The school cafeteria meals have always been regarded as not particularly good-tasting or filling, but this week I will be eating a reviewing a whole weeks worth of cafeteria lunches. Keep in mind these ratings are based on the quality of the cafeteria lunches in comparison with each other not compared to food in general.

Lunch Reviews

Monday – Chicken Sandwich: 5/10

On Monday I decided to go with a chicken sandwich for lunch since I am not a fan of the breaded drumstick. Typically, the chicken sandwich offers a somewhat decent meal alternative to whatever is for lunch that day. However, that is not to say that the chicken sandwiches are good. Today’s chicken sandwich was about average. Every now and then the bread of the sandwich will be stale, but this one had good bread. The meat of the sandwich was very lackluster and did not have much flavor, and to be honest, it looked a little suspect. But that is how most chicken sandwiches are, and if you are going to get one I would recommend getting some ketchup or barbeque sauce to help add some flavor and make the meal a little better. Overall, the meat quality is definitely on the bad side. Despite the questionable quality of the meat, one bonus of the chicken sandwich is the bag of Doritos that comes with every sandwich. The Doritos add some much-needed consistency to the meal, as you always know that at the very least you will get some good Doritos even if the sandwich is less than good. I would give the chicken sandwich a 4.5/10, however with added consistency of the Doritos I am going to bump it to a solid 5/10. 

Tuesday – Sausage Biscuit: 7.5/10

Tuesday’s meal is a new edition to the school menu and comes with tater tots as well as the sausage biscuit. For me, this is one of my favorite school lunches currently in the rotation this year. The biscuit is usually pretty warm and fluffy and tastes fairly good. Today’s sausage and biscuit did not disappoint. The sausage was cooked fairly well and the biscuit was warm and not too dry. The tater tots were pretty average, but at least they were not stale. Usually, the tater tots are very hit or miss. Either you get some okay tater tots or they are stale and gross, it just kind of depends on how lucky you are. Another downside of this meal is how small it is. Only a single sausage biscuit and a few tater tots are not very filling and it would be better if there were two biscuits instead of one. But Overall this meal is still fairly good and I would give it a 7.5/10. 

“The biscuit and sausage are a 10/10 on a school lunch standard but the tater tots were kind of soggy and gross which brings down the score to like a 7.5/10” – Oliver Biddle 

Mason Atwood shared similar thoughts but he said “my tater tots were not too bad so I would give it an 8/10.” – Mason Atwood

Wednesday – Hotdog: 6.5/10

Today’s meal consists of a hotdog and Doritos which is another new lunch this year. I have only had this lunch once so I do not have much to compare it to, but this days hotdog was pretty good. Since the hotdogs come inside of a plastic wrapper the heat of the hotdog causes a lot of condensation to form resulting in the bread of the hotdog to be a little soggy. Thinking about how the hotdogs come inside of wrapper makes me wonder how exactly they prepare the hotdog meals. Are they pre-cooked and then warmed up the day the that the hotdogs are served? This might explain why there is so much condensation. Anyways the hots wiener itself was warm and seemed to be cooked well enough although it did seem to be a little overcooked. The Doritos obviously just add a bit more sustenance to the meal which is really needed because even with the Doritos the meal is not very filling. I would give this lunch a 7/10, but since the meal is not very filling I am going to drop it to a 6.5/10.

Thursday – Orange chicken:

Orange chicken is one of the most consistently good lunches that you can get. Throughout my four years at Magnet the orange chicken meal has always been a lunch that I enjoy. Today’s orange chicken meal kept the consistency and was a very good school lunch. The chicken was not over-sauced (which can sometimes be an issue with the orange chicken) and the rice was cooked well. The broccoli was cooked pretty well but it was not seasoned at all which made them pretty bland. A little bit of salt would have done a whole lot for this meal. But overall the orange chicken lunch was pretty good so I am going to give it a 7/10.

Friday – Pizza: 1/10

I just want to preface this by saying I have never been a fan of the cafeteria pizza. Almost every time I get the pizza it tastes stale almost like it was made 3 days before and then reheated. But today’s pizza was something else. This has got to be the worst pizza I have ever seen in my four years at Magnet. I know I said the pizzas were bad, but this takes it to a whole new level. Where to begin? The cheese, for starters, was not cooked and only covered the middle section of the pizza. On the corners it looks like either flour or powdered cheese was sprinkled on the cover up the areas of pizza that did not have cheese. This is probably the most unappetizing pizza I have ever seen. If I was not writing this article then I would not have even taken a bite out of it. Unfortunately, I did have to at least try the pizza. The taste matched the appearance, and was very gross. I’m going to have to give this a 1/10.

Overall the school lunches this week were fairly good. School lunches not being particularly good is a problem that I think most schools across America have, and is not just an Academic Magnet issue. This deficiency is most likely due to a lack of funding and resources which results in school lunches lacking in quality. I definitely believe that the standard of school lunches is something that could be improved upon in the future.