Your Guide to FSU Meal Plans & On-Campus Dining
On-campus dining and FSU meal plans are an important part of life at Florida State University. Whether you’re living in on-campus housing or at a community right across the street, you’ll be spending whole days on campus, and you definitely need to be eating to fuel your studies.
Here, we’ve collected all the basics, details, and tips you need to understand on-campus dining at FSU — including the top five essential stops on your FSU food tour.
FSU Meal Plan Options
FSU offers several plans to suit different student lifestyles, needs, and budgets. But what do you get from each option?
Here’s a quick overview of FSU meal plans:
- Open Access: The 7-Day Open Access options provide unlimited meals per semester, and there are different options within Open Access that give you more or less Dining Dollars based on what you need.
- Renegade: The lower-priced 100 Renegade plan gives you 100 total meal swipes per semester with additional Dining Dollars.
- Weekly: There are multiple weekly plans, like 10 and 14 Weekly, that give you a specific number of meals per week with additional Dining Dollars per plan.
- Foodie: Designed for off-campus living and less than $1,000 per semester, 50 Foodie gives you 50 total meal swipes with Dining Dollars.
All off- and on-campus plans include 3 guest swipes per semester and the ability to exchange 1 Meal Swipe for 1 Cash Equivalency swipe per day (more on that later).
FSU meal plan costs vary but typically range from about $1,000 to almost $3,000 per semester. Seminole Dining is the best place to get up-to-date prices and details for the current or upcoming semesters.
We recommend choosing your plan based on how often you expect to dine on campus and the amount of Dining Dollars you need.
Cash Equivalency, Dining Dollars & FSUCash
Available in addition to or sometimes instead of meal plans, FSU also offers multiple ways to pay for meals across campus, including:
- Cash Equivalency: If you have a meal plan, you can use a meal swipe at select on-campus dining locations to apply a predetermined cash amount to your total. So, if you have a $10 total at Starbucks on campus, you can apply one meal plan swipe to the total (usually around $7) then pay the difference.
- Dining Dollars: Part of most FSU meal plans, Dining Dollars are like a prepaid card you can use at any dining location on campus, and you can load additional money onto your card at any time.
- FSUCash: Like an all-purpose student wallet, this is a broader payment method on your student ID that covers residential hall laundry, printing and copying on campus, on-campus dining, and shopping at places like the FSU Bookstore.
How to Sign Up for FSU Meal Plans
You can purchase meal plans and get all the up-to-date details and prices at Seminole Dining, or sign up through your myFSU account. Simply log in with your student credentials and explore the different plans offered. Be sure to review the plan options carefully and pick the one that matches your schedule and lifestyle — whether you want unlimited swipes or just a few meals a week.
Dining Halls at FSU
The two on-campus FSU dining halls offer an all-you-care-to-eat experience:
- Suwannee Room is the original dining hall on campus; it has a diverse, rotating menu and open kitchen layout, and you can view the daily hours and menu online.
- Seminole Café is conveniently located near residence halls with diverse meal options and weekend brunch hours.
At these locations, you can select everything you’d like to build your perfect meal, including to-go options, all for one meal swipe.
OZZI Reusable Containers
Through their Choose to Reuse sustainability program, FSU offers OZZI reusable containers, available for purchase at the dining halls and included with meal plans. These containers let you take meals to-go from Suwannee Room and Seminole Café in an OZZI instead of a disposable box. Then, you can return your container to get a new one for next time.
Other Popular On-Campus Dining
In addition to the two dining halls, FSU offers 25+ other on-campus dining options, including international chains, small cafes, and scratch kitchens.
Here are a few of the most-recommended spots:
- Halal Shack is a national chain that merges Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors with a classic American spin.
- Vato Tacos at 1851 is inside The 1851 — a food-market-style option offering sushi, pizza, mac and cheese, and Vatos, which is one of the most-recommended spots on any FSU food tour.
- Panda Express is inside The 1851 — a food-market-style option offering sushi, pizza, mac and cheese, and Vatos, which is one of the most-recommended spots on any FSU food tour.
- 4 Rivers Smokehouse was created by FSU alum John Rivers and brings BBQ tacos, burritos, sandwiches, and bowls to the heart of campus.
- Chick-fil-A is located in the Honors, Scholars, and Fellows House, and, like off-campus locations of this chain, it is closed on Sunday.
Healthy Eating on Campus
Making balanced choices on campus is part of mental and physical wellness at college, and it’s more simple when you know where to look and what habits to start.
Here are a few things you can practice:
- Balance your plate with proteins, veggies, and whole grains.
- Look for labels marking healthy or allergen-friendly foods in dining halls.
- Grab snacks mindfully, like protein smoothies and acai bowls from locations like Shake Smart.
- Drink water throughout the day, carry a reusable bottle, and refill at water stations throughout campus.
- Customize your meals by asking for smaller portions, skipping extra sauces, or loading up on fresh veggies.
Looking for More Flexible Dining?
The FSU campus offers tons of diverse dining options, including accommodations for vegans, allergen-friendly meals, and healthy eating. But, when you depend on campus dining, you have to know the hours, menus, and locations for dozens of spots. That can be overwhelming. If you need something more flexible or you enjoy cooking, off-campus living is definitely worth considering.
Our off-campus community is located right across the street from your campus and gives you at-home amenities like a full kitchen with a refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, and microwave. You can even stop by the Starbucks Bistro Lounge on-site and snag free snacks at hosted resident events.