Cafe Soleil

The food here is so good and very reasonably priced. I had a buffalo chicken sandwich with cottage cheese. All very good. Feels strange not to tip since the service is so good.

If you are near Eskenazi Health and craving tasty food, Café Soleil is your spot. Wait… good food IN a hospital? Say it ain’t so! Dear friends, I would not lead you astray. Please read on.
Located within the Fifth Third Office Building on the first floor just past the Starbucks, Café Soleil is hands down my place to go when needing tasty food. They also happen to house my salad bar of choice. So fresh. So tasty. Great variety. Proteins rotate every day — so you can expect chicken, salmon, shrimp, turkey, ham, tofu, and others in some combination every day. Some of the fresh leafy ingredients are even grown on the top of the Eskenazi Outpatient Care Center (7^th floor) on the Sky Farm!
If you dine in, it is an all you can eat salad bonanza. If you opt to take it out, you can fill that plastic clamshell to the tippy top and jam pack it full of tasty topping goodness. Either way, it’s less than 8 bucks. Yes, you read that correctly. 8 bucks. They usually even include some type of dessert on the bar. True story.
Speaking to the rest of the menu, all items are very well priced and tasty. The *only* thing I have had that I did not care for was the honey crusted chicken breast (dry as all get out), but other than that — amazing. They have baked onion rings that my co-​worker craves on the daily. OH! Don’t forget to ask about the $ 5 heart healthy meal of the day. Yes, $ 5 for a whole healthy meal.
And a little known fact? You don’t tip your server here. All servers are paid an hourly wage by Eskenazi and cannot accept tips. Just sit back and enjoy! :)

Café Soleil is a lovely oasis in the middle of an otherwise bustling public hospital. It is a sit-​down, real-​live restaurant, located on the first floor of the Fifth Third Bank Building on the main Eskenazi Health campus.
The prices are exceptionally reasonable ($ 7 will easily cover an entrée and a side), and as the employees are paid by Eskenazi Health, they have a no-​tip policy ensuring that everyone receives the same level of service.
The menu is varied, and consists of several delicious appetizers (hummus with pita, bruschetta, nachos), entrée-​sized salads, burgers (including a black bean burger), sandwiches, and wraps. There are always 2 daily specials, and a soup-​of-​the-​day.
One relatively new addition is the salad bar, which can either be ordered as your entrée, with unlimited trips (buffet-​style), or as a side (only one trip, so pile your plate high). It’s totally worth it, as the fresh mozzarella and roasted zucchini salad are quite delicious.
As hospital dining options go, Café Soleil sets the bar way, way high.

5 stars for what is, a restaurant in a hospital with sit down dining! The loaded nachos with chicken is my go-​to meal. The buffalo chicken Cobb salad has always been fresh and delicious. Always satisfied with the quick and friendly service. A menu with lots of options. Have heard patrons that after going there for over a year, wish they could have a new/​refreshed menu.

I think if Café Soleil was located anywhere else, I would give it 3 stars. However, if you’re located on the far northwest side of campus and unable to leave, you’re pretty much stuck with hospital cafeteria food (or Duos, thankfully)…so, Café Soleil can seem like a partial miracle. You are seated, you are waited upon, and your food comes out on real plates with actual silverware and a cloth napkin. Best of all, the menu prices are incredibly cheap, especially when compared to the lower quality, but just as expensive, nearby cafeteria options. Since the café’s employees agreed to forego tips in exchange for a living wage, you are not required to tip. And if you do tip, the tip is supposedly donated to a charity/​foundation.
The food is average-​to-​good, depending on what you order. I’ve been happy with the grilled chicken nachos, which are dressed with black beans, olives and pico de gallo. It avoids the nuclear-​orange nacho sauce and is not too greasy. Many of my co-​workers have gushed over the ribs special… yes, ribs… at a hospital café. I would recommend avoiding a visit exactly at noon, since it appears a lot of Eskenazi medical personnel and Riley defectors swarm the place and you sometimes have to wait for a table. Café Soleil is not part of the main Eskenazi Health building, but located next to the Starbucks on the 1^st floor of the attached Fifth Third Bank building.

OK… so I’d normally never write a review for a hospital cafeteria or any other hospital based food service, but honestly, this is nothing like anything I’ve ever seen in terms of hospital food service options. Café Soleil is located on the first floor of the new Eskenazi Hospital and it is, believe it or not, a real restaurant. They have table service, cloth napkins, real dishes, etc. The menu features a great variety of healthy and, based on what we had today, tasty options! The previous version, in the old Wishard, was good, but impossible to find, tucked away somewhere in a corner of an upper floor.
I had grilled shrimp skewers, and, believe it or not, the shrimp were cooked perfectly. They were served with a sweet chili glaze, cilantro rice, and grilled peppers and onions. The price tag? $ 5.50. My co-​workers had a salad and a wrap sandwich both of which also looked fresh and delicious.
Service was very quick and the servers were friendly and attentive. They take orders electronically on tablets and the system seems to work well. FYI even though the service was great, tipping is not allowed here; which we learned when we tried to leave one!
The atmosphere is sunny, and filled with green plants. There is nothing about this restaurant that would suggest it is in a hospital.
The group of us who went here today work on the medical campus, and had been watching the construction of the new hospital, and had heard the tales of the rooftop garden, and that there would be a restaurant that served the food grown there. I’m sure they’re not harvesting anything yet, but I now actually believe the stories are true! There is an actual restaurant, in a hospital, serving fresh, affordable food. We will be regulars.
As an added bonus, there is a café Soleil express next door that has frozen yogurt. We had to stop there of course! Yummy and a great end to a nice lunch.
If you are looking for somewhere to eat on the IUPUI/​IU med center campus, do not miss this great new addition!