Ahhh...lunch time, the one period everyone looks forward to. But why is it that we are always so desperate to get to the caf? That’s right! THE QUEUE!!! Get there five minutes late and you will get your lunch 10 minutes later, which totally ruins you mood. Don’t even get me started on those fry days! Although we cannot make the queue disappear or make the prices go lower, we gathered some tips/hacks that will hopefully make your lunch time more enjoyable.
1) Before lunch: MENU
Look at that day’s caf menu on our website in the morning or before first break. This will allow you to decide whether you should buy a sandwich, and enable you to do so during the first break at 9:40 when there are still good ones left (NV recommends the Ciabatta sandwich ;)).
2) SCHEDULE
This is very important. Do you have lunch at 12:30 or at 13:15?
12:30 - You are safe! If you have early lunch then it is good news as not matter what time you get there, be five minutes or ten, they still have food left (courtesy of those who eat at 13:15 ;)). If you want hot lunch, we would recommend you either get there as fast as you can or take your sweet time and wait a good 10 minutes as the queue will have probably shrunk by this time and the food is probably their second batch meaning it will still be hot. Drawback: not much time left of your lunch to cram in some studying or homework.
13:15 - Well...it doesn’t look so good. There isn’t really a hack for this. My tip for you would be to run and go for it. Try to get out of class before if you can and your teacher allows it, because when the food is all gone, that is it, there’s no more. You probably don’t have a good selection of sandwiches left either so really this is first comes first goes. Moral of the story: get a good sandwich during break or pay the consequences of a possibly good or bad lunch with a long queue.
3) MONEY
One of the drawbacks from the school’s cafeteria is how expensive it is. Although we can’t make the prices go down, here are some tips on how to save money:
If you have a hot lunch pre-paid plan, meaning you pay with your card every day, sorry we can’t help you. What you should do is get the most out of your lunch every day: get a salad and a dessert, go for seconds, exploit that lunch to the max of your abilities, because we all know that paying 16CHF per day is always going to be a rip off.
If you pay with money/cash then here are some tips on how to save it.
The vegetarian menu is always cheaper and sometimes tastier than the other menus, so don’t forget to have a look.
The vending machine has chocolate and cookies, so you could buy that for dessert instead.
The amount you spend depends on the day. You have the freedom to spend however much you want allowing you to save money if you want to.
If you put money on your card then you have advantages when it comes to saving money, such as those previously listed. However, there is one advantage that you will not be able to benefit from which is the vending machine. In contrast, you have money on your card which means you can use it to print your essays and other school related works as well.
Hope these help you out! If you have any of your own, please don’t hesitate to send them to us so that we can update this post. Have a good year!