As a senior at the University of Arizona, I have eaten more meals then I could possibly count at the UA Food Court, the glorious mecca consisting of several average at best restaurants, and the go-to dining palace for any student too lazy to cook their own food and who does not want to walk down to University Boulevard to get something halfway decent to eat.
As a freshman, the food court is a wonderfully appealing place where students enjoying their first slice of college freedom can go have a slice of pizza or a burger anytime without their parents yelling at them to eat their veggies. But after the first few months of the semester have passed and you have eaten at each restaurant more times than any human should, the food court becomes a desolate, lonely place where the mention of each of its restaurants will do something different to a student’s stomach.
However, some restaurants are better than others at keeping a student’s stomach intact throughout their college career. Here are 5 restaurants in the UA Student Union that I can still stomach, even during senior year.
1. Cactus Grill
One of the hidden gems of the food court is Cactus Grill, located on the third level of the Student Union and probably the closest thing the UA has to an actual cafeteria. This is your go-to place for decent food at a not so decent price, the mantra of all college restaurants. Cactus has a rotating hot menu and constantly serves certain staples such as quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches. The vast selection of offerings and the rotating menu make Cactus an always reliable option, no matter how long you have been at college.
2. Chick-fil-A
The Chick-fil-A in the union is technically a Chick-fil-A Express, so it only serves about half the menu options of a normal Chick-fil-A. This paradise for chicken lovers thoroughly believes in the classic saying that you can’t screw up a chicken sandwich, and they listen to this everyday as they provide perfectly fine chicken sandwiches to UA students. It’s a place that still doesn’t sound terrible, no matter how many times you eat there.
3. Pangea
This buffet-style food extravaganza features a fairly expensive price, but it is a buffet so the cost is almost worth it. With a vastly diverse menu that contains all sorts of different foods, Pangea always sounds good. Plus, this place has a terribly inconvenient schedule of when it is actually open, so most of the time it will probably be closed if you want to go. This brilliant marketing tactic makes college students keep craving Pangea, because whenever they want to go they discover it to be closed, which forces them to try again later.
4. Papa John’s
Decent ingredients. Decent Pizza. Papa John’s. That’s how the slogan probably should go. Papa John’s is one of the few places in the union that rarely has a line of people waiting, making it a prime dining option for those on the go. It still sounds appealing during senior year because, after all, it’s pizza, and when does pizza not sound appealing?
5. Einstein Bros.
Breakfast is apparently the most important meal of the day, although I think that is up for debate. Still, this place serves up bagels and coffee in a way that will keep students coming back throughout their college careers, providing an okay bagel with an almost okay price.
These restaurants may not sound great, but they are tolerable, which is about all you can ask for from a food court restaurant as a senior. Besides, they are certainly much more tolerable than unholy, nausea-inducing places such as Panda Express or Steak’ N Shake, the latter of which has only been in the food court for less than a year and already sounds horribly unappealing. But hey, when I finally do graduate, I just might miss that feeling of standing in the Student Union while frustratingly trying to come up with somewhere to eat that I don’t think will make me feel sick.
