Although Hopkins has a bunch of places to eat on campus, I’ve always liked Nolan’s on 33rd the most. When I go home for breaks, I’m always missing the dining hall food. It’s so good that I got a meal plan for my junior year even though they’re not required after your first two years. I haven’t tried every single thing (yet), but I have my favorites. As someone who watches a ton of cooking shows (but absolutely hates cooking), I’m definitely qualified to give this review, so check out these foods when you go to Nolan’s!
1. Build Your Own Bowl: Burrito Version
This was the original dish that launched my love for Nolan’s, so naturally it’s number one on the list. I’m not exactly sure what to call these, but it’s basically Chipotle from the comfort of the dining hall. You pick your rice, beans, and meat, then add as many toppings as you want. They have things like salsa, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, spinach, and even guacamole. There’s so many to choose from, so it’s really fun mixing it up and trying new things here. For an extra hack, I like to go to the salad bar after and add even more to my bowls.
2. Build Your Own Pasta
When I heard the burrito bowl line had been dismantled for a week while some new pasta bar took its place, I was heartbroken. Out of loyalty for my bowls, I wasn’t even going to try it until I heard my friends raving about it. Picture Olive Garden’s never-ending pasta and that’s basically what you have here. You pick the noodles, sauce, and meat, then add garnishes like broccoli and onions. This is another fun one to get creative with, and it’s made-to-order, so they cook it right in front of you. Beware of long lines though; this one gets busy fast!
3. Omelet Station
If you can’t already tell, I’m biased toward the foods that let me add as many toppings as I can. With this in mind, it’s unsurprising to see the omelet station on my list. Here, you cook the food yourself, so you can add however much of something you want. I avoided this one for a long time because I hate cooking (even adding milk to cereal counts as cooking to me.) But I learned it’s worth a couple minutes of torture for one of the best stations at Nolan’s. The available add-ons change sometimes, but I’ve seen different kinds of cheeses, ham, bacon bits, chicken, tofu, spinach, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and peppers. Since there’s also different kinds of bread and bagels nearby, I sometimes make a breakfast sandwich. For some reason, I really like to make an omelet without any eggs, which is kinda weird, but that’s the beauty of the omelet station: freedom of culinary expression.
4. Fruit and Yogurt
Going back to the basics here, but Nolan’s has a good assortment of different fruits and yogurt flavors. Depending on the day, you might see blueberries, mandarin oranges, strawberries, pineapple, watermelon, peach slices, or pear slices. You’ll just about always see melon and cantaloupe. As for yogurts, they commonly have vanilla, strawberry, plain, and blueberry depending on the day. Sometimes they also have cottage cheese, applesauce, and granola here too. Since Nolan’s offers to-go boxes for when you’re in a rush (two per meal swipe), I sometimes fill an entire box just with fruit and yogurt to snack on for the next few days.
5. Baked Potato Bar
This is a new one for me, but it immediately found a place on my list after I tried it. Similar to the other stations, you pick a potato (sweet, regular, or mashed), then add to it. They have shrimp, barbecue chicken, and a vegetarian option. Then the classics like cheese, sour cream, chives, bacon bits, barbecue sauce, and marshmallows. They also have a few unusual ones that are worth trying like sautéed onions and broccoli. I’ve been excited to see barbecue flavors added to the menu because it feels like I’m back home in Texas.
6. Salad Bar
Although it’s a classic staple for any restaurant or dining hall, the salad bar needs a spot on the list because of how often I see it get passed up. Depending on the day, you’ll see different offerings here. It’s always good, but some days it’s exceptional. A few of the salad bar standouts I’ve seen are tuna, Parmesan cheese, baby corn, imitation crab, chicken, dried cranberries, and tuna salad. There’s always three different kinds of lettuce and a bunch of different salad dressings. The usual toppings are things like cucumbers, olives, hard boiled eggs, cheese, tomatoes, and peppers. I think the salad bar gets overlooked because people assume you have to get a salad, but it holds more potential than that. I commonly pair the toppings with other meals I’ve gotten to make them more complete. Sometimes I’ll build a basic salad, but I mainly like to get creative with the salad bar, making it the most versatile item on the list.
7. Desserts
Of course, we always have to end with dessert, and Nolan’s is the perfect place for that. There are three kinds of ice cream to choose from, but they swap out the flavors so there’s something new every day. You can get it in a cone or cup, and it even gets scooped for you. There’s also a bunch of assorted desserts to choose from. I’ve seen donuts, cake, brownies, cereal bars, and pie. Although it’s not technically a dessert, I need to give an honorable mention to their warm, buttery croissants. But the biggest standout here is easily the cookies. Costco’s double chunk chocolate cookie pales in comparison to Nolan’s. I’ve seen M&M, macadamia nut, chocolate chip, and oatmeal raisin. All of them have been out-of-this-galaxy good. The last thing worth mentioning here is their lemon bars. I was particularly excited to see these in the dining hall since my family put me on a lifetime ban from making them (you screw them up one time and you’re labeled for life!). I really enjoyed eating them, but I particularly liked bragging to my family that I finally got lemon bars.
Hopkins has a lot of great dining options on campus, but Nolan’s is, in my opinion, the best. The offerings always change, so you never know what new food will appear next. In just the last four days I’ve had steak, salmon, imitation crab, fresh strawberries and blueberries, and asparagus. Hopkins Dining listens to student feedback and is constantly making improvements. There’s even an online form where you can submit recipes you would like to see in the dining halls. I could talk about Nolan’s forever, but this article is starting to make me hungry, so the list is gonna have to end here!
