Are you sick of the subpar food that Sodexo provides the student cafeteria? Me too. And when I say I’m sick of it, I mean I hate the cafeteria. I understand that I don’t go to the University of Alabama, or some big school that has chain restaurants on campus, but less than a month into second semester I found myself leaving campus for food, or skipping meals all together. Anybody who knows me realizes that missing meals is my least favorite thing to do. Halfway through last semester I discovered the greatest thing to hit the restaurant market in a couple hundred years. Not to be to cliché, but Chopstix Express, fondly known as ‘Buck-A-Scoop’ by locals and CMU students, is truly a gem hidden in the Grand Valley restaurant circuit.
I am a bigger guy, who has an appropriately large appetite, and the portions at the student cafeteria are comical for a guy like me. After two plates, I am hungrier than when I walked into the cafeteria due to making multiple trips back to the counter. As a freshman and having only spent a couple months in Grand Junction, I started looking around the areas outside campus for new and fun eateries. My search was nearly ended after choking on the grease on the Little Caesars Pizza, and Chuck and Kluck closed almost before it opened. Then it happened, an amazing light broke through the clouds and I heard angels singing. The light was shining down on 1037 North Avenue. The light was shining on Chopstix Express. With its glorious “OPEN” neon sign lit in the window, below the sign that read “$1.25 a scoop,” I headed in.
I walked in through the double doors and was greeted by the smell of authentic Chinese food and décor that, for a moment, will make you forget you’re in Grand Junction, but rather standing in a traditional Beijing establishment.
Of course, you’re not in Beijing, you’re just in a little piece of Beijing in Grand Junction, and I loved it. A friendly staff, made up of the family who owns and operates Chopstix Express are found behind the counter. The restaurant is cafeteria styled (I know I know, I leave the student cafeteria to eat at another cafeteria and pay for it) and you are then thrown in front of a massive selection of true Chinese dishes. Everything from the always-delicious orange chicken, to sesame balls and everything in between are at your choice to fill your three compartment paper bowl.
It’s a pretty simple operation, you choose as many scoops as you want, most people just fill a bowl which is three scoops. As advertised, each scoop is $1.25 and they offer a not-so-wide variety of drinks that feature coke products (50 cents a refill) and water.
I highly recommend stopping by Buck-A-Scoop next time you hear your stomach growl. It’s a lot of food for a small amount of money.