San Francisco General Hospital Cafeteria

I had a beef stew for $ 3.50 and noodles for .75 cents today it was good, cheap and delicious with Cream of Mushroom soup for $ 1.95, awesome!

So they closed the grill, and made a salad spot. How healthy! The salads are pretty worth it. Hefty portions and there is a different salad Monday-​Thursday.
Tuesday taco salads are the best thing here, and the asian beef salad a close second.

A unique location that provides a good cheap breakfast for the hospital employees, interns, and visitors. Eggs, bacon, and potatoes are common menu items during breakfast, but every-​so-​often there are biscuits and gravy that cause the line to extend into the hallway. For breakfast, it is best to come before 9 am or risk super empty food trays. As for lunch/​dinner, it is mediocre expensive food. Unfortunately, all meals are charged per item, which may cause your food bill to increase.
As for the environment, there is a huge window/​patio area for you to look out into the city. The inside provides a never stagnant environment. The past week, I’ve seen: a dog, a woman singing to her baby, medical students and doctors talking generically about their cases, loud discussions about the Warriors (go dubs!), and a man using his phone while it charges from the ceiling.

The workers don’t know anything about their cafeteria. I went there one day hoping for a hamburger but the grill was closed and it looked like the whole cafeteria was closing. I asked the cashier if she knew what the grill hours are or if she knew what the cafeteria hours are. She told me the grill is open «when someone is there» and she doesn’t know the cafeteria hours are. I looked all over the cafeteria and found no posting of hours.
A second time I went there hoping for a burger. I found the hours on the website and went 30 min. after dinner started. The grill was closed and there were no cashiers. I asked a worker if he knew what the grill hours were and the worker told me the grill was closed. I know the grill is closed. There is a giant «Grill Closed» sign. What are the hours?! The worker told me to ask the cashier. I left and used the vending machine.
Please post the Grill’s hours somewhere.

Located on the second floor of the hospital, food is actually healthy here unlike many hospital cafeterias. There is a large selection of apples oranges and bananas. Sandwiches and salads to go are also always on the menu. The staff is friendly and give large portions. They are open on 4^th of july and serves some good salmon. Inside and outside seating are relatively clean.

Every week they try to include a few ethnic foods to keep things interesting and serve their diverse community.
They are also making an effort to make things healthier – they’ve replaced white rice with brown. They often have quinoa, two steamed veggies, pre-​made salads and tons of fresh fruit
They could do with a little more variety (no greek yogurt, no nuts, etc) and the place itself is scuzzy. But it’ll do in a pinch

Because salad day is good, I’ll give it two stars and I’m solid with the oatmeal in the morning. But today I realized the soup couldn’t get any worse. I have a jar of «good» vegetable bouillion’ in my snack drawer so I can make it taste better than dish water. But today, not only did the celery soup taste like dish water, but it was luke-​warm dish water. I’m putting in for Workman’s Disibility…

It’s hospital food… what do you expect? If you’re expecting something nicely made and 5 star quality… then go to a 5 star or whatever star place to eat. Hospital food isn’t known to be delicious, especially when it’s a city owned hospital. I rather them focus more on patient care than the food. With that said, the food here is edible. I’ve had worse before. Yes, it’s tiny. Yes, the selection is limited. Yes, it’s dated. But I haven’t gotten food poisoning from eating here… and I much rather prefer that than eating somewhere really delicious and then sitting on the toilet an hour later regretting my decision. Hopefully everything will improve when they move on over to the new hospital… but quit complaining and walk across the street for food if you want something else.

Good breakfast!

Ok, I’ve been eating here on a regular basis for the past 3 years. While there have been some better times (sushi day, jamba juice, odwallas) it is possible to get decent food here, plus there are some other aspects of the this place (see below) that are really great.
Breakfast is solid. Usually some egg dish and potatoes w/​lots of chulula will leave me quite content. There is also a cereal option (I recommend the bran flakes w/​banana). Coffee is too hot but acceptable. Lunch has the most options, although I usually opt for a salad because the cafeteria options are usually bland, although they are generally pretty healthy. Dinner is definitely the worst time. You can have whatever packaged food wasn’t taken at lunch or eat at the slow and unhealthy grill. One tip I have is, if you’re like me and love hospital ice, the water machine has this but the soda machine doesn’t.
Some other great things about this place are that it is a community space. People come here to socialize, there are cultural events occasionally (Chinese new year is my favorite) and there is actually a CSA here every Friday. (Also, don’t miss the wellness center across the hall, with free and varied physical activities throughout the day, open to the public!!!). Lastly, SFGH has had progressive waste disposal for longer than most place and I gotta tip my hat to them for that. You can have a meal there that normally would create a half a pound of waste, but because of the ease of recycling and composting, you end up throwing out only a potato chip bag.
Overall, I am a fan. The food could be better but this place has a lot to offer. Enjoy!

It’s terrible. I was warned by a couple classmates before coming here to be sure to bring my lunch so I don’t have to resort to the cafeteria food here. Well, one day I didn’t have time to make my lunch. I was hungry. I decided, how bad could it be?
It was a horrible mistake that I will never make again. Selection here is so measly, and the food is just not very good. I know it’s a stereotype for hospital food to be bad, but really, shouldn’t they be trying to put in A LITTLE effort to rise above that expectation?
Still, I give it a 2 stars, and not 1 stars, because it … exists? So at least there’s an option to eat something here, and they list the calories for the foods.

Of all the hospital cafeterias that I’ve been to, this one is the worst. The selection of food is limited at best and the prices are pretty high for the portion size. But they do have plenty of coffee which helps. And the dining area is enormous.

This is the place you eat at if you get desperate for food at the hospital.
It’s a REALLY small cafeteria. This is the small selection they have:
1. hot food section — plate of the day, soup. etc
2. grill — turkey burgers, burgers, chicken burgers, fries, onion rings
3. fridge with some salads, yogurt, cold sandwiches. The vegetarian options are hidden in here!
4. super coke soda machine with all the flavors
5. bfast section that stays out all day: coffee, muffins, cereal etc.
prices are okay. I’ve had a burger = $ 5 chips $ 1.10 small soda $ 1.
The food isn’t too spectacular at all. Selection is horrible. But when you’re in a time crunch and hungry you gotta do what you gotta do.
The staff feels like robots serving you food. or well throwing it at you sort of.
VISA/​MC/​Cash only. No amex.

First of all, it is a good place to get away from the depressing halls and units. It has
a nice view of Bernal Heights and has an outdoor seating area for fresh air and sun. As for the food, I enjoy many of the healthy choices that were not available until recently. I miss the salad bar however and don’t like the pre made salads they offer.
It could be better and it could be worse. For a budget strapped food venue, it offers
a nice changing menu and healthy food options.

I will take four vicodin, a cheeseburger and coke.
This is a prime spot to chat up all the nurses on break for a few bucks.

The past year has brought me to SFGH quite often (thankfully, more as a guest than as patient) which means I have had quite a few meals in the cafeteria here. The quality of the food is pretty much hit or miss… If I am going to order one of the hot meals, I’ve learned to see which chafing dish has the most food in it, indicating that it has been sitting under the heat lamp for less time and is less likely to be dried out. The grill isn’t too bad, but the hamburgers are of the bulk-​frozen variety… not horrible… I buy them myself for home use, but the prices they charge seems a bit much for a frozen burger.
As for the staff… I have found the servers to be pretty much indifferent automatons and the cashiers rude and totally unhelpful.

Good lawd this place blows. I’ve given it several chances yet it never fails to disappoint me. Veggie burger.yuck. Salmon and mashed potatoes. blah. Fried rice and egg roll. didn’t finish it. You get the point.
In a hospital environment where health is essentially a reigning theme, you would think the food would represent. Nah.
Pop over to Café Nightingales which is directly across from the cafeteria for food. Then return to the cafeteria dining hall for some great entertainment. You’ll get a ‘spice of life’ for sure.

If I could give this place a negative number I would. I was at General this week, for a test. Afterward, I figured I’d grab a quick lunch, since I was starving. Imagine my shock when the menu listed Clam Chowder, and the nutritional information provided on the menu indicated that had 1510 mg of sodium. I’ll say that again:
1500 mg of sodium, in one bowl of soup… in a hospital cafeteria. In general, it is recommended that one limit their sodium intake to 2300 mg per day. This bowl of Clam Chowder contains almost half that.
In a City who pushes for healthy eating, by requiring restaurants to post nutritional data, who bans soda and other junk food from it’s schools,
this is beyond unacceptable.
Stay away for the good of your health.

Do not get any cooked items here!!! The cooks here have magical powers to sneak in weird bacteria into your food until you are so sick that you must go to their E.R. Thinking that most of the cooks are Chinese, I thought that they should at least know how to cook Chinese food. NOOOoooo… it was the worst Chinese food I’ve ever had. Being Chinese, I can say that it really was not Chinese food. The only safe items from this cafeteria are bottled water and bottled Gatorade, but make sure that homeless guy in front of you did not open them in an attempt to find something to flush down his anti-​psychotic meds. I think even their pre-​packaged yogurts have more bacterial load than everyone else’s. I swear, S.F.G.H. put this cafeteria in to get more business for their E.R. downstairs.
1 star off: grill line is really slow
1 star off: salad bar looks like it was from last year
1 star off: I didn’t know anyone can mess up plain pasta
1 star off: could the homeless guy in front of me move any slower!!!

You should be cleared for a prescrpition for the fried chicken. Granted its only on the menu once every two weeks, but damn. Its good. Its super crunchy, the skin almost like chicharonne, and a hint sweet. Totally worth the ill health effects. I mean whats the worst that can happen — you’re in a hospital.
The steamed rice is not my favorite. I like my rice to smell good and this smells like nothing.
It is however OK when paired with the hearty chicken gumbo.
The veggies are usually over cooked and watery I dont know if they do that on purpose.
The breakfast line is cheap and ok. But I usually go for the fruit on the bottom yogurt cups or a boiled egg. They have toast, pastries, fruit.
At dinner (you see I work long hours) they have the grill open and you can get fries and burgers. They’re OK but the burgers are precooked and heated up.
It’s a cafeteria but I’m glad they put the caloric info on the menu for you to see while you’re in line. The seating is ok — there’s an outside screened-​off from pigeons area which is closed at dinner — boo — and the cafeteria is bright and carpeted.
They charge you for utensils if you don’t buy the food. Maybe if I find something else spectacular on the menu it’ll get 3 stars, but that chicken is no joke.