Review of my corporate cafeteria

[yesthattom]

Google Cafeteria review

Today we got invited to lunch at Google HQs here in New York. If quality of cafeterias is any reliable marker of the future of an industry, print media’s days are numbered. Even New York Magazine goes gaga over Google’s eats. Google’s cafeteria beats out Conde Nast’s (its closest corporate caff rival) in nearly all regards. Certainly in the areas of varied cuisine and responsible sustainable praxis, Google is vastly superior. Oh yeah, and you don’t have to pay. It’s free! It’s like somebody opened up a Whole Foods then said, “Come and get it, chilluns. It’s all yours.”

As much as I’d imagine the cafeteria would be a mad house, the scene on the 8th floor caff was tranquil, placid, utopian. Upon entering one passes a whole wall of soda cases stocked full with Martinelli’s, Olde Brooklyn Sodas, Water, Coke, Diet Coke. From there, you walk up a few steps that opens into an expansive mile-long buffet. I felt just like I did when I got to Space Camp (as I’m sure many Google staffers did): complete dorkbot awe. There’s a salad bar: walnuts, wasabi peas, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, portobello mushrooms. A grill station, a motherfuckin’ ceviche bar, (c’mon really, that is ridiculous), a table with East Vietnamese food, a Turkish buffet. A Soul Food stand called Home. An organic raw bar. Towards the end of the strip, the sweet station holds untold hillsides of blueberries, blackberries and strawberries, fresh whipped cream, mini cream puffs and banana caramel tarts.

Me? I settled for rosemary chicken breast with a white wine sauce, Hamachi tuna ceviche, a salad with walnuts, cranberries and carrots, Vietnamese beef patties, two slices of angel food cake, a banana caramel tart and two Brooklyn root beers. Safe to say, as I write this, I feel sick to my stomach. But mixed with that indigestion is a feeling of honor and pride. Not many mere mortals get to glimpse heaven.

Click the link for pictures.

Comments

[dpfesh.livejournal.com]

What in the world is a motherfuckin’ ceviche bar? I've never heard of ceviche - it sounds scary..

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Heh. I've been to a kvetch bar lots of times.

[la-directora.livejournal.com]

Oh, no. Ceviche is YUMMY. It's a cold seafood salad, usually served in Mexico or other parts of Latin America, which involves lots of fresh seafood and citrus juice. The village I go to in Mexico for New Year's has several residents who make bit batches of tuna ceviche for the New Year's party. It is one of the few things that makes me break my vegetarian vows and let a bit of seafood back into my life. If I worked at a company with a fresh ceviche bar in the cafeteria, and it were FREE, I'd be in great danger of no longer being able to call myself a vegetarian at all.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Mexican? I thought is was from Peru and thereabouts, which is probably further from Mexico than Ottowa is.

[la-directora.livejournal.com]

I didn't say it was from Mexico. I said it was served in Mexico, as well as other parts of Latin America. Given the number of times I have had it served to me in Mexico, I can guarantee you it is, in fact, served in Mexico. :)

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceviche), the dish originated in Peru, but is now popular throughout Central and South America, and, indeed, Mexico.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Coolness :-)

wow

[cthulhia]

if they find that impressive, they'd probably just pass out in awe at the "cafeteria" at Google in (mountain view?)

the NYC cafeteria looks like the kitchenettes they had on every floor of the Google Campus.

(And yes, the bathrooms are interesting too, sure...)

[sexy-susie.livejournal.com]

Wow. That sounds amazing!

[okelle.livejournal.com]

And free? I'm trying not to die of jealousy.

[la-directora.livejournal.com]

The flip side of that is my theory that whenever a company offers a very attractive service for free in the company's building, the subtle message is, "We don't want you to ever leave." :) The money they pay to run the cafeteria is probably MORE than recouped by productivity gained by fewer employees leaving the building for an actual lunch hour. A really high quality, free cafeterian in the building means more people returning to their desks to work with their lunches in tow.