Written by Hyun-Joong Kim

IGC cafetaria provides affordable meals for students, staffs and faculty (Courtesy: Google Image)

According to the Incheon Global Campus (IGC) Foundation, the number of students visiting the on-campus cafeteria has recently decreased.

Some students said that the academic rigor on campus is so intense that they hardly have time to have meals from other places. Then, IGC cafeteria would be the best choice for them.

However, there were voices about complaints of the cafeteria. Others said that the quality of the meals fall below expectation.

In a general, every beginning of the semester is quite a full of students for a month. After a month, it is hard to see lots of students eating at this school. At the beginning of the semester, freshmen are eating at the university cafeteria and they usually do not eat after a month.

Robin Bang, a communication major at the University of Utah Asia Campus, said, “I have never eaten at IGC cafeteria after fall semester because of the taste. Though it is good to take a Korean meal with a reasonable price, most of international excluding Korean students will not like it.”

The IGC cafeteria provides not only lunch and dinner but also breakfast and snacks. However, very few students and faculty eat at the cafeteria.

The most significant problem is the taste of the food. Thus, students had insisted of the improvement of the taste and limited types of food.

For instance, Western and other style menu were only offered at lunch time. They had no choices eat other meals at the dinner about one year ago. However, the IGC Foundation ignored their voices and the development of Triple Street and Songdo Hyundai Outlet caused massive exodus from the school.

Their restaurants offered diverse style of menus. Including fast food restaurants such as Subway and Burger King, IGC students can easily have meals with Indian, Italian, and western style. Moreover, the proximity from the school made it very popular.

Triple Street and Hyundai Outlet are located near the campus, and it takes five to ten minutes on foot to get to these places. The number of students who eat at those restaurants has increased significantly.

Meanwhile, students who are considering food expenses usually go to the Yonsei University’s cafeteria called Raon-Saem rather than the IGC cafeteria. Raon-Saem is known for its Italian dishes such as pizza, pasta, and pilaf. Thus, international students who are not from Korea eat the food without reluctance.

“I think IGC cafeteria cannot catch up with Raon-Saem,” Robin Bang said, “because it satisfies with me of the taste, quality and quantity. Plus, its facilities and wide choice of menus are dominant.”

There are many reasons that restaurant at Yonsei University surpasses the IGC cafeteria. Firstly, Raon-Saem is known for taste of the food. It always receives a good taste evaluation among students and even other people.

On the Internet, there are lots of weblog covered Raon-Saem’s food evaluation. Since this cafeteria is operated by Yonsei consumer cooperative with fund, students and people who are not university students can also enjoy the meal with a cheap price. Therefore, they have Italian food of restaurant quality with half of the price of the Triple Street or Hyundai Outlet.

Although it does not offer breakfast like the IGC cafeteria, it provides excellent quality food. The number of menu is also a strong point of this cafeteria. It has at least 30 menus and sometimes introduces special chef’s choice and seasonal food.

Unfortunately, contrary to foundation’s intention, the Incheon Global Campus does not consider the term ‘global’ in food preference at all. It will take a lot of amount of time and money to change. But, it is very essential to stop a massive crisis of student number decreasing.

As a solution, focusing on lunch and dinner and increasing the number of the menu will be the best option to make students come back to school. In the long term, the IGC cafeteria will have to try to enhance the quality and taste of the food ultimately.