Author: Tyler Kearn
No, you can’t order your fries “animal style” in the Cooler, but there are some secret off-menu items and combinations that can be found in the Marketplace and the Tiger Cooler. You just have to know that they exist, and how to ask for them.
Now, there isn’t an entire secret menu that exists for campus dining – after all, why would they want to keep menu items from students when one of their big selling points is variety of choices? Most of the off-menu items that do exist are either things that someone tried making once as an experiment but proved too popular to discontinue, or unusual combinations of items that are already available. Nevertheless, here are some of the best secret menu items that can be ordered on campus.
The Marketplace
The Marketplace has fewer secret items than the Cooler, but the various stations make a plethora of unique and unusual food choices possible. Here are some of the best:
Chocolate Pancakes
“Chocolate Pancakes” are like regular pancakes . . . except they have M&Ms or chocolate chips baked into them. You can only get them on Saturday or Sunday mornings, from the grill station in the Marketplace. Some days they’ll have regular pancakes too, but they will always have chocolate pancakes.
Of all the items listed here, this is probably the truest to a secret item, since it’s not listed anywhere, and you need to know how to order them. Ask for “Chocolate Pancakes” or “M&M Pancakes,” and whoever is taking the grill orders will know what you mean.
Croissant Sandwiches
One of the great things about having stations with different items at the Marketplace is that you can often take items from one station and use them in a dish from another.
One of the best examples of this is croissant sandwiches – many people don’t realize that you can take a croissant from the bakery, bring it over to the sandwich station, and they’ll cut it in half and make a sandwich with it. It might seem a bit unorthodox, but there is a button on the registers for it (then again, they have a button for everything).
Lots of crazy combos
There are a lot interesting Marketplace food combinations out there. For one, there’s the “Teriyaki Dog,” where you order a hot dog with a side of rice from the grill, and then cover everything in Teriyaki sauce.
Another is the Mushroom Swiss Hamburger, which was created by Michael Kutan (junior). He gets a slice of Swiss cheese from the sandwich station and brings it over to the grill to make a Swiss-cheeseburger. From there, he gets mushrooms from the salad bar, microwaves them, and adds them to his creation.
A third Marketplace combo, also suggested by Kutan, is the Breakfast Hamburger, which you can only get on weekends. It’s a grill hamburger, except you use English muffins for the bun, throw in some eggs, and possibly some sausage.
Because of the variety and flexibility of the different stations in the Marketplace, there is a nearly endless variety of mix-and-match options that you can come up with. It’s a great opportunity for you to get creative with your food.
The Tiger Cooler
The Cooler is a little bit different from the Marketplace. There aren’t a variety of stations, and the kind of mix-and-match customization that you can get at the Marketplace isn’t possible. In fact, going off-menu is now being discouraged at the Cooler. A grill chef at the Cooler Henry Bojorquez, flat out said, “We can’t go away from the menus.” Nevertheless, there are some secret menu items at the Cooler that have been grandfathered in, and some customizations that are still possible.
Henry’s Special
Henry’s Special is a sandwich that was created by Bojorquez several years ago because he “wanted to do something different.” It is a Philly cheesesteak or chicken Philly on toasted sourdough with bacon, lettuce, tomato and spread with Malibu sauce (a 50-50 combination of mayonnaise and mustard).
The sandwich first caught on with the football team, but word spread amongst the student population. In fact, it has spread so far that Bojorquez says that he often hears people ordering it who don’t know that its creator is standing right in front of them. Bojorquez made the sandwich before going off-menu was discouraged. Bojorquez said, “That [sandwich] was the exception, they won’t let me do that again.”
To order the sandwich, ask for a “Henry’s Special” at the register – the cashier will know what it is – and specify chicken or steak.
Hot White Chocolate
Most people know that you can order a hot chocolate in the Cooler, but what’s less well-known is that you off-menu enthusiasts can also order a Hot White Chocolate (or White Hot Chocolate), which uses white chocolate syrup instead of the usual chocolate syrup. It’s different from traditional hot chocolate, but still sweet and pretty good (if the temperatures ever get low enough for hot beverages).
Vanilla Italian Soda
Another beverage that is not on the menu at the Cooler is the Vanilla Italian Soda, which requires a little more effort than the other flavors. There is no vanilla syrup back at the Italian soda station . . . but there is some up at the register. You need to ask for an Italian soda with everything but the syrup – crushed ice, Pelligrino, and any other step they would take to make the drink – and then take it up to the register.At the register, tell them how many squirts of vanilla you want, which will depend on how sweet and vanilla-y you want to make it. It should probably be at least 2 and more likely 3 or 4. Depending on who’s working the register, you may be charged for the vanilla, since it’s seen as an extra.
Note: It’s also possible to go half and half with the syrups, so if you want a Cherry-Vanilla Italian Soda, you can ask them to make a cherry soda with half the regular amount of syrup and then add a half-dose of vanilla up at the register.
Add Bacon to Anything
You can add bacon to pretty much any grill order. Some of these are pretty well known – the bacon cheeseburger for instance – but bacon can also be added to more exotic orders as well. A popular one is the Bacon Chicken Philly. Seth Hansen (junior) likes it so much that he calls it “the greatest thing.”
Toasted Buns
As another grill customization option, you can get the bun for your burger or the bread for your sandwich toasted. You just need to ask for your bun or bread to be toasted when you place your order, and they’ll stick it on the grill for a couple of seconds before they serve it to you to make it nice and crispy.
A caveat: you can’t ask for a toasted bun if the Cooler is too busy – toasting the bun or bread takes extra time, so if the grill is backed up, the grill chefs won’t do it until things get less hectic for them.
It is also worth noting that the grill is flexible with requests for breads and bun, so if you want your burger on sourdough or your barbecue chicken on a wheat bun, you should be able to get it.
This list isn’t complete – it’s certainly possible that there are menu items that are just a little too secret, and there are definitely a lot more clever food combinations. Hopefully this is a good starting point and provides you with some ideas on how to get creative with the on-campus food.
It is really easy to get sick of the food at the Marketplace and Cooler when you order the same couple of things all the time. But while the Marketplace and Cooler might not be In-N-Out, they have enough secret items to cut through the boredom. You don’t necessarily need to go off campus to try new and interesting foods.
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