Agave Mexican Grill: A Step In the Right Direction
While Agave’s healthier, fresher menu certaintly brings school lunch into a new light, its inefficiency makes it imperfect
Tofu, black bean, brown rice, salsa, lettuce and cheese bowl from Agave Mexican Grill.
The tradition of traveling to Chipotle for lunch at Shaker Heights High School may be over this year. Students may only have to walk to the upper cafeteria to go to the Agave Mexican Grill.
One can expect a Chipotle-style experience at Agave, as well as similar food. Students can pick either a burrito, bowl, salad, or nachos, and top it with your choice of protein: chicken, beef, or tofu. Then, you can get brown rice, green peppers or black beans, as well as choosing from tomato salsa, roasted corn salsa, green verde salsa, lettuce and cheese.
Agave Mexican Grill. The healthy new take on school lunch.
The ingredients, while not entirely top-quality compared to Chipotle and Qdoba, are much better than the rest of school lunch because of their gourmet preparation. The biggest problem Agave currently faces is a lack of supplies. Agave ran out of both tofu and sour cream in the first five minutes of eighth period lunch. They finally replenished some of the ingredients after a seven minute wait, a process that adhered to the ease and efficiency that has become the norm of school lunch. The line is considerably long, but not enough that it takes up too much time of the lunch period.
The rice, tofu and beans tasted similar enough to those of Chipotle’s, and the other ingredients like lettuce and tomato salsa were slightly watery. Although Agave lacks guacamole, the other toppings like corn salsa and cheese were flavorful enough to improve the quality of the bowl. On the other hand, my friend got a chicken burrito that was bland until they refilled the sour cream. The portions are about a third of Chipotle’s size, which makes sense for the price, only $3.25.
Agave has a solution for its few problems though: more efficiency, better quality ingredients, and bigger portions for a higher price. Honestly, the solution is quite simple, and I believe with a few updates and improvements, Agave will reach its full potential over the school year. By training Shaker’s staff on efficiency, creating bigger portions, charging more and trying to get the good-quality vegetables like Onaway’s new salad bar program, they could solve these problems. For now, though, it’s worth a trip over to the Agave stand in the upper cafeteria to try “Chipotle Lite”, even for packed lunch regulars like myself.
“It’s very good, the only thing I’d say is that it’s a very long wait,” sophomore Isabela Carroll said. “It’s like Chipotle’s little brother.”
Maybe there isn’t as much variety, efficiency or overall flavor as Chipotle, but for cafeteria food it is definitely a step in the right direction.
For more information on the ‘Rite Bite, click here.
