Students dining in Balliol Hall (photo: Rob Judges)

Food at Balliol

College Members eat together in the magnificent Hall on the Broad Street site. A buffet-style lunch and dinner are served seven days a week during term time. Breakfast is also available Monday to Friday. There are also special dining occasions, such as formal Hall on Tuesdays and guest nights.

(For conference and events catering, see the conference and events web pages.)

Hall meals are subsidised by the College, and provide healthy and varied menus, including vegetarian options. Here are sample lunch and dinner menus.

It is compulsory for all students (undergraduates and graduates) living in College accommodation to pay a termly Fixed Living-in Charge of £40.40 per term; students who live out pay a reduced charge of £26.10 per term, which does not include any meals. This charge contributes towards the overheads of running the central kitchens.

Meal times and menu

  • Breakfast: 8.009.00am (Monday to Friday)
  • Lunch: 12.301.30pm
  • Dinner: 6.307.30pm (except on Tuesdays, when dinner is is at 6.007.00pm with a semi-formal Hall at 7.45pm (see the College Handbook under Tuesday Hall)

Today’s menu in Hall [College Members only: single sign-on required]

Payment for meals 

There are two ways for College members to pay for Hall meals; the first method is considerably cheaper. The two payment methods are: 

  1. a termly Catering Pre-Payment (CPP) meal-deal for dinners or lunches
  2. the option of putting money on your University Card for all meals purchased in Hall. Here are sample cash prices for College members and non-members.

You can combine a Catering Pre-Payment meal-deal with a University Card deposit by visiting the payments website and selecting both options.

Please note:

  • Any meal-deal or money you pay in will be added to your University Card, which you must produce at the tills in Hall.
  • Neither method of payment includes the separate Catering Subsidy Charge which is levied on all students (see above).
  • No refund will be given on the Catering Pre-Payment; nor is the Catering Pre-Payment transferable to a following term.
  • You will be able to use your University Card in Hall from the Monday of 0th week, but meal-deals do not begin until the Monday of 1st week.

Catering Pre-Payment (CPP) meal deal — cheapest method

To take advantage of the College’s CPP meal deal, for Trinity Term 2024, please visit our payments site by Sunday of 3rd week of term (5 May 2024) at the latest. The CPP meal-deal runs from Monday of 1st week and ends on Sunday of 9th week (22 April to 16 June 2024).

  • The CPP (two-courses) entitles you to a main course meat/vegetarian dish served with vegetables or a standard salad, plus a piece of fruit or hot or cold sweet.
  • The CPP (one-course) entitles you to a main course meat/vegetarian dish served with vegetables or a standard salad.

The options are, for weeks 18 of each term:

Number and type of mealsPrice
5 lunches x 8 weeks (1 course) or 5 dinners x 8 weeks (1 course)£92.00
5 lunches x 8 weeks (2 courses) or 5 dinners x 8 weeks (2 courses)£158.75
7 dinners (Mon-Sun) x 8 weeks (1 course)£140.00
7 dinners (Mon-Sun) x 8 weeks (2 courses)£222.90
CPP Meal Deal: options and prices

Payment by University Card

To deposit money on your University Card, you should also visit our payments site and indicate the amount you wish to top up with.

Special dietary requirements

Every day in Hall we provide a vegetarian or a vegan option at lunch and dinner. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays we offer one meat option only for dinner. 

We also ensure that there is a dairy-free, gluten-free, and nut-free option available at each meal.

As per the allergen labelling legislation, the daily menu in Hall shows the presence in a dish of any of these 14 allergens: gluten, lupin, peanuts, nuts, milk, soya, mustard, eggs, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, sesame, celery and sulphur dioxide. 

Please note that whilst every effort is made to avoid the cross-contamination of allergenic ingredients, we cannot guarantee that our dishes are 100% allergenic free. If you have concerns about the ingredients in any dish, please ask a member of the catering team or contact our Executive Chef directly.

For Tuesday Hall and Parents’ Dinner, which you book online, you will have the option of adding your dietary requirements. Please ensure that you specify these when you book. For any other formal or private dinner, you just need to give your dietary requirements to the person who is organising the meal and the information will be passed on to everyone in the catering department. If you have any concerns about ingredients at special dinners (not regular Hall meals), please contact our contact our Conference and Events Manager, Jacqui Gills.

Other options for students

There is next to no self-catering for students on the Broad Street site. There is some self-catering in the Graduate Centre.

Covid-19 catering risk assessments

Rev 22.10.2021