Greetings, fellow Bobcats, and welcome to The Hungry Student, a restaurant critique blog written by a Texas State student, for Texas State students. I am the hungry student, Daniel Reginald Gilliam, and over the next 15 weeks, I will be offering my opinions on the numerous eateries on and around Texas State University.
First though, allow me to give you a quick run-down on how things work around here.
Each week, I will visit two different restaurants, on-campus on Wednesdays & off-campus on Fridays. During my meal, I will record various factors and compile them into four main categories:
Convenience: This is how easy or arduous a given restaurant is to get to, or how short or long a journey it is. A place can have the best food in the world, but if it's miles away from campus, it would probably not be the best choice. As a point of reference, I will be considering the distance from Flowers Hall. This is where I have most of my classes, and where I will be departing from to get to my next meal.
Service: This covers all factors related to the staff of a given restaurant, including friendliness, efficiency, speed of service, and overall satisfaction. A place can have the best food in the world, but if the waitress keeps you waiting for over half an hour, or is rude or dismissive to the customers, you would probably be better off going somewhere else.
Value: This will probably be the most important factor to most students, though it is only the second most important to me. It primarily concerns how expensive or reasonably-priced a meal is. A place can have the best food in the world, but if it's too pricey, other options may have to be sought. For reference, I will be using an average of between $8 & $9, with meals costing less being a better value, and those costing more a lesser value. This seems to be about the typical cost of a full meal on campus. It should be noted that this is not a solid baseline, and may be bent slightly one way or the other. It is also worth noting that money may not be the only factor in a value rating; Other factors, such as exceptional service or quality of food may be considered.
The Food: This is, in my opinion, the most important factor. It covers, as might be deduced, hot good or bad the food is. Obviously, the place with the best food is where you'll want to go. I will try to describe this factor in as much detail as I am able.
After considering these factors, I will give them a rating from A to F, A bring excellent, B being pretty alright, C being meh, D being not great, and F being terrible.
At the end of the whole review, I will offer my final verdict, including a final score that will be roughly an average of the four previous scores. I will also cite particular positive or negative factors, as well as suggestions of where the restaurant can be improved.
Before we get started, there are a few more things I would like you to keep in mind.
1. These reviews are all purely my opinions, which you may take or leave as you will.
2. If you're looking for diet tips, health food suggestions, etc., then this is not the blog for you. I am more concerned with how good my food tastes than how healthy it is.
3. I will confess to it right now, I have no experience in the restaurant business, I am not a chef, I can barely cook. So what right have I to critique the culinary work of others? Well, I have eaten out for probably the majority of my life's meals and have developed an understanding of what makes good restaurants good and bad restaurants bad. I have also counted several chefs and food-service workers among my family's dear friends, and yes, I've seen many an episode of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares and similar shows.
I believe that covers everything for the moment. I will be paying close attention to the comments on my reviews. I am still very new to this, so any critique of my critiques will be welcome, so long as it contains more info than "You suck". Please, be descriptive with your comments; tell me what parts you feel I'm getting right, and suggest to me how I might fix the parts I'm getting wrong.
And with that, I thank you for reading through this lengthy & rambling intro segment. Now it's time for the Hungry Student to slake his hunger. My first stop: Jones Hall's Route 90 Grill.
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