Winning the heart of FJU students, “Mo&Mo Stewed Food” is voted as the best restaurant in Li Cafeteria (33.7%), runner-up next is “XiangXu” fusion restaurant (25.3%), followed up by the “Vegan Curry” restaurant (21.7%).
As for beverage stores, the majority favors “Chung Fang Tea Shop” (18.1%) over “Taro Taro” (9.1%). Moreover, 90.4% of the students think the renovated restaurant has improved a lot, with only 9.6% of the students prefer the restaurant before renovation.
Students have found a pleasant surprise after returning to school after summer vacation, since the long-closed Li Cafeteria is finally back in business! A lot has changed since the renovation, new restaurants and beverage shops started their business in the cafeteria, and Family Mart had been taken down to provide a larger space for more restaurants. The newly added restaurants are as follows: Mo&Mo Stewed Food, XiangXu fusion restaurant, Master Liu Pork Ribs, The Pacific, Vegan Curry, and Ah Ju Ma. Other than restaurants, there are two new beverage shops as well: Taro Taro, and Chung Fang Tea Shop.
Despite many students having only tried the Li Cafeteria once, they responded positively toward the new change. 90.4% of the students like the new cafeteria better because of the new restaurants. Li Cafeteria was not students’ favorite in the past since most restaurants were terrible and expensive. However, there are more tasty and affordable restaurants now, like Xiang Xu and Mo&Mo Stewed Food.
Out of all restaurants, “Mo&Mo Stewed Food” is considered the best in Li Cafeteria with its students-friendly price, interesting combo meal, nicely cooked braised dishes, and the clerk’s polite manners. What most students love about this restaurant is its affordable price and flavor, and the majority recommend the Prince Combo as a must-try. With just 70 NTDs, it consists of pork ball, fish patty, prince noodle, bird egg, little sausage, dried tofu, cabbage, tempura and fried bean curd. One female student complimented on this particular combo, “the Prince Combo is carefully designated. It has a lot of ingredients that the majority of students like, and it balances the unhealthy manufactured food with cabbages and seaweed. I highly recommend students who have trouble deciding what to eat to try this meal. Also, because each ingredient come in a small amount, female students would not have a hard time finishing it.”
Left: the exterior look of Mo&Mo Stewed Food/ Right: the Prince Combo. Photo by Yvonne Lai.
“Xiang Xu” fusion restaurant is also highly recommended by students. This restaurant offers a wide variety of food choices for students. XiangXu offers food ranging from snacks (fried chicken, fried potatoes, fried cuttlefish, etc.) to Chinese meals (pot boiling noodles, fried instant noodles, teppanyaki). Many students chose this restaurant as their favorite because of the diverse dishes and affordable prices. “My favorite restaurant would be Xiang Xu,” a student did not hesitate to talk about his favorite restaurant in Li Cafeteria. “The stock of the pot boiling noodles is amazing! I especially recommend milk flavor and kimchi flavor. The best part is it’s affordable. Most of the restaurants in Li Cafeteria are quite pricy.”
Left: Xiang Xu fusion restaurant/ Right: milk and cheese flavor pot boiling noodle. Photo by Yvonne Lai.
Over half of the students who had tried the Japanese/ Korean restaurants agree “Vegan Curry” has the tastiest dishes among them (63.3%). Vegan Curry offers all vegan dishes, such as curry, thin noodles, braised dishes, pasta and drinks. “Although it is a vegan restaurant, its curry does not taste vegan, which is a good thing.” one of the students commented. Many students recommended “Smiley Hash Brown Curry with Kimchi” as their favorite dish. The name itself is quite self-explanatory; however, kimchi is optional with 10 NTDs extra fee required.
Between two new beverage shops, most students choose Chung Fang Tea Shop as the one with higher cost-performance ratio. Chung Fang focuses on tea-based beverages, whereas Taro Taro focuses on cheese foam toppings, latte and slushy. However, Chung Fang Tea Shop won with 18.1% since students prefer cheaper prices over high quality. Many students prefer neither of the beverage shops, “if I have a third option, I will choose neither,” one student replied. “They are both very expensive.”
Among all the survey participants, only 9.6% of the students prefer the old cafeteria over the new one. The students like the previous stores, such as spicy hot pot, Yi-Mei and Family Mart. Family Mart is especially favored by students. Those who prefer the new cafeteria also expressed how much they want the convenience store back. “Even though Li Cafeteria has improved, I still want Family Mart back since it is convenient to have a convenience store in the middle of the campus,” one student commented. Because Family Mart decided to end their business in FJU, there are only two convenience stores left on campus, with one at the far back of the campus, and the other at the entrance. Having a convenience store in the middle of the campus is beneficial for the majority of students, as they prefer a convenience store within walking distance to take out microwave food to class when in a hurry.
Moreover, students complained about the price. “Perhaps because of expensive store rent, almost all of the restaurants in Li Cafeteria are pricy,” said one of the students. “Other cafeterias on campus have cheaper price and high-quality food, whereas Li Cafeteria’s restaurants do not live up to what we expect for how much they charge, which makes Li Cafeteria replaceable.” Other minor issues include lighting, closing time and few vegan restaurants. Vegetarians have long been feeling neglected since there aren’t many vegan options among all school cafeterias. Therefore, they hope the school can eventually invite more plant-based restaurants into campus.
The Li Cafeteria Poll was conducted by a student of the English Department Newsletter group from October 27 to November 20 among a random campus sample of 130 students reached by Instagram, Dcard and Line. Interviews were either conducted online or through in-person meetings.