Riverside Market has changed drastically since the 2023 fall semester, and it has only taken a turn for the worse. The university provided in an email to students after the fall break that the beloved Burgers+Fries menu was being switched out for a healthier more sustainable menu, due to the longevity of the building and the effects that the fryers had on it.
The Cafe was once the prime location for lunch time and late-night dinners in the beginning of the year for me, but after the entire removal of the favorite fried chicken sandwiches and Old Bay fries, the cafe has become the bain of my existence in avoiding the building entirely.
I have dramatically decreased my usage of meal swipes there as the new and “healthier” wannabee Chipotle is just not cutting it.
The overall food is just exponentially worse now, between the bland beans or the hard rice, the food sits like a brick in your stomach.
I’ve tried on a couple of occasions to give the food the benefit of the doubt and switch up my usual order, but no matter the combination of ingredients, the dry food just leaves a bad taste on my tongue.
The smell is the worse side effect of this atrocious menu change; a switch that was once chicken tenders and an array of seasoned French fries, to barbacoa beef bowls and rubbery chicken nachos. The smell wafts through the vents and permeates the elevators of Potomac Place. Walking through the barren cafe now has become harder to do as the smell from the food leaves me with a headache.
I do not understand the need for a menu change. The cafe was the most popular location on campus to get food, between Rams Den and the Wellness Center; lines were always outside the door of the convenience store.
If there was one recommendation from me that the university should read and listen to, bring back the fried chicken sandwich.
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