Whitney Young Lunch Scores Poorly in Recent Review

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On January 25th, some of Whitney M. Young’s most acclaimed food critics took on the “Red House” school lunch. Entering Red House, the venue had a very lively atmosphere to it with everyone chatting in loud voices, clearly having a jolly old time. With a beautiful view of Skinner Park, the twenty minute standing wait for a cardboard tray of food passed rather quickly.

When ordering food, the school’s lunch is served in a buffet style with each person grabbing a lunch and working their way down the counter with several choices of entrees, sides, and beverages. The entree of either popcorn chicken,  pizza, or cheeseburger was served by the staff, while the rest of the meal was self serve.  After picking up the food, we sat down to try each of the items. Before taking the first bite, we asked Richard Chow ‘17 what he thought about the food in Red House, “I haven’t had the school lunch in six years, eww gross.”  

We all sat down to eat and Nathan Wong ‘17  tried the cheeseburger first, giving it a 4/10. Next we tried the popcorn chicken nuggets which were of good consistency although a little bland in flavor but that was solved by some generic BBQ sauce.  We then tried the sides, consisting of either broccoli or a self made salad. The broccoli scored a very poorly, a 1/10, after being extremely overcooked, lacking in flavor and consistency, leaving just some green mush. The salad was self-serve, as individuals added their own lettuce, sliced red tomatoes and cucumber. This salad received a 4.5/10 as the cucumber skin had a very weird texture that gave the feeling as if the skin hadn’t been washed and still contained preservatives which left a sour taste in the mouth. While waiting for our food, we asked several students in line what they liked about the school lunch and they all agreed on the chocolate milk, “The chocolate milk is always spot on but sometimes it’s a little frozen” said sophomore Jake Davidson. The chocolate milk was definitely the best item of the meal thus far and we gave it a 7/10. Last we tried the available fruits, a pear and a bag of apple slices. The pear was an just out of season but had little wrong with it, critics giving it a 7/10. The plastic bag of apples had a mild sour taste  like that of the salad’s cucumber and senior Vince Casambre told us “Oh, yeah, don’t try the apples in the bag, they taste like plastic.”

Overall the meal left us unsatisfied with the quality and appeal of the food served in the Red House. The chocolate milk and pear were the only positives as the rest of the food was far from satisfactory. The only thing that saved the experience was the fact that the lunch was free and that’s  what keeps people coming back daily to the Red House kitchen.

Red House final score: 4/10