Opinion: Sage Dining has taken a tumble

Sage Dining has been the company serving SJC students for as long as I can remember. Students of St. John’s should consider themselves lucky. I shadowed Gonzaga, DeMatha, and Bishop O’Connell, and let me tell you, there was a huge difference in the quality of the food. All of those poor students are forced to eat mediocre food day in and day out, and I felt sorry for them.

It wasn’t until I shadowed at SJC that I realized cafeteria food can be good. On my shadow day, I was eating a delicious bacon cheeseburger with fries. A year later, I was eating a hot panini with curly fries and a tangy lemon bar. Sophomore year, Sage picked up their pizza game, so that was my go-to.

But then, in my junior year, everything sort of fell apart. We watched the quality of the pizza go down, we watched chicken tender Friday disappear, and, most importantly, we all noticed that our fries became straight instead of curly. This made me sad. The glory days were obviously coming to an end.

I came back from summer break my senior year, and sadly, things hadn’t picked back up. Sage put out a menu, and it’s sort of a disappointment. Every day it seems like the “Chef’s Choice” station is just serving the same ingredients in different ways. For example, one day, beef tacos are served and the beef is seasoned with Latin spices. Then, the next day, lasagna is served, and that same seasoned beef is in the lasagna. I’m all for saving food, but is this really the best way?

I feel like Sage really showed off in my early years, maybe underclassmen don’t understand what I’m saying, but the juniors and seniors of SJC definitely know exactly what I’m talking about. We should get back to what made our cafeteria stand out amongst the rest: chicken tender Fridays, specialty desserts, good cheeseburgers, and, overall, a wider variety of meals.

Something that has always been good at the cafeteria is the sandwich station. The paninis always make for a consistent meal. Something else positive is the good attitude of the people who work for Sage. They serve us every day, and they never fail to smile.

When it comes to our cafeteria, I’m not mad, just disappointed.