If you don't live or work in a walkable area, or that otherwise makes up for this somehow, this won't sound that awful to you. As a native Texan, this sort of thing didn't sound that bad to me in general. But once you work somewhere where a 5 minute WALK will net you two dozen food options, it's a big shift in your quality of life, as far as work lunch goes.

It takes me about 5 minutes to walk from my desk to my car. Then another 5-15 minutes to drive for food. Then a minute or two parking and walking to the restaurant - if I'm lucky. If I wanted to go somewhere popular during the lunch rush, or that has shitty parking, maybe that's 5-10 minutes finding a parking spot and walking.

It doesn't seem like a huge deal, but it really can be.

I think the issue is with being forced to drive instead of just being able to walk.

walk to the car, drive 5 min, find parking. same in reverse. at least 30-40 min wasted. esp during the winter.

i hate commuting to downtown toronto, but it is hard to beat the Path, abundance of pubs/restaurants and constantly bumping into people i used to work with (aka stay in the loop). there is no fricking loop in mississauga.