Editorial: I spent $2,000 at Metro and you shouldn’t have to

By Premila D’Sa 

At the end of my first year at Ryerson I had spent a total of almost $2,000 at the Metro grocery store opposite the Rogers Communications Centre. I stared at the number in absolute despair, thinking about what portion of the amount specifically went into purchasing Metro’s especially disappointing pizza because I was too lazy to walk down the road. So, when second year rolled around, I promised myself that I would take my appetite off campus. It took a $2,000 dollar mistake, but in the past few years after that I’ve discovered the plethora of decent food options Ryerson has to offer. And they’re beyond decent. There are a bunch of disadvantages to being in the heart of downtown, but the food isn’t one of them.

At the end of last semester, The Eyeopener put out a whole damn issue dedicated to food. There was a story on a woman’s experience eating her late mother’s leftovers, one of our editors wrote about his mother’s pies and how she brought them with her to Canada, and one of our reporters tested out the food trucks in the sketchy lot across from the Student Learning Centre.

Looking back on food at Ryerson, it’s been a bittersweet year. We lost some good gems. The Mutual Street Deli shut its doors at the end of 2017 after a 60-year run. Our news editor Jacob Dubé wrote about the old-school diner being a place for him to return to time and time again for a sense of familiarity in the big city.

“It’s hard for Rye students to find a place that feels like their own,” he wrote. “Especially with such a cramped campus that lacks personality.”

Everyone can name places to get food around Ryerson, but not many people can name a ‘place’ the same way he did.

But Ryerson’s food this year wasn’t all bad. We lost some good spots, but some things popped up. For better or worse, we got a new El Furniture Warehouse. The lines at this one haven’t reached the notorious lengths of the original Bloor Street location and they offer the same $5 items. But the best part of Warehouse is that Ryerson’s getting closer to establishing some spots for Ryerson students to kick back with each other.

And while the last thing we need in an increasingly commercialized Toronto is another chain store, one of the more exciting food places to open this year was an H-Mart store, part of an Asian grocery chain. For students cutting back on food spending, H-Mart’s extensive ramen selection should make the process a lot less sad.

While things come and go, Ryerson students can count on a couple steadfast options: our beloved Salad King, the dusty but lovable Imperial Pub, the eternally busy Ali Baba’s. Here’s hoping that our favourites stay, and the new options are cheaper and better. Also, stop eating at Metro, you’re better than that!