I've been exploring/exploiting the cafeterias at Google Campus for over 3 years. My friend landed a job at Google and immediately begin informing me of wonderful food offerings. Terry and I were going strong with jatbar so anything food related, I wanted to investigate. Google Campus was 4 blocks down the street from my old job at Microsoft and I never understood why it took Terry 3+ years for his first visit. I pleaded and begged him to go but, heard the same answer every time, "hell no".
My Google friend invited me for a visit to Charlie's and if I recall correctly, they were the only cafeteria at the time. I remember my friend telling me there were plans to add Slice Cafe and No Name Cafe later that year. It was hard to visit Google without any expectations. Ever since they had gone IPO in April 2004, Google was on top of the world in tech and business world. They started an aggressive hiring binge and publicized they were one of the few companies in the Bay Area to offer free food.
I knew Google had free food but what I didn't know was food was gourmet. My first meal consisted of organic string beans, seafood pasta, and crab cakes. I would price my meal at $10-12 and I didn't even spend a cent. It wasn't the best crab cake I had but I don't recollect my cafeteria ever offering anything this good. The refrigerator that housed all the drinks was stocked like a 7-11. They had almost every drink known to man! It was complete overload and I was guilty of indulging myself. I would take 2-3 drinks that I've never had, take a couple of sips and if I didn't like it, I'd dump it (I'm awful). I finally settled for Peach Snapple and bottle water. Overall, the meal rated an 8 for taste but a 10 for value.
After my wonderful meal, I headed back into the kitchen for dessert. I made myself an ice cream sandwich with fresh baked brownie cookies and vanilla ice cream. If you didn't fancy that, they had other options like fresh berries and ice cream, chocolate oatmeal cookies, and even had small trial sizes of Ben and Jerry's. My gawd, I wanted to quit Microsoft and apply. I was sold on the free food. At that glorious day in history, I made it a personal goal to eat at every single cafeteria Google had to offer.
Over the next 3+ years, I visited Google once every 2 months. I begged my Google friends to eat at multiple cafeterias with the mandatory raiding of the candy bins. The old snack bins looked like that candy store at the mall, you know that one with all the bins where you pick and choose which candies you want and get charged by the pound? Google had a mini setup in a number of the buildings where you can scoop all sorts of candy to your sweet tooth's delight.
Google continued to grow at an astronomical rate and needed to feed the legions of new employees. From 3-4 cafeterias, they grew to 18 cafeterias representing a good portion of world cuisines. We had trouble trying to organize 18 cafeterias on jatbar so we decided to make an entire Google section where you could see short reviews on each of the cafeterias.
---------------------------- Here's a typical lunch visit for me,
- I arrive around 1130'ish to beat the lunch rush. Parking used to suck but has gotten much better ever since they started to acquire more buildings in the area.
- I sign in at the front desk and reluctantly place the white visitor badge of shame
- plan for 2 cafeterias visits
- hit the cafeteria, grab a plastic tray, get into one of the lunch lines, pick and choose whatever I feel like eating. I try to order small portions so I can try many different types of dishes. After my meal, I'll grab 1-2 desserts.
- take plastic tray, separate the trash and food into recycling bins, return dishes
- on the way out, sneak a couple of snacks from the candy bins
- drive back to my work and slowly die inside because I don't have anything like Google food at my company ----------------------------
It's extremely hard for me to assign a group score for the entire campus so here's how I came up with my score.
Food - too many positive things to list. If you're craving a certain food, they probably have it somewhere on campus. It may not taste like your favorite hole in the wall joint but Google provides you with fresh, organic, and locally grown food. Some cafeterias are better than others, some are lousy, while most do outstanding. I'd rate the food between 8 and 9.
Value - a perfect 10. How the hell can you complain about free food?
Service - a perfect 10. With 20+ cafe visits, the kitchen crew has done a wonderful job in providing a clean atmosphere, no attitude, served with a smile, extremely professional. Restaurants in the area could learn a thing or two about the excellent service at Google.
Atmosphere - 8.5, I'm mixed on this. Charlie's cafeteria has the worst vibe for outside visitors. I get the dirtiest looks because I don't display the Google badge. They'll cut in front of me in line. It's not in my head as Google contractors/vendors can relate to the condescending look from full-timers. Go to the smaller cafeterias where they don't give you the stares.
Presentation - 9/9.5, the food always looks awesome. Dessert looks the best and gotta hand it to the pastry/dessert technicians to earn a jatbar blue ribbon for excellence.
Just like Google Search, Google's cafeteria has matured into a culinary powerhouse setting the benchmark for all to strive for. I don't think anyone comes close? Facebook maybe? For now, Google holds the crown in the bay area and possibly onto world domination. Rated 9.5.
To read more on the 18 cafeterias at Google, please click here or visit http://www.jatbar.com/google/
My review is just for Cafe 7. I will admit that I went to another (primarily carnivore) cafe and was not very impressed at all. So my entire score is riding on Cafe 7 alone. It rocked!
Awesome gourmet experience! Ultra-friendly chefs asked me how my day was going, with genuine interest. The vittles laid out was most impressive. I seriously wanted to sample everything. And all of it was irresistably good (and most was vegetarian, thankfully). Highlights were the fresh spinach, the delicious mussels, the certainly-not-good-for-you-but-amazing polenta, and the blueberry shortbread. I took an extra shortbread for the road (seriously hard to pass up) but I really wanted to take more of everything. Highlight was seeing a Google employee eating an entire stacked plate of the clams. Dang, serious amount of seafood! I would go back here in a heartbeat. The food was serious 9.5 territory (even if you do not include the free price).
“sooooo you work at google huh...haha, we should talk”
6/10/2008 12:17:50 PM
Phuc ate...
“5ive, Basic Deli, and OTG are less than a two minute walk from each other, so we always make our rounds. 5ive has the best desserts on campus, basic deli does not have a big selection, but we can always rely on good food, OTG = lil adventurous”
6/9/2008 8:11:28 PM
Jason ate...
I posted ways to get in
“visit www.jatbar.com/google/”
6/9/2008 6:18:18 PM
chowboy ate...
What dish did you eat?
“What did you think?
Are all of the Google restaurants open to the public? Are there any restrictions?
Chowboy”
