Eating out on a college student budget

Joshua Kalil
Western Herald

College students are going to go out to eat, either because their mom isn’t there to make dinner or the dorm food doesn’t cut it. The catch is that when they do go out, the food almost has to be cheap.
Kalamazoo and Portage are full of places to find cheap food, and it’s not just the Dollar Menu. Deals are everywhere, it’s just students have the take the time to look.
Old Burdick’s Bar and Grill offers half off food, with a student ID, Sunday and Wednesday. Logan’s Roadhouse makes students dine with a buddy to receive a discount, offering two “full meals for $13.99” Monday through Wednesday.
“It’s usually more of an older crowd, senior citizens, but we do see some students,” Ayer Swink said, manager at Logan’s Roadhouse in Portage.
When compared with going to Burger King, students might be able to overlook their eating companions.
“Definitely the price is about the same,” Swink said. “It comes with unlimited rolls, a server and a casual laidback atmosphere where you can be yourself.”
Practically every night of the week students can find deals that take them away from fast food and into a restaurant. Theo and Stacy’s, with two locations in Kalamazoo and Portage, offer 10 percent off student meals.
Roadhouse knows that being so close to campus they have to appeal to students. With specials every night of the week they hope something will bring students into eat.
“After 9 o’clock a majority of the people here are students,” Chris Housler said, who manages at Roadhouse.
“Last night [Tuesday] probably 70 percent of them were students in here.”
Chicken fingers are one of the most popular specials at Roadhouse. According to Housler there were 270 orders of them in two hours last Tuesday.
“Pizza’s just started catching on as well,” Housler said.
If students don’t want to even leave the house, they can find places to satisfy their cravings. Pizza places like Papa Johns and Little Caesars offer carry-out specials that are almost as cheap as going to buy a pizza from the grocery store.
“We have a student special, one topping large for $7.99,” Eshah Wilder said, manager of Papa John’s on West Main in Kalamazoo.
“That’s a ton of our business.”
If students are willing to get up and go to Papa John’s it could be even cheaper. According to Wilder, Monday and Tuesday they have a carry-out special of $5.99, instead of being charged the two dollar delivery charge.
If pizza doesn’t do it, then there are several Chinese food locations, such as Spice N’ Rice, Campus Kitchen or Rice Kitchen (next to Bang On). Most Chinese food would cost a little more than a value meal from McDonalds, and with an abundance of orange chicken is usually left over.
Even on a strict budget eating at nice restaurants isn’t out of the option. Pasta Pasta, located on the corner of West Main and Stadium Drive, offers lots of specials that accommodate students. Pasta Pasta daily specials in November include “$5.95 all-you-can-eat Spaghetti and Marinara” on Wednesdays and a “New York Strip Dinner” for $9.99 on Thursdays.
Sometimes it takes a lot to get students out of settling for the cheapest options though.
“I usually just go to Taco Bell, some kind of fast food,” Jennifer Thomas, an art major at WMU, said.

“My friends usually bribe me to get me to go out to a restaurant,” Thomas said. But if we do go it usually is for a deal.”

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Posted by heraldstaff on Nov 12 2009. Filed under Special Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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