The best part about law school is that every day at lunch, from 12 to 1, there are at least 1 or 2 (sometimes up to 5 or 6!) free lunch events, where one of the clubs, organizations, or career services folks brings in a speaker or two. Now, usually, the lunch is pizza. If you're really unlucky, it's going to be sh[inks]ty cheese pizza from Famiglia. That stuff is not good, but if you're late to the other ones (and the lines start EARLY), then sometimes you just gotta settle for Famiglia. There are also other pizza restaurants can commonly deliver; these are usually better. Then you got your sandwich lunches. Now, when you first come to law school, you think these are the bees knees, because you're so sick of pizza every day. But then you realize that there ain't nothing better than a warm lunch, and a cold white bread sandwich with wilted lettuce and questionable cold cut meats just doesn't do it for you anymore. But, don't get sandwich lunches confused with boxed lunches; there, you get a little cardboard box, with a sandwich, a little salad (like pasta or potato), a bag of chips, a fruit and a cookie. Those are good. Maybe the best. They're not warm by any means, but the sandwiches are usually quality (I'm talking roasted peppers, exotic meats, brie cheeses, cranberry chutneys, hummus, all sorts of fancy stuff).
Anyway, that's the basic law school lunches. Sometimes, if you're really lucky, you get the good stuff. For this you need to be in line real early. If you have a class that ends at noon, then you're SOL, because the line starts forming at 11:50. Far and away the best of these lunches is catering from
Dinosaur BBQ, a Morningside Heights/Harlem institution. It's a pretty great spread: ribs, BBQ grilled chicken quarters, brisket sometimes, pulled pork sometimes, mac and cheese, usually cole slaw or potato salad, collared greens (these aren't good though), beans, cornbread, etc. Then you also got
Roti Roll, which is like Indian burritos basically. These are really good. Less eye-catching than BBQ, sure, but arguably more flavorful, and you don't feel sick afterwards. Their aloo mutter rolls are usually the best. The problem with this is they're expensive, so usually an event will only order like 30 to 50 rolls. And if each person takes two rolls, they go really fast.
Then you've got a range of other catered options. While these are a nice distraction from pizza, they're usually not that great. The Thai is middling. The Italian (big trays of pasta and salad) is pretty gross. One thing you'll see sometimes, which I really like, is
Maoz which is like a vegetarian falafel place. Their falafels are nothing to write home about, but the fixings on the side (beet salad, marinated carrots, hummus, great pickles, nice fluffy pita) are all great. Usually you'll see this at the more bleeding heart liberal events. The Student Animal Legal Defense Fund club, for instance, will always have Maoz catered to its event, so I've gone to a lot of things about factory farming and whatever over the years.
Finally, something I've been doing lately, is sneaking into the business school during lunch and nonchalantly eating their food. I don't know what program it is, something to milk rich foreign kids probably, but there's a business school program that has these amazing catered lunches every day for their students. Like, cantaloupe slices wrapped in prosciutto and grilled salmon and chocolate cake and cans of san pellegrino you can take. It's great.
To answer you question, I guess I would consider all these occasions "luncheons" rather than "lunches."
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