. Located centrally between the lecture halls and the leisure areas, the university Starbucks is a quaint little cafe with all the seasonal Starbucks drinks and snacks but lacking the ‘green-coloured’ theme Starbucks is known for. Littered around the cafe area are desks and tables for your all-purpose studying and coffee drinking. You know exactly what you’re paying for and what you’re getting when you go to Starbucks. Some people hate it, some people love it.
Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐
Sportkantine
The Sportkantine is located in the Sports Center, the University of Twente’s all-in-one sports facility. From fried goods to cold beers, the Sportkantine’s got you covered after those lengthy volleyball sessions. One special feature the Sportkantine has is its monthly burger: every month, students who tap the beers and man the bars are responsible for creating a new burger of the month. What’s more: the Sportkantine’s food is relatively cheap compared to other restaurants, and open at night as well, so get your friends and spend your evening in the sports centre!
Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Theatre cafe
Studying for your exams in the Vrijhof and want to take a break? Then the Theatre cafe is not far away. Okay, there’s not a lot to choose from on the menu, but for a simple lunch, dinner or coffee break (try the cheesecake if you have serious cravings) you will be fine. The lunch menu includes grilled cheese or a good old Dutch ‘Broodje kroket’, for example, and in the evening, you can order hot wings or various burgers (chicken, beef or veggie). Quite tasty, although we were not quite sure what to think of the sweet and sour sauce with the nachos... Not necessarily the cheapest option on campus, but compared to other restaurants, the Theatre cafe is still quite affordable (12 to 14 euros for a burger). And a big plus is the terrace in summer!
Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐⭐⭐
Pizza vending machine
The pizza vending machine, famous for providing those after-party meals, is not exactly what we’d call ‘fine dining’. Sure, any pizza is good pizza, especially after a bender when exam season’s over, but there is a line to be drawn. Located right next to the Bastille, the pizza vending machine features four choices of frozen pizza, heated and packaged in cheesy, greasy galore. There’s even a nice jingle that plays when an order is placed.
To be fair to it, the pizza isn’t half bad – it's the price that is. A frozen pizza from your nearby grocery store is at a fraction of the price and probably more enjoyable, too: the pizza from the vending machine barely has any tomato sauce, and of the four options, only one (the Margherita) is vegetarian. Definitely not worth the price, nor the potential risk of trying suspicious vending machine pizza.
Food: ⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere:⭐⭐⭐
Value for money:⭐
And the winner is....
After extensive testing, surely there can only be one winner. Or two, in our case, because we really couldn't choose: Lemons & Beans and the Sportkantine. For a guaranteed good meal and a nice atmosphere at a fair price, these locations are the place to be!
Are you, however, feeling fancy for some reason – say, you’ve just graduated? Then you also have the option to fine dine in the UPark Hotel restaurant. Not included in this test because *expensive*, but we’ve heard good reviews. And in the meantime, you can eat your heart out with the more budget-proof options on this list. 😉
