Landon Block is a political science senior and the Opinion Editor at Mustang News. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
Looking back, I don’t know how I managed to eat three meals a day, seven days a week, on campus dining alone. My fellow seniors will remember the struggle, especially on weekends: 1901 Marketplace was under construction and downtown felt like a distant land, so Vista Grande was my last hope.
I remember telling my parents the food was mostly “just ok.” Nothing was remarkably bad, but it was expensive, and I had to find my favorites to get by.
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As my time at Cal Poly comes to a close, I decided it was time to revisit my favorite campus dining foods to see how my memory compares to reality. Over the last week, I tried all my freshman year favorites to determine once and for all: is campus dining actually decent, or was I just desperate for any calories?
Honorable Mention: Sweet Bar Gelato
Memory: This was the best opportunity to blow through dining dollars before they expired at the end of the year. The tiny cup of gelato always carried a relatively hefty price tag, but it was hard for me to say no to the wacky flavors like “unicorn” and “mermaid.”
Reality: I visited the sweet bar on three separate occasions and they were out of gelato every single time. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I unfortunately can’t give the gelato a true ranking.
7. Brunch Chicken Tenders
Memory: I have a strong recollection of the Campus Market chicken tenders being much better than the ones at Brunch, but I was not going to walk nearly a mile from my dorm for that marginal improvement. I thought the Brunch chicken tenders were solid enough, and it’s hard to mess up chicken tenders.
Reality: It seems like VG found a way to mess up chicken tenders. They were floppy, rubbery in texture and lacked any sort of crispiness. Even the fries were soggy. To top it off, it took over 30 minutes to prepare my order. My only positive from returning to VG was discovering my free tumbler still had soft drink credits, so I guess we can count that as a win?
6. Hearth Cheese Pizza
Memory: A wise man once told me bad pizza is still pizza, and I couldn’t agree more. The Hearth cheese pizza and cheesy bread were heavy hitters in my freshman year dining rotation, so I was genuinely excited to try this out. I remember cramming the box into my dorm’s mini fridge because I couldn’t finish my order in one sitting and still wanted it as leftovers. High hopes to live up to.
Reality: Shrinkflation has perhaps hit nowhere harder than our very own Hearth. My cheese pizza, which still cost over $10, was barely the size of my extended hand. While it tasted good, it is just nowhere near justifying its price tag. Bad, or in this case quite decent, pizza is still pizza, but it wasn’t nearly worth the cost.
5. Mingle Grilled Cheese
Memory: It’s hard to stray away from comfort food like grilled cheese when looking for a taste of home at college. Especially as one of the cheaper options at Vista Grande that can still feel like most of a meal, Mingle’s classic grilled cheese had its niche in my diet.
Reality: Remember when I said campus dining food was “just ok?” That was this grilled cheese. I remember the sandwich being on Texas toast, but Mingle has since moved to a more standard sourdough. It didn’t taste bad, but it was no better than a grilled cheese I could make at home for a fraction of the price.
4. Sweet Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies
Memory: When I was down in the dumps, nothing could cheer me up like a Sweet Bar cookie. Soft and rich, the 2 for $4 pack could help me recover from the most grueling midterm or stressful group project meeting. I had no reason to explore the more decadent and expensive treats Sweet Bar had to offer when my cookies gave me everything I could have asked for.
Reality: After an unexpectedly crunchy first bite, these mostly live up to the hype. After reaching the center, the cookie was almost everything I could remember. The chocolate was rich, the cookie was tasty and the texture was just the right amount of doughy. The only real downside was the $0.75 price increase, but I’d continue living in monopoly money bliss for these.
3. Noodles Sweet Fire Chicken
Memory: I’m not proud of it, but I’m humble enough to admit it: I was once order #1 on a Saturday morning at Noodles so I could order a sweet fire chicken bowl. This was my staple, because I could pretend it was a balanced meal with protein, grains and vegetables. Underclassmen today would probably visit Panda Express for their Asian-style(-ish) cravings, but this was all I had at the time.
Reality: I expected this to be horrible, but it was surprisingly decent (maybe even good!). My plate was semi-balanced with good-tasting chicken and a sizable side of rice. I wish I had more vegetables, but I’ll let that slide for now. For about the price of a Panda plate, it may be hard to justify today, but I have no regrets on racking up multiple sweet fire chicken orders every week.
2. Shake Smart RawPB Bowl
Memory: I convinced myself Shake Smart bowls and smoothies were a good enough supplement of fruits and vegetables for my diet. Is this true? Probably not, but it’s surely better
than a Jamba Juice smoothie packed with ice cream. About halfway through the year, I ditched my “chocolate covered strawberry” and “pb squared” smoothies for the quicker scooped bowls and never looked back.
Reality: It seems Shake Smart is more of a gamble than I remember. I was honestly underwhelmed with my portion, but the very next order after mine was my friend’s loaded RawPB bowl. Even with the small bowl, I’m a sucker for açai, and the RawPB bowl balances the sweetness with dark chocolate and peanut butter. It’s surely not as nutritious as I want to believe it is, but I can’t deny that it was one of the best-tasting foods I’ve had on campus.
1. Campus Market Wednesday BBQ Chicken Plate
Memory: The Campus Market Wednesday BBQ might be the best-kept secret in campus dining. Once I discovered it, I had my midweek lunches locked down. While expensive, these plates are genuinely delicious and provide much-needed variety in an otherwise bland diet. It was a pain to wait in line at the truck parked across from the then-Starbucks side of the market, but well worth the delay.
Reality: Not only did this live up to my nostalgia, but it might have even been better. My order was finished quickly (within 5 minutes) during regular lunch hours. When I picked it up from the window, I was impressed by the weight of the two large pieces of chicken in the container. That gave me hope, and my first bite delivered with every bit of savory goodness I remember.
While eating, one of the chefs told me the BBQ orders have exploded since my freshman year. They spend all week preparing hundreds of pounds of meat, selling over 1,000 plates every Wednesday. It’s hard to argue with these results, and I can still easily recommend redownloading Grubhub to pick up a plate.
