What did you dislike about school dinners?

[Shandan35]

I think my only complaint was that the sweetcorn was tasteless

Ugh.. where do I start! I hated school dinners and so took packed lunch. My friends did too and we had a nice little lunch group with tasty sandwiches and snacks in one of the classrooms

Mixed veg. I liked sweetcorn but not the green shit it was mixed in with.

Also faggots.

Nothing.

My mother is the worst cook in the world- school dinners were heaven.

Being required to eat everything regardless of whether I liked it or it made me throw up. I once spent a whole afternoon at prep school sat alone in the dining room staring at a portion of rhubarb and custard I refused to eat. Dinner lady was actually quite sympathetic as she knew I couldn't eat it as the one time I attempted it I threw up and she had to clean the floor....

Spam fritters, grisly stews, diced beetroot, hard boiled eggs.

Virtually everything! This was the 70s though.
Spam fritters
Mashed potato that wasn't potato
Rice pudding that didn't move when you tipped the bowl upside down
Mince - just mince

Weird combos too 3 squares of tinned ravioli with weird mash and mushy peas anyone?!

Everything. Lukewarm slop, boiled to death vegetables, gristle, custard, nuns banging on about starving children in Africa. Torture.

Semolina (yuk!) the cold mash and Rhubarb crumble

I have a memory of some part of the meal during the week being a cold boiled egg cut in half and grated cheese (no idea what it went with) and I would want to cry because I hate boiled eggs.

The look, the smell, the 'brown-ness'. Minced beef in gravy that looked like diarrhoea, stinky cabbage, watery custard. Horrible.

I actually really like school dinners, particularly at senior school.

The only thing I didn’t like was how the weird coloured metal jugs and beakers made the water taste.

I don't remember not liking any of the food (but im spectacularly unfussy).
The only thing I didnt like was at secondary school, and it wasn't the food. It was because children with packed lunch could eat outside, school dinners (obviously) had to be had in the dinner all. All my friends had packed lunches, I was fsm so frequently skipped lunch as i preferred to spend lunchtime with them rather than eating. When I was in year 11 they started offering "take out" options, but i was so used to not eating lunch by then I still didn't bother most days.

The food and the ambience

Semolina and cabbage or Brussels sprouts boiled for so long, they drip between the tines of your fork!

The weird and wonderful creations that they would never dream of serving to adults! I remember some kind of pie with spaghetti hoops in it.

At secondary school I just stuck to portions of chips, or "chipped potatoes" as they were called on the menu.

In the 80’s.....

warm milk mid morning
Blamange (with lumps)
Custard (with lumps)
Spam fritters
king rib (some gross slab of red meat)

Egg custard 🤮

Oh god, all of it was vile!!!

Semolina with jam, lumpy mash, thick custard with a skin on it, liver/ mash/ cabbage with floury gravy.

All rank. Apart from cornflake tart. That was great.

@speakout

Nothing.

My mother is the worst cook in the world- school dinners were heaven.

This is me. I still think of those wonderful meals. There was a cheese and onion potato pie that I dream of recreating. Plus chocolate biscuits that were half way to brownies.

This is me. I still think of those wonderful meals. There was a cheese and onion potato pie that I dream of recreating. Plus chocolate biscuits that were half way to brownies.

THis is what I mean!

Kilted sausages, buttered cabbage, macaroni cheese, pear and chocolate upside down cake, still squidgey underneath with hot sweet runny custard.

I had never been to a restaurant when I started secondary school- my mother's food was all I had known.
School dinners were a delight!!

70s kid here. At middle school we had something called Isle of Wight pudding - it was layers of suet pastry, dried fruit and a sort of toffee sauce, served with custard. We thought it was fab!

Secondary school - not so great. I remember having to queue for dinner outside. No time to get a coat, so freezing cold, and when they had run out of food you got offered ice cream.... in the north.....in winter... Suppose it took our minds off the brown stew (it was actually called that!) that we had just enjoyed!

@SingleHandSue

Those jugs! I've only ever seen them in that environment- where did they get them from???

Oh I loved school dinners it was a treating we had it as we always had packed lunch. Loved that cake with sprinkles and just the general smell of the dinner hall.

Everything. It was either greasy or tasteless mush. The worst ones were on a Monday at primary....Ham salad followed by rice pudding, grim.

I loved school dinners

Tuna melt panini

Pizza

Roast chicken and veg

Banoffee cupcakes

now I'm hungry