The J-TAC

Issue date: 9/18/08 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Katy Thompson Mr. Jim's Pizza offers a price and taste change from the other pizza places around Stephenville.

The Budget Gourmet is a new series of restaurant reviews designed with the college student in mind. Too busy to cook every meal at home, and getting tired of the same old ramen? We here at The J-TAC feel your pain, and are giving you an extra large dose of what you need: great dining tips around town.

This week's tip is for the self-concerning pizza lover who is tired of the $5 Pizza Mia, and longs to be able to eat all the pizza, dessert, drinks, and salad that they possibly can at the same price. Enter Mr. Jim's Pizza, which is now under new ownership. Mr. Jims now offers a lunch buffet consisting of all the finer things in pizzaplacedom for a mere $5.49, and if you have a valid TSU ID, they will even take 10% off your purchase, meaning goodbye small one topping pizza, hello full stomach.

Mr. Jim's new look is fun, they have an entire purple wall devoted to their Tarleton spirit, complete with a Texan Rider mural. The all new salad bar is well stocked with all of the typical salad niceties and complete with some rarities like banana peppers, potato salad, and even seasonal fruit. The pizza buffet is admittedly somewhat small, but is well stocked with premium pizzas. Upon our visit it was filled with a thin and a regular crust pepperoni, a Jimatarian, a Sticky Fingers (Mr. Jim's version of the supreme), a Meat Lovers, a hamburger and onion pizza, and a cheese pizza, as well as Jim Sticks and cheese Jim Sticks.

Additionally, if there is a pizza that you desire, they will cook it up for you so that it is hot and fresh for the buffet. The lunch buffet deal comes with a 16oz drink that can be upgraded to a 32oz drink for an additional fifty cents, and their drink stand offers the full Dublin Dr. Pepper line, including Triple X Root Beer, original formula Big Red, and imperial cane sugar Lemonade in addition to the standard Dr. Pepper and 7-Up. The desserts, probably the sweetest part of the deal, are cooked fresh each and every day and include homemade cobbler, cookies, and cinnamon sticks-all of which are far better than your average cooked under a heat lamp dessert faire at a pizza buffet.

Overall, this is by far the best pizza buffet in town for the price, and the service is both quick and eager to please. The Tarleton discount adds in to the value, and if you are not interested in eating in for lunch they also offer a one topping carry out special for $6.99 which makes a great dinner or study group snack. The new management is very eager to please with both pricing and an amiable atmosphere within the restaurant. The quality of ingredients is very high in comparison to many of the other pizza places in town, and the choices for free butter garlic and other crust upgrades make the pizza more customizable to unique tastes. As stated before, you can customize your very own pizza for the buffet and they will gladly make it for you.

Traditionally Mr. Jims has been easy to miss because of its location in the strip mall located across from HEB, but with their new large and colorful sign, it is less likely people will overlook the location of truly cheap top-notch pizza.

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