West Orchards Canteen Launch

On the 24th of March, West Orchards are opening their brand new, revamped Canteen. To celebrate this West Orchards invited myself and two friends to a special Launch Event. This event was a free tasting session of the wide range of food available in the brand new Canteen. It was a private event held in The Loft, with butlers and a photographer (Rhys Boyle Visuals) hired for the launch. When I received my invite, excited is an understatement! I had never attended a private launch event before and everything that West Orchards had organised sounded amazing.

On the day of the event myself, Natasha and Jes met up, wondering what to expect. On arrival we were greeted by super friendly butlers who showed us to our table and gave us special student menus to select anything we wanted. The options included: McDonald’s, Subway, KFC and the brand new stall Chopstix. Natasha went for McDonald’s, Jes went for KFC and I jumped at the chance to try food from Chopstix. Being gluten-free I am often concerned about ordering food from places I have not eaten before, however, the butlers were so helpful going and finding out the allergen information on my behalf and the stands had lots of gluten-free options to choose from! There were two other tables of students who had also been invited to the launch, which created a fun atmosphere with music playing in the background. As this event was in The Loft there were not lots of people walking past us whilst we enjoyed our food, which gave it a much more relaxed and intimate atmosphere.

Our meals arrived quickly, despite the event being at 1pm when the food stalls were pretty busy. This is great as it would allow you to grab food when you are in a rush and being inside West Orchards makes all the food stalls really accessible and convenient. From Chopstix I chose a medium box with egg fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and prawn crackers. The portion sizes are generous and I only just managed to finish mine (with a little help from the other girls). The food was full of flavour and was not greasy (especially compared to some Chinese Take-Aways). Both Natasha and Jes really enjoyed their food as well. All of us agreed that we should use the Canteen in West Orchards much more in the future to benefit from the low prices suitable for university students, and as the Canteen is so central it is a convenient way to grab a quick meal.

Overall, the launch event was so much fun and having our photographs taken and butlers coming over to make sure we had everything we wanted was amazing. I have to say a huge thank you to West Orchards for organising this great event and letting us experience their brand new Canteen before the official launch in 3 days! Once it is open make sure you head over and try out some new food, I would definitely recommend giving Chopstix a go!