This week's Buttery menus.

New Formal Dietary Options on Upay

When you're booking formal on Upay, in addition to the current dietary options, you can now request "No pork", "Nut allergy", "No fish" and "No dairy".

Sunday Brunch is Back!

By popular demand, Sunday brunch has returned, meaning the new mealtimes are as follows:

Sunday Brunch - 11am to 1pm
Sunday Dinner - 6.00pm to 7.00pm

Breakfasts!

Breakfast in the buttery runs from 8.15am to 9.15am (7.45am to 9.30am in Easter Term). Thats early enough to start a good morning for lectures AND late enough to get back from the boathouse and still make breakfast!
Either for a full english, (any 4 for £1.30 or any 8 for £2.30), or just for a good coffee and danish, come enjoy breakfast and start your day off well.

We are also now offering Breakfast Buttys, to grab and go!
So if you don't want to sit down for breakfast or you're in a rush, then just nip in and grab a bap.
Any two hot items in a bap with a free tea or coffee to go will cost you only £1.20.

Buttery Issues

The Steward (Lee Bollom) has kindly requested that students do not attempt to hide more expensive items of food under other items purchased when paying for their food.

There have been a number of instances where items such as tuna or ham have been hidden underneath salad leaves etc in the self-service bowls or bacon slices hidden beneath baked beans on students' plates. This is stealing and is deemed unacceptable behaviour - please don't continue this practice, as it is detrimental to the Catering Department and ultimately will result in stricter regulations in the buttery if it carries on.

There is now a display of a typical portion size above the serving areas so that students can see clearly what constitutes a portion. This will hopefully deal with some of the apparent arbitrary pricing of the self-served portions and should negate the issues that have been raised by some students over small ladle sizes (as the displayed 'typical portion' can be made up to with multiple ladle-fuls!)

Day-to-day Food in College

The majority of students eat in the cafeteria at Queens’ (known as the Buttery) for lunch and dinner. You are able to cook for yourself, but the facilities are limited and the College doesn’t really encourage self-catering. In fact all they offer you in most gyp rooms is a sink, 2-3 hobs, kettle and toaster, and a microwave if you’re lucky.

Students living in college do not have to pay the 96p cover charge per meal that non-college residents have to pay. To prove that you are living in College you will have to show your University ID Card when making purchases in the Buttery. The 96p cover charge will not be applied if the purchase costs less than the cover charge itself. Students living in Owlstone Croft are expected to be self catering.

All meals in the Buttery are self-service and are served at the following times

Breakfast 8.15 - 9.15am Weekdays
Brunch 11.30am - 1.30pm Saturday, 11.00am - 1.00pm Sunday
Lunch 12.30 – 1.30pm Weekdays
Dinner 6.00 – 7.00pm Every day

Payment for Buttery food is by cash or via Upay. Upay, the college's cashless vending system, is not a credit system, but rather a debit system that works via your University ID card. You put money onto an online account and you can then swipe your Uni card at tills in the bar, porter's lodge and buttery to take money off this account and pay for your purchase. For more information please see the Upay page.

If you happen to miss the meal times you can always nip down to the bar where a variety of food is served daily. Check out the Bar page for details.

Formal Hall

In addition to the daily evening meal, there are formal hall dinners held at 7.30pm on Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sunday. Every other Thursday will be an MCR only dinner. These are, as the name suggests, formal affairs and as such it is expected that smart clothing and gowns will be worn.

To sign up for a formal dinner, you must go online to www.upay.co.uk and follow the links to book a place at formal hall. A maximum of 3 tickets (you and 2 guests) can be booked per person per formal hall. Any larger groups of guests must be booked in via the catering department. All bookings must be made no later than 2pm the day before the day of the formal you are going to. For more information on online booking please see the Formal booking page.

Formal hall costs £7.90 per College member, and £9.10 for non-members. Arrive for the dinner before 7.30pm.
College members are only allowed to bring up to 1 bottle of wine per person into formal hall and guests are not allowed to bring alcohol of any sort.

Guest Nights and Christmas Dinners

There are certain nights each term where you are able to invite family and/or friends to dine in College. These meals are known as Guest Nights and are a more formal version of formal hall. Held in Old Hall in black tie, these events cost £18.55 for members and £19.75 for non-members. The College currently holds 3 Guest Nights in Michaelmas, 3 in Lent and 1 in Easter term. More details will be sent out nearer the times via e-mail.

PLEASE NOTE:
There are around 500 undergraduates at Queens each year, and only about Guest Night 350 places available to the JCR each year. This means that in three years, you deserve about 2 places at Guest Night. Fortunately, many people do not take up the opportunity, leaving more space for others – but still, please do not expect to be able to have more than about 4 places at Guest Night during your time at Queens’. Feel free to apply subsequent times (especially for the October Guest Night which regularly undersells), but please be prepared for disappointment.

There are 2 Christmas dinners held each year at the end of Michaelmas term (as the hall can’t hold all the people who want to come at once). These cost £9.75 per college member and, along with guest nights, are almost always an instant sell-out. More details will be sent round nearer the time.

The order of priority for Christmas Dinners and Guest Nights is as follows:

Highest priority
1. Finalists, who’ve never been
2. Non-Finalists, who’ve applied before and been turned down
3. Non-Finalists, who’ve never been
4. Finalists, who’ve been before
5. Non-Finalists, who’ve been before
Lowest Priority

Please feel free to leave a message on the Steward's Committee Page for more information. Or alternatively you can contact me, Paul Merchant (JCR Steward), directly on jcr-steward@queens.cam.ac.uk or the Catering and Conference Manager (Tim) on tbs24@cam.ac.uk.

Paul Merchant
(JCR Steward)