McAllister’s might be one of the best places to eat on campus. Unlike the commons delis, which offer made-to-order subs and wraps, McAllister’s serves a wide selection of specialty sandwiches, salads, and even stuffed baked potatoes. And, to be perfectly honest, they’re really really good. McAllister’s is probably one of the closest things to actual restaurant food on campus. If that weren’t good enough already, McAllister’s includes a free side with any meal, one of which is — you guessed it — mac and cheese. The only downside? Like all food in the HUB, McAllister’s does not apply the 65% meal plan discount that students enjoy in the commons, so you could be left spending $10-15 of your precious meal plan on a single meal. Making a habit of eating there would surely empty most students’ meal plans before the end of the semester. So be careful, McAllister’s is a sometimes food.

When I went to McAllister’s this week, it was around 4PM. I was starving; I hadn’t eaten all day, but none of the commons had started serving dinner yet, so I had decided to settle for the expensive HUB food. I ordered a spicy southwest chicken sandwich with, of course, a side of mac and cheese. The sandwich was delicious and quite filling. Even though this isn’t a sandwich review blog, I can highly recommend the sandwiches, especially for an empty stomach. After finishing my sandwich, I moved on to the main event: the mac and cheese.

I haven’t really given any negative reviews on this blog yet, but I have to say, I was not a fan. The cheese was thick and had a weird sort of clumpy, congealed texture, especially on top. It definitely had a more American/cheddar sort of flavor, kind of like nacho cheese, which can be a good thing for some foods, but on mac and cheese it just tastes fake. The worst part, though, were the noodles. They lacked any sort of pleasant texture. As soon as I put them in my mouth, they fell apart, leaving an almost powdery feeling. Last week, I talked about Panera noodles being the perfect balance between soft and crunchy. These noodles were definitely pretty far on the soft side of that spectrum.

With all that being said, I still finished the entire cup of macaroni, and honestly would still order it again. After all, it’s free with the meal. It’s pretty hard to make mac and cheese taste bad, and this is no exception. All in all, it still tasted good, it just was not anywhere near as good as many of the other kinds of mac and cheese I have had in my life. Actually, I thought that this mac and cheese was very similar to Wawa mac and cheese, which I am also not a fan of (I support everything else Wawa, don’t hate me), but I do know that many people enjoy it. So, I would recommend McAllister’s mac and cheese to anyone who likes Wawa mac and cheese.

Still, on my tier list, I’m going to put McAllister’s mac and cheese on D tier, because it is definitely the worst I’ve had for the purposes of this blog so far. I’m saving E and F tiers for any mac and cheese that is truly bad. In the future, I’m thinking of trying some of the truly weird kinds of mac and cheese that can be found in State College, such as the D.P. Dough mac daddy calzone, the Weirdough’s mac and cheese pizza, or Panera’s mac and cheese sandwich. Some of these might earn a spot on those low tiers, or, they could surprise me. We’ll see!