UB’s vision for a massive international-themed café became a reality as Kali Orexi and Tikka Table officially opened their doors to students on March 28.
The café’s seating area has been open since the start of the spring semester, but the grand opening of these two eateries are a part of the “phased opening” the café will undergo through “most likely next fall,” according to UB’s website.
“One World Café not only offers new dining options, which our campus has been asking for, but it’s meant to be another attractive place for students to meet, study and socialize,” Vice President for Student Life Brian Hamluk said. “We are always trying to enhance the student experience at UB and One World does just that by creating a sense of community at the heart of campus.”
A number of students expressed to The Spectrum that the addition of One World Café marks a much-needed update to the flow of campus life.
Sophomore computer science major Will Marchant says that food lines in the Student Union are sometimes over half an hour long — something he hopes the café’s new eateries will continue to help remedy.
“I’ve noticed that a lot of things kind of thinned out with One World Café,” Marchant said. “I like that they made [the grab-and-go section] more diverse as well because it allows foreign students to feel more at home with diverse foods from their culture, and it also allows local people and people from the U.S. to try different kinds of food.”
Junior exercise science major Kelvin Huynh says he enjoyed his lunch of butter chicken over rice from Tikka Table.
“It was super quick, the menus really helped and the workers were really friendly,” he said.
Students also say they have enjoyed the new look the areas surrounding the café have as a result of its completed construction.
Sophomore history major Bernadette Goodwin has classes in Hochstetter and Capen Halls and says the café creates a “central spot” for eating, studying and walking from class to class.
But students didn’t love everything about the 55,000-square-foot café. Some said they would have appreciated anything from more charging outlets at first level seating stations to more seats around the fireplaces.
Sophomore exercise science major Faith Aisogun says their dining experience at the Middle Eastern eatery didn’t live up to their expectations.
“One of the issues that I encountered [at Kali Orexi] is very minimal ingredients. The chicken was really bland, the rice was sticky,” Aisogun said. “I would love to see what else they have to bring. Hopefully it’ll be better. I was just hoping that maybe it was a bad day.”
Matthew Robinson, a sophomore anthropology major, says the café is trending in the right direction.
“It took a while to get all the restaurants open — it was kind of disappointing when they opened this area up,” Robinson said of the phased opening. “It was nice, but also they didn’t have any food for you, it was more of a sitting area. Now that it’s coming with all the restaurants it’s more just nice in general, that’s for sure.”
Jack Porcari is a senior news/features editor and can be reached at jack.porcari@ubspectrum.com
Jack Porcari is a senior news/features editor at The Spectrum. He is a political science major with a minor in journalism. Aside from writing and editing, he enjoys playing piano, flow arts, reptiles and activism.
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
