The Atrium Cafe

The Atrium Café is pretty cool cafeteria that is open to the public but tucked away in 1 Financial Place, it feels like you aren’t suppose to be eating there if you don’t work in the building… especially with the security guard that is usually posted right outside the door.
They have the staple stations that you would expect. Salad bar is always fresh. The grill is fast and I usually get the veggie burger, which I haven’t been able to find another place in the area that offers one. They have a sandwich station and entrée station too. Usually a couple different types of pizza pies to choose from. Prices are decent, on par with every other option in the area and the staff is quite friendly.
I just learned that the Atrium Café is closed as of last Friday, or at least changing ownership and that some of the staff don’t even know if they’re going to have jobs. =(

The Atrium Café is open to the public, but is also quite hidden within 1 Financial Place, so I always feel like I’m raiding another company’s cafeteria.
The self-​service, pay-​by-​weight salad bar is worth it, though. Probably the best in the area. Good quality veggies (for a salad bar), olive oil and lemon juice for dressings, and they always have 5 – 6 special dishes that you can heap in your container, like roasted veggies, antipasto, and, on one particularly exciting day, cold baked salmon! They also slightly cook their broccoli, which is awesome.
The only downside is the lack of variety in salad bar protein (grilled chicken is the mainstay).
There’s sandwiches, hot entrees, soups, and other standard lunch fare too, but I always go to the salad bar.
The seating area, again, feels like a stuffy company cafeteria, but since it’s not my company, I don’t mind it. It’s usually quiet and there’s always a table.

I don’t know if you’ve ever worked at a place that has a corporate cafeteria (subsidized, preferably), but if you haven’t and you feel you’re missing out, you should come on down to the Atrium Café, or as we refer to it at my workplace, ‘Corporate Café’. Walk right into the big corporate glass lobby next to the Citizens Bank at the exit from the T, take the escalator up, and follow the corridor in a little ways, and there you are.
The salad bar is fresh and good, filled with tantalizing taste treats, but I can never get out of there with a decent salad for less than $ 10. I think my lightest salad ever was $ 6.50. They have a hot-​lunch counter (several steps up from high school or most colleges, thank you) that does daily specials and sandwiches, and there are soups and desserts as you work your way toward the cashiers and the inevitable weigh-​out.
The bargain here, folks, is the grill. My man behind the grill can serve you up a good-​sized turkey burger with lettuce, tomato, and cheese for the bargain price of $ 4. If you in a moment of weakness get the fries, it skyrockets to $ 6. The key is that the grill guy is super nice, and he’ll throw anything on the burger that you ask– on nacho day, I had him put queso and chiles on it. On buffalo wing day, he hit it up with buffalo sauce. You get the idea.
Other than that, the place is prime for people-​watching. I like to remind myself why I don’t work corporate, so every once in a while I spend my lunch hour here checking out how the other half lives.
If you’re looking for a salad bargain, go to Souper Salad, since they charge by the plate, not the pound. But if you just want a small helping of something of good quality, check it out.

Perfect stop for a protein breakfast, they serve a breakfast buffet and you pay by the pound. I scoop up a little bit of scrambled eggs and a couple turkey sausages almost every workday, and I love the French roast coffee.

I often find myself at the Atrium Café when I have been out really late a couple of nights in a row and need to have a salad to cleanse the system. That being said, I have never had anything other than their salad bar. And it is good. Field greens (woohoo), celery, some sort of legume, maybe some peas, tuna, all the grape tomatoes I want, shredded carrots and I get to scoop it all myself. And seriously, if you fill that plastic to go box up with mostly field greens, the salad is less than $ 7 with tax, a steal in the area.

Atrium Café… Atrium Café is a poorer version of Rebecca’s in my opinion. Sure they have a vast selection of food. Salad Bar, Sandwich Station, Pasta Station, Hot Food Station. but the quality of the food is not up to snuff. The sauces are over cooked and overly acidic, The beef is gristly, the vegetables slightly over cooked.
When you combine this with prices that are also a buck higher for most things, it drops it 2 stars from Rebecca’s. 1 for price, 1 for quality.
The pros on the other hand, they have 4 cashiers so it does go fast, and they have by far the largest seating area around so you don’t have to worry about where to eat if you decide to lounge and partake of your gastronomical endeavor.

This cafeteria exists in an office building but is open to the public. If you don’t know where 1 Financial is, it is the partially glass building right across from South Station, going back towards Downtown Crossing. The place is on the 2^nd floor, just as you get off the escalator. The hot meals are pretty good as is the salad bar and the desserts. Just a nice place if you want a change from the usual lunch places in the area. Keep an eye on what you are getting, however, as it is easy to go over budget.