Joey Sabado goes out to eat about 15 times a week. Sabado, a first-year student at Lane Community College, is one of many students living in Eugene who has to make a big decision several times a day: Eat out or cook in?
For students living off-campus, eating is no longer as simple as wandering down to Carson Hall and trading meal points for food. Buying groceries is less expensive than going to a restaurant, but then the dishes pile up. Even one of the most convenient meals eaten at home — delivery pizza — still leaves behind a greasy pizza box.
Eating out can be costly, but it can offer the benefit of convenience, as well.
A typical dinner at Mazzi’s costs about $15. The fettuccine Alfredo dinner, which comes with soup, salad, bread and Neapolitan ice cream, is $14.75. However, the ingredients for that meal can be bought for $4.67 at a grocery store, which in this case was PC Market of Choice. Similarly, a student could go to Cafe Zenon and order the pan-roasted Pacific king salmon fillet for $18.75. The meal would be about half that price if cooked at home: The tab comes to $9.45 for the meal. Cost-conscious students may frequent Subway sandwiches. While a footlong turkey sandwich is $4.90 there, it costs roughly $3.60 for the same ingredients at the store.
Though it may cost more to go out for a meal, there are other factors to consider. “I go out to eat at least twice a week just to get away from the law school,” said first-year law student Ivan Gardzelewski.
When you go out to eat, “It’s real food,” added Brad Langton, a freshman in pre-business.
Mazzi’s manager Isaac Silva agreed. “80 to 90 percent of our customers have something good to say about the meal,” he said.
“I eat out to try new stuff,” Sabado said.
Also, restaurants often have access to ingredients consumers don’t. Local stores aren’t stocking Pacific king salmon right now because of an over-abundance of coho salmon, according to meat manager Bert Fortner at PC Market of Choice. So Zenon may be the only place in town to serve that particular variety of fish.
There is also the dining experience to consider. “Mazzi’s has a friendly, family atmosphere,” said Silva. Convenience can also be key. “Subway offers a lot of variety and is open very late,” said employee Jason McCormick.
And after going out to a restaurant, there is often enough food left over to tide students over for the next day or two. “About 25 percent of our customers take something home with them,” Silva said.
Most students will end up finding some sort of balance between cooking in and eating out.
“I take about 5 minutes to make dinner,” said Kyra Johnson, a shopper at PC Market of Choice. If she wants a more time-intensive dish, she just goes out to eat.
“I eat out twice a week,” Gardzelewski said. He added that cooking at home isn’t really much of a problem, either. “There’s a reason I have a dishwasher.”
Brook Reinhard is a community reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be reached at [email protected].