When one pays over $1,000 for dining services, they should expect high quality and variety. As a frequent consumer of the café food at MSU, I have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to the food being served.

On any given morning, the cafeteria serves a variety of things for breakfast, including: French toast, biscuits, sausage patties, tater tots, hash browns, waffles fresh fruit with apple juice, grape juice and a variety of sodas to wash the breakfast down.

In my past experience, the tater tots and bacon are very well done. The bacon has just enough crisp and the tater tots are crunchy like one would expect them to be.

The fruits are very fresh as well. The banana taste like it has not been sitting out, but like it is put away in a cool area to await some MSU student to devour it. But the apple juice was not quite good. It tasted like a glass of Wichita Falls water with a teaspoon of apple juice in it.

The mornings are not usually crowded. Only a few people brave the morning air and rise out of their beds a little earlier than usual before classes to eat in the controversial cafeteria.

On any given dinner or lunch hour, this dynamic is drastically different. Almost every seat was filled when I sat down to satisfy my taste buds with a grilled and tender hamburger. I sit straight up in my seat and place my hands on opposite sides on the plate and propped my elbows, readying for the burger.

It i disgusting! Unlike the breakfast bacon, it is not crisp and it lacked very important seasoning, salt. The meat did not taste grilled in the least and the bread was hard. I went to the fries hoping that something would satisfy my angered taste buds, but to no avail. They also lacked crisp and some rather important and basic seasoning that chefs should be fairly familiar with.

But on the plus side, the dishes were clean with just the right amount of shine. The cafeteria was clean as well with no flies or other bugs running around. The workers had great attitudes and smiled like they were happy to be working there, which made the environment and atmosphere comfortable and cozy.

Despite my opinion, it looks like I am not the only student who is sometimes frustration with the food from the cafe.

Some students do not think that the food in the Mesquite Café is quite up to par with message on the sign that hangs just above the snack bar that reads: “Real food at Midwestern State University.”

“I would not call it quality because of how bad it is,” Jemond Williams, a sophomore majoring in education, said. “If they had more of a variety rather than just pizza and hamburgers it could be better. I would like if they added some steak.”

Williams is not the only one who believes that the cafe is lacking in variety.

“Out of ten, I would rate it a three,” Ben Clarvis, a freshman in general business, said. “It is always the same.”

While some viewed the cuisine as far from satisfactory, others found the quality of the food rather dynamic in flavor and enriching in texture.  Many students believe that the hamburger is cooked perfectly with the right amount of grill taste to satisfy their mouths, the salad is always fresh along with the fruit and the drinks are always a great way to wash down the food.

“Before I came here I always heard people talk about how nasty the food at the cafeteria would be,” Meagan Shih, a freshman in elementary education, said. “But when I finally came here to taste it for myself, it was a great experience. I think that the food has great flavors and the café has a large variety to choose from and they food tasted good.”

On every side of an argument a middle ground is formed, or the gray area. While some students are in total dislike of the food and others are in total support of it, some Mustangs are in the middle of the spectrum.

“The cafeteria’s food is good sometimes, but other times it could be terrible,” Jasmine Hall, a freshman in psychology, said. “I had a hamburger and fries. The hamburger was rather descent, but the fries tasted as if they were not cooked all the way through. Instead of being crunchy they were soggy and tasted a bit funny.”

But everyone’s experience is different.