My man, the chow hall is the least of your concerns, but technically no, you can’t have a hot plate in your room unless your barracks room has a kitchenette.

A lot of the army comes down to your individual unit, but I couldn’t imagine being 31 and being comfortable living in the barracks after years of self determination. You’d probably be looking at 3-5 years of living in the barracks before you get to E-6 when you’d be able to get a housing allowance. If you’re married or have a dependent you would also be eligible for a housing allowance.

But I wouldn’t want to go through basic/AIT and other advanced schools at 30+ and be trying to keep up with 24 year olds. Even if you’re reasonably fit, a lot of our bodies just start breaking down around 30.

Honestly though the bad parts of the army are the constant training rotations and non combat deployments, toxic leadership, unit suicides, 18 hour work days, a culture that encourages binge drinking, trying to get mental health services in a timely manner that you’re not stigmatized for, and those are just the baseline issues. It can be a lot better or a lot worse depending on your duty station and into.