23 April 2019
Quinita Thomas
A new stand in Cafe 65 has students wanting more. Not only does the food court serve breakfast in the mornings, but they also serve their own chicken tenders and fries. Anyone who wishes to try them can only get them from Cafe 65.
For those who may not know where the food court is, or what it looks like, here is a short description. Simply go past the coffee shop in University Center through a breeze way and seating area. Up a short flight of stairs, one will see Cafe 65.
The food court itself is sort of shaped like a U. Once you are past the seating area, the first thing you will see is the sandwich stand on the right. Straight ahead of you is where the chicken tender stand is located.
If newcomers do not wish to have chicken tenders, they also have other options. The grill serves the typical burgers, there is a noodle bowl stand, plus pizza. There are even fruit cups if one so desires. The food court does include a fountain drink spot and a separate one for bottled drinks of all sorts.
The noodle bowl and chicken tender stands were put in this school year due to votes from a survey that Cafe 65 sent out to students a year or so ago. Before, there was a burrito stand and the Food Next Door program, which served salads and other foods made from ingredients grown at the UCCS Farm.
The chicken tenders Cafe 65 serves are hand-breaded, perhaps with either flour and egg, or cornflakes. Students have the option of choosing either three or five pieces along with fries, of course.
In addition to how many tenders a student wants, they also have the option to pick out what kind of sauce they would like, as opposed to having to go all the way around to get sauce. They have barbecue, ranch, buffalo and honey barbecue sauces.
Depending on how any tenders someone wants along with fries, the prices are fairly decent. For example, I usually get the three-piece, and it only costs about seven dollars. It is worth it in my opinion.
Out of all stands that the food court has, this one is particularly my favorite. You can tell that the chicken is not frozen. In fact, it tastes fresh everyday. I also feel more comfortable knowing that the breading is not fake either.
Not only are the tenders wonderfully juicy, but the fries are also a must. I do not think they are hand-cut necessarily, but they do taste more realistic than the fries at the grill. Plus students have the option of either salt and pepper or actual fry seasoning.
I have gotten tenders and fries from the grill before plenty of times. From my personal experience after trying both, I always found the tenders from the grill to be a bit chewy and dry, and one can easily tell that they were frozen. The fries were obvious as well. I call them shoestring fries because of how thin they are, and sometimes they can be too crispy.
Overall, it is nice to see that there is at least one food stand on campus designed for student budgets.