One age-old debate has pitted Pennsylvanians against each other for as long as anyone can remember: Sheetz or Wawa? These gas station made-to-order food spots have a very similar business model and exist in roughly the same geographical area, so naturally people choose favorites. Personally, I’m a member of the Wawa tribe. Though Sheetz offers a wider variety of snacks, Wawa’s milkshakes are far superior (Sheetz actually puts ice in their milkshakes! Gross!), and when in my opinion, that’s what really matters. Unfortunately for myself and my fellow Wawa lovers, there are no Wawas in State College, so we’re forced to settle for the downtown Sheetz on Pugh St.

As much as I would like to, I’m not here to explain why Wawa will always be better than Sheetz. Rather, I’m here to review Sheetz’s mac and cheese. Since this blog is focused on mac and cheese you can get in State College, I will not be reviewing Wawa mac and cheese, so I’m going to have to put my pro-Wawa prejudices to the side for this review.

As a made-to-order restaurant (if you can consider Sheetz a restaurant), Sheetz has many, many different options for mac and cheese. You could just get a cup of plain old mac and cheese, or if you’re feeling more adventurous, you can get a mac and cheese platter with any number of toppings, including spicy chicken tenders, chili, or even meatballs if you so desired. They also offer a “3 cheese mac,” which sounded intriguing, but for the purposes of this review, I decided to go with the standard plain mac and cheese cup.

When I got back to my dorm and opened what was supposedly my mac and cheese cup, I was greeted with what looked to be just a cupful of bright yellow melted cheese. It wasn’t until I gave it a stir with my fork that I discovered the noodles (the photo was taken post-stir).  There was certainly a lot of cheese, and while it was goopy, it wasn’t as thick as most of what I’ve seen before. When I took the first bite, the first thing I noticed was the texture of the noodles.

I’ve written a lot in the past about how noodle texture can range from being too soft to too firm, and Sheetz was right in the sweet spot, just like Panera. The cheese to noodle ratio was definitely very high, and the cheese was pretty strong on top of there already being a lot of it. It definitely tasted like American cheese, very similar to Velveeta. Although the cheese was strong, I honestly didn’t hate it. It was just on the brink of being too overpowering, but all in all, I actually really enjoyed it.

Sheetz mac and cheese has earned a ranking of B tier, because the quality of the noodles and cheese puts it above Kraft, but it still doesn’t have the depth of flavor to top Redifer or Panera. If you like a particularly cheese cup of mac, then I strongly recommend Sheetz!