TacoTime

Feb 28th, 2023

Good food
Nov 11th, 2022

Nov 6th, 2022

Aug 27th, 2022

TL/DR: Go to Chipotle; get VASTLY better food, pay far, FAR less. I went to the Taco Time in the Taggart Student Center earlier today. I got a Crisp Chicken Burrito and a Chicken Quesadilla, which came to $10.48. The preparation was admirable; the food was easily as good as any I'd ever had at a Taco Time. Unfortunately, the ingredients weren't very good, and that brought down the quality of the meal. A lot. Mediocre chicken, mediocre tortillas...the cheese was pretty good, though. Cost-per-calorie: The food I ordered had a total of 900 calories; $10.48 / 900 calories * 100 (just to make the final number easier to look at) = $1.16 per 100 calories. Yikes, man....that's REALLY high. That's higher than Five Guys, which came to $1.13...and that was with a burger with bacon, fries, a shake and a Coke! (By way of comparison, a day at home eating stuff from the grocery store comes to about $0.60 / 100 calories.) Let's compare this place to Chipotle, which I went to on Saturday. I got a Chicken Quesadilla with fajita vegetables and sides of sour cream, the medium chili-corn salsa and brown rice, which came to 1250 calories. (All of those choices were deliberately high-calorie, high-nutrition and/or high-protein, btw.) Cost-wise, I paid $9.94, which means the cost per calorie at Chipotle was $9.94 / 1250 calories * 100 = $0.795 per 100 calories...and the food there was far, FAR better; the ingredients were higher-quality, the fajita vegetables were delicious, the sides were all good. Taco Time comes to ~$1.16 per 100 calories and Chipotle came to ~$0.795 per 100 calories, and 1.16/0.795 ~= 1.46; in other words, I paid a ~46% premium to go to Taco Time. Seriously, what the heck, Taco Time; you're NOT worth a premium over Chipotle AT ALL, much less a 46% one! So what possible reason could I have to recommend Taco Time, given that its food is comparatively mediocre (the excellent preparation notwithstanding), and its price comes to a 46% premium over Chipotle? None. I couldn't possibly give you a reason to go to Taco Time, except perhaps to use up your 'Dining Dollars' that come with the meal plan. I don't think Taco Time has a place in this world anymore; not at the prices its charging, anyhow. btw, I realize that Taco Time offers a side ('Mexi-fries' aka tater tots), which probably have a lower cost-per-calorie than the Crisp Chicken Burrito. However, I have a daily protein goal to maintain, so I needed the protein of a 2nd chicken entre. Taco Time's protein came to 34 grams (for the quesadilla) + 18 grams (for the burrito) = 56 grams, whereas Chipotle's protein came to 67 grams (for the quesadilla with sides). (That comes to 67/1250 ~= 0.05 grams/calorie at Chipotle and 56/900 ~= 0.06 grams/calorie at Taco Time, making the two meals roughly equivalent, in terms of protein-per-calorie.) As a side note: Not that long ago, I insinuated that USU's Executive Director of Dining Services might be a thief after he and his committee refused to grant me an exemption to the meal plan that's required for living in the dorms on USU campus. (From what I could tell, it was rejected on the grounds that my reason was that I'm "just counting calories." Darn strait I'm counting calories, and my Fitbit shows me my weight-loss progress, every day. How's YOUR weight loss coming along, committee?) Alan: The Taco Time on your campus is charging a 46% premium over Chipotle, for vastly inferior food. It even came in higher (in terms of cost-per-calories) than Five Guys! The argument against you being a thief isn't looking good, sir.
Nov 4th, 2023