Mission
With the student restaurants of komida you’re in the right place for tasty, healthy meals with a sustainable twist at student-friendly prices.
During weeks of classes we offer hot meals at our service counters or you can choose your favorites from our Shop & go.
During exam periods, the offer in our shops continues to satisfy your hunger and thirst.
You can count on us even during the summer months and during most other holiday periods: komida Online appears to make sure you have your lunch on campus (with the exception of the Christmas holidays).
As the University of Antwerp's catering service, we have a mission which we strive to achieve.
We aim to offer our customers good quality meals that have been carefully thought out, sold with the necessary creativity in a customer-oriented manner. We are always open to interaction with our customers.
Value for money
Quality
We aim to achieve the best possible price/quality ratio.
Students at one of the insitutes of the Associatie Universiteit & Hogescholen Antwerpen* can enjoy a subsidised warm meal, salad or snack.
We always pay close attention to how our meals taste, and a testing panel tries our products before they appear in our range.
* University of Antwerp, Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool Antwerpen, Hogere Zeevaartschool, Karel de Grote Hogeschool.
Food for thought: conscientious choices
Integrity
In the autumn of 2012, we launched a year-long project on sustainability together with the NGO Vredeseilanden (now Rikolto). In the meantime, we continue to evaluate in order to evolve further and to take additional sustainable steps each time.
- All disposable packaging that had been manufactured from renewable sources in recent years was gradually replaced by r-PET packaging, so that it can be recycled via PMD waste.
We offer cutlery in a reusable version; for those who want to eat out, disposable knives, forks and spoons are available to a lesser extent.
In order to limite the share of PET bottles we offer tap water at our water fountains, which can of course also be used to fill our reusable drinking bottle.
We are always looking for the best packaging materials and always try to respond to new insights when they teach us that we should choose other materials in the future. Our offer in this therefore may vary from time to time. Finally we want to evolve back to almost exclusively reusable materials, as was almost the case just before the corona crisis. - Since Octobre 2015 we use our cambio jar, a reusable jar, we use for salads. At the salad bar, you can find them as well, to fill with your own chosen seasonal vegetables.
In August 2019 we added a coffee mug and buddha bowls to our cambio range. - We only serve sustainable fish and have removed endangered fish species from our range.
Although we have not served tuna from April 2012 till August 2018, we added tuna again in September 2018, as the population growed after 6.5 years and tuna with a sustainanbility label showed up. This label ensures no overfishing and that fishing doesn't harm other marine life. Thanks to these certitudes we offer tuna salad again. - As far as fresh vegetables are concerned, we always work with seasonal vegetables in our warm dishes, salads and sandwiches.
- We try to reduce the ecological footprint of meat by serving fun, contemporary vegetarian dishes.
Since October 2019 our range of plantbased (also known as vegan) expands constantly. We were a proud ambassador of the Try Vegan campaign. - In our range there is therefore a permanent place for veggie and plant-based dishes.
At komida we indicate dishes without any animal products with our Plantbased logo. It therefore contains no meat, fish, egg, dairy products or honey.
Vegetarian dishes are labeled 'veggie' and do not contain meat, fish or chicken as such, but may contain egg, milk or honey.
- Our range of sustainable and fairtrade products is continuously being increased. Our restaurants support events such as the USOS Fairtrade Breakfast.
- We actively promote the use of tap water: Stop Wasting. Tap water.
Therefore there are one or more water taps in each komida, where sparkling water can also be tapped.
For that reason, you will not find ordinary sparkling water or still water in our counters. We do offer flavored water as an alternative to sweetened drinks. - In August 2022 we removed beef as such from our offer. Steak, beef stew and carpaccio no longer appear on the komida menu.
Experience
Creativity
- We try to facilitate the customer's choice with clear menu displays and signs.
- Our aim is to ensure that our restaurants have a nice atmosphere and are comfortable places to meet.
- We take a creative approach to ingredients and menu planning. Our range is tailored to the wishes of the students and personnel: ideas such as fusion and diversity are important.
- Our Facebook page and Instagram account has been set up to help increase access to our services.
- A small selection of pre-packed products, including sandwiches and salads, is available for people who don't have time for lunch but still want to eat fresh products. Soup can also be taken away.
Friendliness and commitment
Customer-oriented
Our employees are there to welcome everyone, to please customers and offer help. That is why we set high standards for our personnel in terms of customer service.
Your opinion matters
Partnership
- Our team is the first point of contact for any question or suggestion.
- We have established a komida chat to ensure our services meet our customers' needs. The aim is to work as constructively as possible in this committee, which consists of students and personnel, and to learn from the questions, comments and wishes of our customers. We meet three times a year in one of our restaurants to discuss a range of questions and remarks as well as keeping everyone up-to-date on our services. The minutes of these meetings can always be consulted internally.
Every year the student associations Studentenraad, ASK-Stuwer and Unifac delegate several members to this committee. Candidate members should contact the two umbrella student associations. - Changes are shared on our Facebook and Instagram account or at the location.
- All our restaurants have red and green cards on which you can write your opinions and ideas. This helps us understand our customers' wishes and comments better. So please do give us your feedback, either verbally or in writing using the cards. We will get back to you as soon as possible!