UT-San Antonio plans dining changes for fall term

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is planning some fresh and exciting new dining locations to enhance the campus experience and make eating on campus easy for students this fall. Among them are an increased diversity of food options, including locations that feature menus that change based on student feedback, new daily vegetarian and healthy options and an increase in the number of affordable meal options in the John Peace Library (JPL) and Student Union (SU) food courts.

In addition, renovations to the JPL, the university’s busiest food court, will provide more open space to enhance the dining experience for hungry students on the go.

“UTSA Dining’s renewed focus on customization and flexibility creates new and exciting opportunities to incorporate student feedback into the daily campus dining experience,” offers Clay Haverland, assistant vice president for UTSA Campus Services. “Over time, student preferences and dining trends change. We are listening to their requests to determine the best venues to meet the evolving needs of on-campus dining.”

UTSA’s John Peace Library (JPL) food court will see easier traffic flow following the shifting of its Sushic sushi station to replace the venue’s underperforming Papa John’s station.

This summer, UTSA Dining replaced Taco Taco, Mooyah, and Papa John’s, venues with the lowest number of customer visits, with alternatives that provide more combo meals and value items, in addition to flexible menus. 

Mooyah, a burger concept, is being supplanted in the Student Union food court by Slice Pizza and Wings, which menus whole pizzas and pizza by the slice, in addition to salads, wings, milkshakes and rotating options such as calzones and strombolis. It will also have vegetarian options and $5 and $6 combo meals while rotating items can be added to the permanent menu based on student input.

Also in the Student Union, Rowdy's Global Kitchen, an international café featuring global cuisine, will fill Taco Taco’s current location. It has daily Mediterranean and Indian options, including vegetarian and healthy selections, with other items offered weekly and monthly. The concept’s focus is on healthy, fresh, made-to-order items with a variety of value meal options and, similar to Slice Pizza and Wings, combo meals will be available and UTSA Dining is willing to add rotating items to the permanent menu based on demand.

The third conversion is in the JPL Food Court, where the current Papa John’s location is being replaced by a sushi concept called Sushic, which is being moved from a location where it hampered traffic flow near the food court’s Chick-fil-A and Steak ‘n Shake stations. Chick-fil-A, which is currently under renovation, will also see numerous updates this fall, including a streamlined purchasing process, a modernized kitchen and new menu items such as grilled nuggets and fresh market salads.

In another enhancement to the campus dining mix, Rowdy Curbside, UTSA's Tex-Mex themed food truck, will take up residence at Sombrilla Plaza near the JPL food court area to bring an array of breakfast tacos in the morning and tacos, nachos and more for lunch and dinner.

Campus Services and UTSA Dining anticipate these changes will be completed before the start of the fall semester.