College and University
What College Dining Can Learn from Fast Casuals
5/21/2025
“2025 could be fast casual’s year, again,” proclaimed Restaurant Dive in January, noting that the segment was outperforming other foodservice options because it balances quality and price, offers efficient service while still leaning into hospitality, and can leverage tech solutions. At a time when customers are sensitive to the high price of eating out and a number of chains have declared bankruptcy, “fast casual restaurants continued to gain steam.”1
Speed, customization, fresh flavors—what’s not to like? The hallmarks of fast casual continue to resonate with consumers, which is why many other segments have copied them, from QSRs to supermarket foodservice. That’s also why college dining should take a page from fast casuals, incorporating many of the successful strategies that the segment offers into the campus dining experience. Students are clamoring for it: according to Technomic, 67% of college students prefer dining options that feel like their favorite restaurants.2
What fast casual ideas can inspire your own campus dining operation? Consider these ideas:
Simplify the menu
Fast casual options have streamlined the menu, focusing on fewer options that offer a higher quality experience. A simple menu boosts service speed, reduces staff frustration, cuts costs, and supports your sustainability goals. Instead of offering everything all the time, consider limited-time pop-up concepts with a smaller menu—a Taco Tuesday bar one week, a global sandwich concept the next.
Serve it like a restaurant
Students want dining options that feel like their favorite restaurant, not a cafeteria. Instead of row after row of steam tables, can you opt for more plated meals (either served to order or pre-plated), turning a quick meal into a dining occasion? Branding also matters, whether that’s in a concept that feels like a hip branded restaurant or packaging that has its own look and design. You don’t want to feel generic.
Add more mix-and-match options
The hallmark of many fast casuals is the speedy, customizable ordering option offered by brands like Chipotle and Sweetgreen. Can you offer customization in a way that’s easy to understand, order, and execute? “Choose a base, protein, toppings, and sauce”—that’s an easy concept for a student to understand and an easy system for an employee to master. Other options include a “protein and two sides” option or “sandwich, side, and drink” that still allow students to mix and match to their heart’s content (which also keeps dining concepts from getting stale as students choose them day after day).
Prioritize speed
Simple menus, easy assembly line ordering—all of these options are also about speed. Long lines of students waiting for a meal are a quick visual indicator that will cause other students to leave for something faster. Constantly look at any bottlenecks occurring at your foodservice venues, particularly at peak hours, and find ways to keep things moving. Are you spending too much time making something from scratch? Perhaps there is an easy menu or layout change that can improve efficiency.
Upgrade grab-and-go options
We all know that students eat on the run, which is why fast casual chains have increased their grab-and-go options in recent years. Offering up attractive, quality grab-and-go meals not only gives students the quick meal options they want, but it reduces labor strain while increasing sales (the type of win-win everyone is looking for these days). Again, they should be restaurant quality—a sad white bread sandwich in plastic won’t cut it. Think fun bento boxes, functional snack packs, hearty loaded grain bowls.
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Harvest Market concept offers a range of grab-and-go options like salads, sandwiches, all natural snacks, made-to-order smoothies, and a yogurt bar. By focusing on upscale proteins (grass-fed beef, free-range chicken) and globally-inspired foods (Asian-inspired snacks are doing particularly well), Harvest Market has taken many of the options associated with fast casuals and leveraged them for success on campus. "The concept saw $4 million in sales just after launching and over 80% of students remain on a university meal plan for their entire undergraduate career," says Ken Toong, Associate Vice Chancellor of Auxiliary Enterprises.3
Use tech to make life easier
Fast casuals have learned how to deploy technology in targeted ways. Options like mobile ordering, digital kiosks, and frictionless checkouts are the norm today because they cut wait times and improve student satisfaction in a generation that often prefers tech.
When the University of Arizona adopted Tapingo, a mobile ordering app, they were mainly looking to cut down on wait times. After launching the app, they saw overall sales grow as students who avoided lines began ordering mobile. The University of Southern California, which also uses the app, said that they were able to reallocate staff from order taking to production because of mobile ordering and even saw check averages increase due to upsells in the app.4
Many of these strategies apply across campus dining, regardless of format. However, campuses should also pilot a true fast casual concept if they don’t already have one. This not only meets student demand for a fast casual dining experience but it can also serve as a testing ground for tactics that can later be expanded to other locations.
1 2025 Could Be Fast Casual’s Year, Again
2 Technomic, 2021 College & University Consumer Trend Report
3 Universities Turn Up the Heat with Convenient Food Options
4 Universities Flock to New Mobile Ordering Experience
