If you’re looking for a new local restaurant, Hallpass might be the right place for you! Hallpass, located in the Gateway at 153 Rio Grande Street, has eight different restaurants: SkinnyFATS, Blaze of Thunder, Beer Zombies Draft Room, CodSpeed, Raining Ramen, Waffadopolis, Graffiti Bao, and Colossal Lobster, all in the same space. It‘s similar to a mall food court, but with more up-scale food, cool wall murals, and creative seating.

Hallpass is open from 11AM – 2PM and 5PM – 10PM on Mondays to Thursday, 10AM – 11PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and 11AM – 10PM on Sundays. They also have a dessert bar, which opens at 5PM on Fridays and Saturdays. You can order and have it delivered to your door at order.hallpassslc.com, or simply visit in person. We went there to learn how it works and try out some of the food. We tried a variety of food from Graffiti Bao, the Glaze of Thunder, and SkinnyFats. There’s a large assortment of items on the menus, with over twenty items from every restaurant.

It didn’t take very long for our food to arrive after we ordered. Andrea Ramos shared her review: “I got these chicken bao buns [from Graffiti Bao]. They‘re really good- they come with two different sauces, pickles, and spicy salsa sauce. The spicy sauce is good and very sticky. They‘re pretty sweet, [and] they taste nice. The color I associate the taste of this with is orange, because it’s savory on the inside, but on the outside it’s kind of warm and sweet. Also, another thing I’d like to add is that the dough is quite thick and I like that.”

The Katsu Rice Bowl from Graffiti Bao was great. It included little mushrooms, which were very good, fabulous chicken, and delicious corn. It also came with some red cabbage and spinach, which wasn’t as good. Overall, I highly recommend it.

Isabella Rodriguez, who came with us, got a spicy chicken sandwich from the Blaze of Thunder. “There are, I believe, four different levels of spices you can get. One is pretty low, and on the final one you have to sign a waiver. I got the one just before that, which is called “Too Fast,” and three bites in, I’m feeling it. It’s really good, but it’s also torture. But if you like spice, it’s great torture. I also got the Mac and Cheese, which is pretty good. It does help calm down the spice a little bit, so that’s nice. For people who enjoy spicy food, this section is a go-to.” Isabella added after she finished: “This has got me sneezing and crying.”

The T.A.T.S. sandwich from SkinnyFats contained turkey bacon, avocado, tomato, spinach, and spicy yo (mayonnaise). As a side, there were three different options: regular fries, truffle fries, and sweet potato fries. I got regular fries, which were pretty good and crunchy, and came with fry sauce. The sandwich was also pretty good. There was a cute smiley toothpick holding the sandwiches together. The bread was fried, which was pretty nice. The turkey bacon was really good, the avocado was soft, the tomato was sweet, and the spicy mayo was really spicy. I also got a free jumbo M&M cookie with my order, which was very good.

In addition to the many menu items, there’s also a wide variety of drinks. They offer drinks on the restaurant menus, but there’s also a separate drink bar with unlimited refills. The drinks were kind of expensive for basic sodas. We got the orange, lemon-lime, black cherry, and cream soda. Overall, the drinks were okay, but the food was better.

We all loved the atmosphere of Hallpass; the place looked really fancy both inside and outside. It had amazing wall art and really cool tables that looked like wood slabs. There were a couple televisions playing sports or news. The restaurant also seemed very environmentally-friendly. The straws looked to be recycled or plant-based, and the utensils used as little plastic as possible.

When we finished, we rated Hallpass. On average, our ratings were 4.5 out of 5 stars. The food was very appetizing, not super expensive, and the atmosphere was amazing. We especially liked the amount of food choices and the food’s quality. In general, we enjoyed Hallpass. It’s definitely a place worth revisiting.

Ratings (all out of 5):

Overall:

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

Food:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pricing:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Atmosphere:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐