I had to snicker at the line about asking the college students where they eat. Of course we would. After all, your student isn’t going to dine at the celebrated four-star restaurants … they will want to know the best pizza/tacos/burgers at the lowest prices. And the 24-hour restaurant with the best coffee for when you want to pull all-night study sessions with your classmates.
I have a high-school freshman so we haven’t started official college visits yet, but she has had the opportunity to be on various campuses for one reason or another (including a couple of times when we stopped top in a college town for lunch on our way somewhere else), and we try to at least get information and feel for the campus. It’s already helped her add and subtract schools as possibilities.