There’s a lot of places to get food around MGCI, and some are better than others. Trust me, I’ve been buying lunch every school day for four years. Here are my thoughts after many meals and dollars spent. The number before each restaurant indicates its position on the map, not its ranking. 3 and 6 are Subway and McDonald’s, respectively. I’ve omitted those because you already know all about them.
- Popeyes
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Healthiness: 🍗⚪⚪⚪⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Price: $$$
Time to school: 10 minutes
Popeyes is the king of “you want to go, but you know you shouldn’t.” The fried chicken is sure to be one of your guilty pleasures. Of course, it is horribly unhealthy, and bliss is quickly replaced by regret soon after consumption. Keep away from the cajun poutine unless you enjoy large globs of cheese and soupy fries. A different special is offered each weekday. I consider Wednesday’s offer the best: any sandwich for $4.79.
- Sweet and Samosa
Taste: 🍗🍗⚪⚪⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗⚪⚪⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Price: $
Time to school: 10 minutes
Most students come to Sweet and Samosa for their samosas (surprise!), which are very cheap as far as samosas go. For $1, you can either get 3 veggie samosas or 2 chicken/beef samosas. The samosas have a mild spiciness to them, but not much else can be said about their taste. A good place for quick and cheap snack food.
- Watan Pizza
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗⚪⚪⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Price: $
Time to school: 10 minutes
Watan Pizza takes competitive pricing to a whole new level. The student specials are so insanely cheap here that you wonder how they make a profit. You can get any slice of pizza (your options are meat lover’s, pepperoni, garden veggie, cheese, or Hawaiian) plus fries and a pop for only $3.50, or a pop and pizza slice for $2.25. The taste of the pizza is nothing to get excited about, just a touch better than frozen pizza. The store also offers other options like sandwiches and salads, but these are far more expensive. For maximum dollar-to-food value, Watan Pizza is my personal recommendation.
- Bamiyan Kabob
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗
Healthiness: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Price: $$$$$
Time to school: 10 minutes
Got cash cash money and a hungry stomach? Bamiyan Kabob is the place for you. Expect to spend around $10 per meal here, but you won’t be disappointed by the quality of your food. Both the wrap and plate options are delicious, and there are a variety of meats to choose from. Bamiyan Kabob happens to be the school admin’s restaurant of choice, with many staff members citing it as a personal favourite. I really love the tangy dip for the naan bread. The only con to Bamiyan Kabob is its high price. Besides that, it’s a Bami-yay!
- Subway
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Price: $$
Time to school: 7 minutes
It’s hard to review Subway because there are so many different ways you can make a sub. Taste and price are entirely dependent on what you get, so I’ve given a neutral score in both categories. With that said, Subway has been especially guilty of price hikes in the past few years. When I first started buying in Grade 9, you could still get five dollar footlongs. Four years later, even the Sub of the Day specials are gone, instead replaced by a “lunch box” deal that doesn’t seem very attractive. Subway wins points for healthiness since you get to choose what goes into each sandwich. Pro-tip: Cut the sauces if you’re calorie-conscious.
- Tim Hortons
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Price: $$$
Time to school: 7 minutes
Tim’s is Tim’s. Although the Canadian favourite excels at breakfast, I wouldn’t give them a very high recommendation for lunch. The lunch menu is quite expensive and no items stand to blow your mind. If you’re looking for a coffee, an ice capp, or a place to mingle with friends, look nowhere else. But for lunch, there are plenty of better options.
- Caribbean Palms
Taste: 🍗🍗⚪⚪⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Service: 🍗⚪⚪⚪⚪
Price: $
Time to school: 9 minutes
Caribbean Palms primarily serves various forms of jerk chicken and stewed chicken. They offer lunch specials for $5, which consist of brown rice with your choice of jerk chicken, stewed chicken, or fried chicken. While the meat itself is not offensive, I’m disappointed by the fact that the specials have a severe shortage of vegetables: you only get three slices of cucumber. Really? The meals could be substantially augmented by substituting the cucumbers with a helping of coleslaw. It takes a notoriously long time for the store to prepare your meal. I would allocate anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes of waiting time, so make sure you either have a spare afterwards or call ahead to place your order.
- Sunny Supermarket
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗⚪⚪⚪
Service:🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Price: $$
Time to school: 9 minutes
Sunny isn’t a restaurant, but they do have a mini food court from where you can order various forms of Chinese food. The food quality isn’t amazing and it’s all pre-made, but you can get anything from General Tso’s to fried calamari to (crappy) bubble tea to eggplant stirfry. The specials they have vary from day to day, but usually the portions are so large, you should bring a friend to split with. There’s also this fun machine you can put a quarter into to get a Pokémon card!
- Pita Land
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Price: $$$
Time to school: 7 minutes
Pita Land is where you go after you’ve defended Earth from the Chitauri, or when you’re hungry for shawarma. There are actually two student specials. The new one is a pop and a falafel or gyro (beef) shawarma. The other is the old, unadvertised and more expensive special: a pop, a chicken shawarma, and a small bag of chips. I always get the old special, because the chicken tastes better than the gyros and falafels. I recommend adding a scoop of tabouli for $0.29; it really adds to the flavour and texture. Pita Land is a bit pricy, but its shawarmas are great.
- McDonald’s
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Healthiness: 🍗⚪⚪⚪⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Price: $
Time to school: 10 minutes
What can I say that hasn’t been said a million times about McDonald’s already? If you want to experience the American lifestyle, here you go. Save yourself a few bucks by using the coupons that always seem to be floating around. McDonald’s gets really busy at lunchtime, so either get there ASAP or visit it during spare.
- Mulan
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗⚪⚪⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Price: $$
Time to school: 9 minutes
Mulan is MGCI’s quintessential Chinese restaurant. The store looks extremely sketchy, yes, but the food is quite good. There’s a great deal of options such as Szechuan and black bean, although frankly most are just the same chicken or beef on rice with a different sauce. Don’t bother with their fried options. Serving sizes are very generous, so bring an empty stomach or get your food in a to-go container.
Pho Thien Phat
Taste: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Healthiness: 🍗🍗🍗⚪⚪
Service: 🍗🍗🍗🍗⚪
Price: $$$$$
Time to school: 9 minutes
Pho Thien Phat is your stereotypical Vietnamese restaurant. Although pho is its biggest draw, regular rice is offered as well. Expect to pay around $10 for a meal and be aware that you’ll have to tip, since it’s a sit-down restaurant with service, albeit an extremely casual one. You probably won’t have time for an entire meal here during lunch, so make sure you have spare if you don’t want to be late for class. As for the pho itself, it tastes like any other pho you’ve ever had. Not really much to say.
