the GOOGLE company /employee cafeteria

[MarkG]

I have heard it is perhaps the best facility of its kind in the country. have you eaten there?? what is served?? how do you rate the food??

[danielmaung]

Michael Bauer's blog on some of the google cafes:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/s...

[Robert Lauriston]

To me, the main international food court and other dining facilities I visited felt like a well-funded suburban college. Sterile and safe, not actively unattractive. Very clean.

The food was a mixed bag. Some of the Indian stuff was good. Too bad for me my handler / escort wasn't more of a foodie, I would have liked to try Nate Keller's Cafe 150.

[Earl Grey]

The thing you don't tend to hear is how unattractive and makeshift the environment at Google is. The food is great and the cooking is good but the atmosphere is one short step above eating in your cubicle from the 5 eating spots I saw.
It was a lot less of a crowd, but eating at the Esprit corporate cafe in the 1980s (not Cafe Esprit at the outlet, but the employee cafe) was tops on all accounts.

[Senor Popusa]

There is an excellent Spanish tapas inspired (and small plates) style cafe, called Pinxto that serves risottos, paellas, composed vegetable dishes. Whenever I have been taken there, they always have several varieties of cheese, including excellent ones such as St. Andres and La Tur.

[denochow]

I heard a rumor last year that Olivia Wu, from the San Francisco Chronicle, signed on at GOOGLE. There is nary a better authority on Chinese Cuisine around. I also understand she is a tremendous cook. If all this is true there is some quality, there, in that kitchen.

[Melanie Wong]

Here's a mention of Olivia Wu in Google's Oasis cafeteria in the Fortune Cookie Chronicles blog, http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.co...

Ms. Wu did some private catering while still at the SFChron. I tried some of her cooking a couple years ago.

[MSK]

I don't know.................. the similar facility at LucasFilm/ILM in the Presidio might give it a run for that title. I don't work there but have visited and it's awesome!

It was set up by the guy who used to own Bubba's in San Anselmo years back.

[manraysky]

Yeah, it's pretty great! I used to work for Steve when he ran the Lucasfilm cafeteria at Skywalker (post-Bubbas, pre-Presidio), and he's terrific. I don't work there now, but I get to eat there sometimes, and it's such a treat.

[Humbucker]

One of the former chefs at Google is supposed to be opening up a restaurant in the Palo Alto Town & Country Village.

[walker]

He's written a cookbook; I saw it at Barnes & Noble.

[Ruth Lafler]

There's no such thing as the Google company cafeteria. There are numerous (seven last I heard -- but that was a while ago, so I'm sure there are more now -- according to this article, there were 11, with five more in the works, a year ago: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...) eating places on the Google campus, each of which serves different kinds of offerings. They range widely from standard (but high quality) cafeteria fare, to places the specialize in Asian cuisine, places that specialize in California cuisine, and even a place that specializes in locavore (things grown/produced within 150 miles) cuisine. The quality is very good, both the ingredients (organic, etc.) and the preparation (some of the chefs at Google had highly regarded local restaurants). They also have special dinners that are not free (as the regular meals are), but are reasonably priced. If you do a search for google, there are some reports.

I have no doubt it's the finest of its kind. There may be some corporate executive dining rooms that are equal in quality, but nowhere that's open to all employees and is FREE.

[Melanie Wong]

Here's a thread from last year on the topic, http://www.chowhound.com/topics/387604