Upon stepping into the FEAST dining room, I was greeted by smiling faces, and seated pretty quickly. I felt like I had just left the school and walked into a little restaurant—there were round tables covered in crisp, white tablecloths, and the lighting was dimmed and welcoming. Classical music played softly, and I momentarily felt detached from the school environment, despite still being on campus.

My server, senior Lexie Evans, was extremely attentive and immediately came by to politely ask me what I wanted to drink. Out of water, lemonade, and iced tea, I chose the lemonade, which arrived at my table quickly after requesting it. It was a little mild, taking away from both the sweet and zesty flavor, but cool and refreshing all the same.

As an appetizer, I had the salad. Personally, I’m extremely picky when it comes to salads and salad dressings, but the little plate of greens set down in front of me genuinely looked delicious. It was already soaking in homemade salt and vinegar dressing, which really nicely complemented the taste of the lettuce, rather than overpowering it.

My not finishing the salad had nothing to do with how it tasted; I was hoping to save room for the entrée and dessert people around me seemed to be enjoying so greatly. My unfinished salad was swiftly whisked away and replaced with something new and surprising…macaroni and cheese, and a sandwich. The meal alone sounds simple enough, most likely nothing special, right? Wrong.

The pasta was the opposite of Easy-Mac, clearly carefully made in the very kitchen that bustled a few feet away from me. The noodles were thick and fluffy, topped with an extremely delicious cheese sauce. Though some of the noodles were undercooked (to my taste), I didn’t particularly mind, as the dish itself was amazing. The sauce was a creamy yet light concoction of cheese that didn’t stick to my teeth and reminded me of alfredo sauce—just cheesy enough, balanced out with cream.

Along with the macaroni was a pesto sandwich. The soft, slightly powdery ciabatta bread worked well alongside the macaroni, and made the well-cooked white chicken mysteriously easier to chew. The sandwich had this consistent soft but not too-soft texture throughout, even with the lettuce and tomatoes. To top it off, pesto sauce was spread on the inside, giving the sandwich an added zesty character, bringing me back to the vinegary dressing on my salad, as well as the smooth taste of the macaroni sauce.

Every detail of each bite I took meshed perfectly together, rather than just a nice meal composed of various nice things; it was one that became delicious as a result of flavors and textures consistently complementing one another to achieve a certain overall satisfaction.

Finally, the wonderful meal was completed with the dessert: a little pear gazette with whipped cream on the top. There aren’t really enough words to explain how delicious this was. Though it was the size of a miniature piece of pie, and only very few bites were required to finish it, it was beyond satisfactory. The pastry wasn’t too crumbly nor was it too hard. The pears were sweet and juicy, and the dessert was topped off with real whipped cream. The cream had just the right amount of sweet flavor to it. A little more would have been too much along with the sweetness of the pears.

Overall, this meal was perfectly balanced. It seems to me that the meal focused on “just right”…not too sweet, not too cheesy, not too soft, not too anything. Again, every aspect made a difference, and made for a genuinely well planned, well-made, and most enjoyable meal.