There are varying opinions concerning food at Notre Dame dining halls. To many people, it is adequate. It eases hunger pangs, and when compared to some of the cafeteria-like monstrosities found at other colleges throughout an excessively grub-infested America, north and south dining halls aren't that bad.

In fact, they are too good to be true. They are too good to express their goodness in words. They are simply fantastic.

Others will say the recycling nature of the dining hall cooks perhaps puts into question the trust students place in the food givers at Notre Dame food services.

But because the dining halls are such integral and constant parts of student lives here at Notre Dame, there is no real reason to discuss their lovely atmospheres and social vitality.

In order to discover the glamorous presence of food service at Notre Dame, one must instead make the exhausting trip around campus, from the Notre Dame bookstore to Bond Hall to O'Shaughnessy. Therefore, the following is just that: a journey through the bowels of Notre Dame food-places. What's good? Where's a good place to study? What's the best "soup" around?

Seattle's Best, Hammes Bookstore

It's a coffee shop. So unless you're looking for coffee, this isn't the best place to visit.

But that doesn't mean Seattle's Best is a bad place to be. Like most American mega-bookstores today, Notre Dame's grand palace has, in one of its many corners, a café.

But the café is not riddled with goateed intellectuals clothed in black, nor is it infected by hyper teens wanting to ingest the latest cappuccino-mocha-espresso caffeinated conglomeration.

Instead, it is quaint. With a service staff that puts a smile on one's face, there isn't really anything to complain about in regard to the exchange of money for goods.

But, as one would expect at a café, there isn't really much to choose from, aside from varying forms of caffeinated beverages. One can find a bagel here and there. Maybe a big cookie. And of course, there is the typical array of snack foods: candy bars, ice cream bars, chips, soda pop.

And paving the way for America's technological future, the café has a television and a computer.

If there were awards for campus eateries, Seattle's Best would win the following:

• Best place to spend $400 on books and still enjoy a cup of coffee.

• Best place to jog to and get your weekly workout if you live on North Quad.

• Best really tall chairs.

Greenfields, Hesburgh Center for Internatinal Studies

It's a place probably about 95 percent of the Notre Dame student body has never visited, but once again, it's not that bad. Greenfields Café is definitely a restaurant geared toward the breakfast and lunch crowds, and those crowds consist primarily of faculty and staff at Notre Dame.

The café, as one would expect, is very green. Green carpet, green aprons, green napkins, green chair cushions. With perhaps the largest dining area among campus cafés, the daily business forces Greenfield's to be accommodating to its customers. Thus, one will notice an abundance of tables and chairs. But when it's not too busy, that provides for an intimacy that is unseen at other campus restaurants.

With an established menu of typical American foods — sandwiches, salads, soups — the café deserves visitations by anyone who wants to make the long walk to the Hesburgh Center for International Studies.

Awards:

• Best use of space.

• Best use of the color green.

• Best place to watch your professor eat lunch.

• Best place you've probably never heard of.

Reckers

What can be said about Reckers, the campus hotspot infamous for late night social deviancy?

For many people, Reckers is a destination they zero in on when escaping the sometimes undying pleasures of the dining hall. The restaurant boasts the famous "Reckers burger" — which was famous even when the restaurant was born a year and a half ago — pizzas roasted over an intense flame and smoothies people buy even in the harsh cold of January.

In addition to the original dining fare mentioned, Reckers also specializes in perhaps the greatest capitalist ploy ever, Starbucks coffee.

Not that $4 cups of coffee are bad things. In fact, the presence of Starbucks (along with Burger King) marks Notre Dame's introduction of American corporate culture to its students. And because economics is not a requisite for all students, Starbucks serves a fine lesson in money management.

But for all the shadiness surrounding its immediate popularity throughout campus, Reckers does indeed have a hip atmosphere even at its least busy times. Where else can someone watch television for an afternoon, surf the Internet, play some video games, eat a bunch of junk food, study, read the newspaper, listen to music, sleep and talk to friends?

Only one answer really fit this description accurately: home. OK, so maybe there are two answers: home and Reckers. Because really, Reckers is just like home, and home is where everyone really wants to be. Home is where everyone knows your name. No, that's Cheers. But that's not a bad comparison.

Awards:

• Best place that seems to be only for South Quad residents.

• Best backside of a well-known campus building.

• Worst use of the color green.

• Best place for those with attention deficit disorder.

• Best place for average customer service.

• Worst use of space.

• Best use of randomness.

Irish Café, Law School

There is one award that characterizes this café: Most uncomfortable place for an undergraduate student.

Other awards:

• Least original name.

Common Stock Sandwich Co., College of Business

What's smaller than a breadbox, and sells hot dogs to business students? That's right. It's the Common Stock Sandwich Co. at the College of Business. Less organized than the Huddle Mart, the tiny room in the lower level of COB(A) seems to be intended for buying typical vending machine items.

And since only a select few actually make it to that other pointy building by the stadium, it doesn't really need to be more than it is.

Awards:

• Coolest name.

• Best impersonation of grab `n' go.

• Biggest letdown.

• Restaurant that most resembles a dorm room in size.

• Restaurant that doesn't deserve to be called a restaurant.

• Best definition of a campus 7-11, only without the gasoline and beer.

Waddick's, O'Shaughnessy

Among arts and letters students, Waddick's is a familiar sight. Located on the first floor of the beautifully crafted O'Shaughnessy Hall, the small café is best experienced during a class period, when a 15-person line isn't stretching out the door. With a coffee menu supported by daily specials, Waddick's looks to be the most established in the campus family of cafes.

It is also the most intimate eatery on campus. With six round tables tightly woven through the floorplan, three elevated booths and a long bar facing the halls of O'Shag, it provides the greatest opportunity for sophisticated, yet, relevant conversation. Such is the hardcore nature of arts and letters restaurants.

As for the actual food served, one may think, sometimes, perhaps, much of the food comes from the dining halls. But forget that thought out of respect for those who work at Waddick's. Besides, all of these restaurants fall under the umbrella of Notre Dame food services.

Awards:

• Best place to eavesdrop on others' conversations.

• Best place to have people looking at you like you're a lab rat.

• Best place to feel really dumb if you don't know who Nietzsche is or what he's about.

• Place most likely to be a location for office hours.

• Most traditional café.

The Huddle, LaFortune

Where else can you eat, then get a haircut? Such is mall-like experience of visiting the Huddle at LaFortune student center.

A few years ago, the Huddle was simply crap. The Huddle Mart was small, with little more than cough syrup, Coca-cola and quarterdogs. Tomassito's was there, but Burger King was not.

Today, LaFortune is not crap. It's not the sweet loveliness of, say, 75 degrees and sunny skies, but it's not crap.

Burger King, the other Flex-point hot spot (second to Reckers), has added credibility to a once fully independently run campus. Hopefully, there will soon be a McDonald's on the top floor of Flanner, an Arby's on the second floor of Hesburgh Library and a Papa John's at Main Building.

Thank you, Huddle, for giving everyone high cholesteral and a reason to walk five minutes through the freezing cold of winter.

Awards:

• Best place to pretend you are studying.

• Best place to get high on sugar.

• Best place to spend Flex points.

Café de Grasta, Grace Hall

With a service area large enough to battle all campus restaurants, the Café de Grasta seems almost like a dining hall in its size. But understand this: it is not a dining hall. Having been open for only a week or so, the café provides a much needed restaurant on the north side of campus. So for all those North Quadders who feel left out with the abundance of restaurants on the south side of campus, there is relief, finally.

Awards:

• Strangest name.

• Most unknown campus restaurant.

Café Poche, Bond Hall

Probably one of those other places mostly everyone at Notre Dame has never visited, Café Poche at Bond Hall indeed is a lost treasure among campus eateries. Boasting daily specials like other cafés, the small restaurant hawks salads and sandwiches as well.

And despite the lack of a large eating area, a visit to Café Poche can be a bright spot on anyone's day.

Awards:

• Best customer service.

• Most enthusiastic lady at the counter.

• Most Italian eatery.

• Coolest building.

• When the DH just isn't enough