Don’t think of this as a food review. I’m not a connoisseur of fine dining. I don’t have a sophisticated palate. I don’t need raspberry sorbet between courses, and you probably don’t either. Like you, I’m almost always hungry and I’m broke.
So your humble servants at the Daily Lobo took a scale and sampled 10 local University-area restaurants. We were curious about the quantity — not quality — of food the cash-strapped student might be able to get for two dollars.
And then we just dropped hash browns, orange chicken, chocolate chip cookies or any other edible matter on a scale and found out how much food per dollar, regardless of taste, each restaurant could dish up.
Whenever we couldn’t eat all the food we got, we offered it to people on the street who asked for it. Nothing went to waste.
Here’s what we found:
*Frontier Restaurant
Dollars: $1.80
Weight: 5 oz.
Dish: Sweet roll
Affordability rating: 4/5 stars
Winning Coffee Co.
$2.08
6 oz.
Pumpkin spice bread
AR: 2/5 stars
Saggio’s
$2.11
4 oz.
Two chocolate chip cookies
AR: 1/5
Hoho’s
$2.13
1 lb., 2 oz.
Orange Chicken
AR: 5/5
Olympia Cafe
$2.08
8 oz.
Hot dog/w fries
AR: 1/5
Sahara Middle Eastern Eatery
$1.56
2 oz.
Baklava
AR: 1/5
Perico’s Acapulco Chilly’s
$1.87
4 oz.
Taco
AR: 3/5
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20 Carrots Cafe
$1.34
8 oz.
Hash browns
AR: 2/5
Light and Healthy Mirai Express
$1.86
8 oz.
Vegetable fried rice
AR: 2/5
Kai’s Chinese Restaurant
$2.08
2 oz.
Egg rolls
AR: 1/5
*Affordability Rating: relates to the number of items on a menu costing fewer than two dollars.
