The ballroom, as the name suggests, provides a grand atmosphere for lunch.  But the food is done by University Dining Services -- the same people that cater meetings and events so badly.  The motto could be:  \""A dorm dining hall without the dorm.\""\n\nThe one joy of the buffet line for me is its Midwestern-ness.  I occasionally see jello salads and ambrosia unlike anything I have ever seen on the West Coast.  Miniature marshmallows!   Fruit salad with... is that mayonnaise?  The salad and dessert recipes recall the Better Homes cookbook circa 1952.  But beyond these culture shocks there is little pleasure to be found.  \n\nIt's expensive for the quality of the food.  The salad bar is tolerable.  The main dishes range from poor to horrible.  The sandwich bar features limp lunchmeats and tasteless bread.  If you like to snicker at such things, apparently the person who writes the buffet cards is often stumped by the exotic ingredients in some dishes.  This leads to platters marked as \""White Soup,\"" \""Spring Salad\"" or my favorite: \""Ethnic Dish.\""\n\nNote that the previous price listed is out of date.  It is now $8.75 for buffet, drink, and dessert.