Are these $5, $6, and $7 menu items really saving you money? And are they any good?
Photo by Hannah Link.
Last year, UVic Food Services introduced “Value Meals” at its dining outlets as an effort to provide the campus community with low-cost meal options. Now that the program is in its second year and UVic is once again filled with hungry students, I felt the time was right to test them out. Below is an abridged list of these meals, accompanied by my thoughts on each one.
Item: Pizza Slice
Location: Mystic Market / The Cove
Cost: $5 for one, $9 for two
UVic Food pizza is special, and not in a great way. The crust is dense, the sauce leaves something to be desired, and the toppings vary from fine to not so fine. It’s not the worst pizza I’ve ever had, but it’s also not something I would eat unless I was consumed by a strange craving for extremely salty, mediocre pizza. To call a $5 slice of this pizza a “value” meal option is wild in my opinion.
Item: Soup
Location: Trek’s, Mystic Market
Cost: $5
I tried out the “tomato vegetable” soup at Trek’s to see if it was worth it. The vegetables included big chunks of canned tomato, carrots, and onion, as well as some assorted herbs. I can see how this might be the right choice on a cold day, paired with Trek’s other $5 value option, grilled cheese. Here’s a recap: that’s a $10 meal for unremarkable soup and what I can imagine is a very average toasted sandwich.
Item: Value Bean Burrito
Location: Fresco Taco Bar, Mystic Market
Cost: $6
The value bean burrito at Fresco Taco Bar is a tortilla filled with a seasoned bean mixture –– you might imagine a taco-seasoning-inspired white and red bean chili. It certainly could have used a bit of cheese or any kind of fresh vegetable. The burrito filled me up enough to last an afternoon, but also left me with heartburn. Notably, this tortilla was half the price of a regular $11.99 chicken, beef, or bean burrito from Fresco, which are larger and contain a protein, rice, cheese, salsa, lettuce, and sour cream.
Item: Mini Chicken Wrap
Location: Flamin’ Good Chicken, Mystic Market
Cost: $6
This chicken wrap was my favourite value meal item. It had grilled chicken, lettuce, tomato, and a pleasantly seasoned sauce. The size was identical to Fresco’s bean burrito, but I liked that this option had fresh vegetables to accompany its protein. I still wouldn’t say that this is worth $6, but it felt comparable in quality to a McDonald’s grilled chicken snack wrap.
Item: Chicken Hot Dog
Location: the Grill in the Cove
Cost: $5
One of the value meal options at the Cove’s grill is a chicken hot dog. I could see that the dog was kept warm in water before being served, and it was larger than your standard grocery store variety. It tasted as you would expect for a chicken hot dog. I happen to be a big hot dog fan, and I like the ease of use of the Cove’s ketchup and mustard dispensers, but this favourable ranking might be a hot take.
So, what’s the verdict? Are these meals really valuable?
I appreciate that UVic Food saw the outpouring of demands for low-cost food on campus and tried their best to make that happen. I also understand that running a university food services department is a lot different than selling fast food, and that prices will reflect this. The problem goes beyond UVic Food and touches on the larger, more complicated issues of inflation and cost of living that everyone is grappling with.
For what they are, the value meal prices are still expensive. But it will take a lot more than a department in a post secondary institution trying to do their part in order for food — and living — to become affordable.
In the meantime, it’s definitely still cheaper to bring snacks from home to eat on campus. However, if you find yourself in a pinch (whether that be for time, or money, or both), go grab a mini chicken wrap from Mystic and refuel before your next class.
