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_With all the options students have for food around campus, it can be a bit daunting to choose. So often, we — especially commuter students — flock to restaurants we’ve known our whole lives, restaurants we know are safe, instead of swiping our hard-earned Bearcat Cards at a place that just might be better.

With the dining diversity Clifton has to offer, the decisions are almost endless. Do you want a sandwich delivered to you on a bike at 3 a.m.? Clifton can do that. Feel the need to eat your body weight in chicken masala for eight bucks? Clifton has you covered.

For this installment, we’ll be focusing on Chinese food. We’ll be comparing three local Chinese food shops: Red Pepper, King Wok, and China Food. Our decisions are based on simple criteria to help you make the best decision for your money.

Menu Diversity

KING WOK:
Along with the standard, strip mall Chinese fare, King Wok also offers a variety of fresh seafood (swimming in tanks in the dining room, no less).

RED PEPPER:
Red Pepper offers up Chinese food staples along with more secretive menu options. Adventurous eaters should try the Spicy Beef Bowl or Szechuan Green Beans. Not so adventurous eaters should stick with the Beef Fried Rice.

CHINA FOOD:
Despite all of the colorful, poorly constructed signs taped to the walls offering up seemingly endless combinations, China Food does not do much when it comes to diversity and tends to stick with generic Chinese food Americans know.

Accessibility

KING WOK:
KING WOK:
Even though King Wok and Red Pepper are located across the street from each other and stare each other down like two prize fighters, King Wok’s small, limited parking space — that they share with Mac’s — warrants the two star rating.

CHINA FOOD:
China Food has an enormous parking lot available to its patrons with ample parking day or night.

RED PEPPER:
Good luck.

Egg Rolls

KING WOK:
Face it, the best part of getting Chinese take out are the crispy, greasy egg rolls smeared with syrupy duck sauce. King Wok’s crispy, greasy egg rolls were easily the best and come with house-made sauce.

RED PEPPER:
You can tell instantly that Red Pepper’s egg rolls are homemade, and it shows in taste. They also offer chicken, pork or shrimp spring rolls for a lighter option.

CHINA FOOD:
China Food’s egg rolls are pre-made and frozen with little to no meat inside. Also, both times I tried them, they left a weird film in my mouth afterward.

Taste

KING WOK:
King Wok delivered the freshest, most flavorful food in the taste category. Just-right portions and seasonality played a big factor in them taking the top spot.
RED PEPPER:
The food at Red Pepper came close to taking the top spot but the heavy-handed salt and corn starch combo sometimes left us wanting another Tsingtao instead of more Lo Mein.

CHINA FOOD:
There is a certain old-fryer-oil taste that goes along with most of the food at China Food. If you can get passed that then it’s pretty good.

Price vs. Value

RED PEPPER:
Red Pepper was not the cheapest on our list but the daily lunch and dinner specials combine for the best value of the three.

CHINA FOOD:
I error on the side of more, low quality Chinese food as opposed to less, high quality Chinese food for the same amount of money.

KING WOK:
This is the less, high quality Chinese food I was referring to.

Delivery

CHINA FOOD:
When they say ten minutes, they mean ten minutes.

RED PEPPER:
They mean somewhere in the ballpark of ten to twenty five.

KING WOK:
As long as it shows up sometime that night, consider it a success.

Have a suggestion for out next installment of food wars? Send it to us at newsrecord.living@gmail.com and Pete will get it done, or give himself food poisoning trying.