By Matt Bisanz

So, at last, the Maui Tacos and Pizza Exchange have opened, replacing the closed Sbarro and the moved Nature’s Organic Grille, which in turn replaced the candy station in the Student Center Cafe.

I, for one, was a bit confused by these new options. Sbarros pizza wasn’t great, but it was edible food when coming out of an 11 p.m. class, and the Organic Grille offered really tasty healthy food. But, I decided to have an open mind and try these new choices before judging them.

Pizza Exchange surprised me at first, as I didn’t see the standard, 16-inch pizza pies that I am accustomed to seeing in a typical pizzeria. I naively assumed they were hidden somewhere else in the station. As I moved up in line, I realized the pizzas were actually mini, 7-inch pies on a hot plate. Now, I’m from upstate New York, so I can’t claim to regularly eat real Italian pizza, but I do know that pizza is served by the slice, not the mini pie. The mini pie is served at places like Pizza Hut (for children).

As I was checking out, I saw a “healthy” option that involves putting salad and dressing on top of a pizza crust. Many things are better combined. Peanut butter and chocolate are great foods, and together as peanut butter cups, they are even better. Pizza and salad, however, are not a good combination. As I ate my pizza, I slowly realized that much of a mini pizza is actually the crust, which calls for a thumbs down.

Maui Tacos seemed interesting as I’ve never been to the West Coast to taste authentic pacific cooking, let alone true Hawaiian delicacies. The long lines during the first days it was open had only piqued my interest in trying this new option.

When I finally decided to try it, I, along with several other people in line couldn’t read the menu clearly. Finally, I figured out that I wanted a burrito of some sort, but wondered how big (or overpriced) a burrito has to be to cost $5 to $6, considering I can get a huge one at Taco Bell for $3 on average.

I placed my order, later learning that having an exotic name, a Honoli burrito, has nothing Hawaiian in it. It’s ground beef, cheese, Mexican rice, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes and a soft taco shell.

At Taco Bell and Chipotle Mexican Grille, a meal like this takes maybe four minutes to make on a busy day. But at Maui Tacos, it took nearly 15 minutes and involved a hand-numbered paper slip I had to turn in to get my food. When fast food takes so long to prepare that you have to number each order to keep track of the backlog, it’s not really fast food.

Since I had all this time to stand in line, I took notice of the nutrition information. Being a taco place, I wasn’t expecting the same stats as Mother Earth or Whole Foods, but I was hoping that the trend of light Hawaiian food would mean these choices were better than most places. On average, a burrito has 700 to 800 calories and a single taco has 400 to 500 calories, the beef salad weighed in at a hefty 1,130 calories.

According to my research, the largest burrito on Taco Bell’s menu, weighing in at over half a pound, only has 520 calories. The biggest taco on their menu has only 380.

Back to Maui Tacos. I moved over a column to fat content and was disturbed to see many items with more than 35 grams of fat. For reference, the FDA recommends a maximum daily fat intake of 65 grams.

Moving over a few more columns, skipping some equally scary numbers in the cholesterol column (100 plus), I began to read the sodium column. Now, a can of soda has 30 milligrams (mg). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends no more than 2,400 mg per day for an adult. Most of the burritos on this menu had over 1,700 mg of sodium with some options topping out at 2,390 mg.

If you know me personally, you know I’m far from a health nut. I like pizza, fried chicken and hamburgers, but for a new place that has the aura of being a healthy, light Hawaiian option, I’d expect much of the menu to have healthy choices. Yes, there is the shrimp taco, buried at the bottom of the taco list (that somehow weighs in at 490 calories) or the vegetarian burrito.

If Taco Bell, which is renowned for its unhealthiness, can produce a cheaper burrito that has better nutritional values, we can obviously do better.

Matt Bisanz is a graduate student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].