The one caveat for working in building 50. Really really bad food.
The cafeteria blows. It really does. I’m not saying they don’t have days where the food tastes good and is a good value. What I am saying however is that it’s just totally hit or miss. I’m pretty sure the B50 cafeteria at Microsoft is one of the few that can actually mess up a salad bar and sandwich.
As an example the other day I went to get a sandwich that I order pretty much every day, how in the world does the lady get tomato from green pepper or mayo from dijon mustard!? A day before that I went to get some salad, problem was, it was all half frozen and the chicken strips tasted like plastic. I typically walk by the pizza because you can literally see pools of oil sitting ontop of the cheese as the pizza warms under the lamps. Then there’s the grill, about the only thing that usually goes right. Problem is that the lines are ridiculously long so you stand there for 15 minutes waiting for your burger. Vegetarian options are extremely limited as well. Typically there might be some soup, and maybe one tofu dish. Today there was a tomato soup. Yay, not. In fact while we’re at it, lets look at the menu for today:
Breakfast
BC Breakfast Quesadilla $2.25 Banana Berry Smoothie
Fresh Bananas and Strawberries Blended with Yogurt and Honey Protein Powder is Optional$3.00 Soups of the Day Old Fashioned Tomato (Vegetarian) 1.95/2.60/3.05 Clam Chowder 1.95/2.60/3.05 Wild Greens BC Baked Potato $1.65 Pizza Roasted Chicken, Sun Dried Tomato & Smoked Gouda
Savory pizza topped with roasted chicken, sun dried tomatoes and gouda cheese$1.90 Julienne Vegetable and Sun dried Tomato
Italian Marinated Vegetables with Tangy Sun dried Tomatoes and a blend of cheeses$3.50 Deli BC Santa Fe Chicken Pita $4.75 Entrée Swedish Meatballs over Egg Noodles Served with a Side and a Roll $4.25 Grill Beer Battered Fish and Chips
Beer Battered Cod Filets, Served with French Fries$5.35
Eurest the food service provider typically tries and come up with some fancy menu but more often than not can’t get even the most basic dishes right. Any steamed or seasoned veg is usually dry and plain or soggy and the flavor is over bearing. It’s just a total mess. Dom has said it was better when Microsoft subsidized the cost. I’d like to think so, since Eurest sure loves charging me $5.70 for a sandwich one day then $4.90 for the same exact thing the very next.
So sometimes I’ll go out, problem is that B50 has next to nothing within walking distance, save a teriyaki and I think there’s a deli up near that as well. That leaves driving. So you consume gas, take 20 minutes to get there and get back, the food is always better, most of the time cheaper, and overall more satisfying.
At this point though I honestly feel like my best option are the 3 for $8/9 Lean Cuisine meals that I get and can bring into work. Even they taste better, and they actually save me money, I get my food no matter what in under 8 minutes and it’s a good size portion and I don’t feel like crap after I eat it.
I know I’m not the only one, it’s practically a running joke with people here in 50. I’m just amazed Eurest hasn’t been thrown out with their bad food.
And finally for a company that has somewhere around $30 billion in cash laying around you’d think that Microsoft would be able to get lunch right.
