Going to visit DS and need a good restaurant recommendation. He is eating a lot of breakfast food & pizza.

In Alamance Crossings, there is Mimi's Cafe - they have a good selection of everything. -they are right off 85.

Is your son in college near Burlington? Where? I will ask my DD about restaurants, since she seems to have spent a lot of money eating at every one of them.

He's at Elon- When we go to family weekend I would like to find a nice place to take him. We are staying at the Grandover in Greensboro (nothing closer avaiable) - with dh, ds, and the gps.

My dtr is a sophomore at Elon - and here are her suggestions

She also like Mimis - I have eaten there for breakfast and lunch as well - nice, reasonably priced

Village Grill - American some Italian. More limited menu, but she says qaulity is good and likes that everything comes with a salad with great dressing

Red Bowl - Chinese but better than usual local place. I have also eaten there. Nice atmosphere, but busy. When I was there seemed to be a mix of student types and real people

LaFiesta - she describes as cheap but real Mexican food. I am not sure how she knows what real Mexican food is, since and the only Mexico she has been to is 4 hours in Tijuana where I refused to let her eat anything.

So if you go armed with these recommendations you will sound informed and might even impress him. There is also every chain restaurant you might imagine - many at Alamance Crossing Mall. I find a gift card to Chilis makes a nice gift since they do Curbside-to-Go so if he has a car does not have to actually eat at a restaurant.

As far as breakfast food and pizza diet - seems to be a guy thing at college (I am assuming he is a freshman) at first - a situation created by the desire to get as many calories from familiar foods with as little effort as possible. My son did the same thing. It gets old after a while. Soon he will figure out that Elon has a wide variety of food offerings if he searches a bit from his usual dining hall.

Avoid the school-sponsored food events for Parents' Weekend - soggy subs mainly. I also suggest you take him to a supermarket (Harris Tweeter in Burlington is my favorite) and show him that you can buy prepared food and healthy items in a supermarket to supplement a meal plan.

If you need any other Elon suggestions, let me know. And make a reservation in Burlington now for drop-off weekend next year, Parents Weekend next year (many parents of sophomores and older do not go, but you can always cancel it) - every place fills up fast.

Great suggestions, thank you so much.
He doesn't have his car yet but, for now, he seems comfortable taking the shuttle to the strip malls with his buddies on the weekend-too busy during the week.
We experienced the soggy subs and will avoid that next year.
Where have you stayed? We usually try to stay at the Hampton Inn & Suites but I have heard that there are some nice B&Bs around Elon.

We always end up at the Best Western - just because when we were there for a pre-orientation thing in early spring after she was accepted we by chance met some other parents of girls and all hit it off - we now have our own little group that stays there on weekends such as this. I have also heard about some nice B&Bs, but familiarity seems to win out for us.

My dtr did not have a car until this year - and according to her I was the only mean parent who did not let their kid have a car. I wonder if they know each other - but my dtr already thinks it is sketchy that I am talking about Elon on-line with a stranger (she is a sophomore majoring in International something and Spanish and lives on-campus at Daniely) - now she will think this is even sketchier if I tell her I revealed this much.

I won't tell DS, he would feel the same way. That's good, i guess, since we have spent so many hours cautioning him about the internet, myspace, facebook, etc...
DS is unsure of his major, maybe pre-health, & lives over in North area but it's a fairly small school so eventually they may meet each other.

The Cutting Board. It's near the outlets. Not super fancy but a nicer than the normal college student diet.

gail & ncgirl,
thanks so much. it is great to get personal recommendations!