Union 82

Love, love, love this place! Its the perfect place to meet friends after work for cocktails, or coffee and lunch. This has become my new «go to» spot! The cocktail menu is amazing and so refreshing. Manhattans on tap, yes please! The small bites are great and I love the healthy choices on the lunch menu, my favorites are the Kale Caesar with grilled shrimp and the presentation of the deconstructed Quinoa salad. I highly recommend the house made cookies, these are not your average cookie.

It’s hard not to be skeptical of a restaurant on a tech campus that isn’t a Google or Facebook or Über or Airbnb (you get my drift), but Union 82 proves to be an open, welcoming space with decent food and offers some surprisingly healthy items on their menu. Variety could be improved, but I like the modernistic farm-​to-​table feel. What a welcome change to the cafeteria next door! The smoothies and juices are nice to have. The staff could be a little more friendly and interactive, but the experience has been great in two visits. See my pics for some of the food items I’ve had so far. Best time to go is off lunch hour to avoid the crowds and enjoy the spacious venue by yourself.

I like overall this place.
Pros:
+ Big room, clean and modern decoration
+ Good and original tea selections
+ Very Tasty recipes, rather European style and presentation
+ Nice smoothies — new recipes (not typical mango strawberry)
+ Nice staff
+ Not too overcrowded for now
+ Nice addition to the area for all Non Googlers that struggle to get good meal options at a walking distance from their office.
Cons:
— I wish they use goat cheese in their Fig flat bread. Brie is too bland /​boring and does not lift the taste of the prosciutto and fig.
Nice dishes to try out:
— Prosciutto Arugula Brie Flat bread = DELICIOUS
— Panini mozarella, prosciutto, tomato = AWESOME
— Oyster Mushroom Flatbread = PRETTY GOOD
— Chaat plate = nice appetizer for Vegetrians!
— brie Apple sandwich: so so good!

Woah, this was a cool addition to the area. Finally a place in the area that serves decent coffee (Verve). And a variety of food options. The place is open to the public (employees of Symantec get a discount). But it is cool that you can stop by here if you work in the area. The food is a bit better than the food next door at Symantec’s cafeteria (though it uses the same kitchen anyways). They also offer beer and wine in the afternoon.

I cannot even begin to explain how much I love this place… and it’s not just because I work at Symantec. I get to start every morning with an amazing Verve Coffee Roasters’ pour-​over and enjoy a great pastry from Kelly’s French Bakery out of Santa Cruz. If I wanted, I could also choose from many other coffee choices, or even go with a fresh-​pressed-​juice. Not pressed for time? Grab a menu and sit down for some breakfast, or even grab it to go. So many great breakfast options.
What’s the rest of the menu like? Pretty damn good, to be honest. Being a vegetarian, it’s always hard to find places that have much I can eat. Union 82 might not be packed with veggie choices, but the things they do have are so good. The middle eastern dips plate is amazing, but the best thing about it is the Naan that comes with it. This is not the typical «we’re going to try to pass off a pita as Naan» Naan — its’ the real deal! And the flatbreads… holy hell, they are GOOD!
Post-​4pm? Come in and grab some small plates to share (or eat by your dang self), as well as a great craft beer, wine, or one of many unique cocktails. You certainly aren’t going to find any craft beer options anywhere else in this area without going to downtown Mt View. They keep the selection updated and seasonal. I can’t wait to see what changes month after month.
What else makes this place great? The people who work here are friendly and welcoming, there’s Foosball, a giant wall-​size Scrabble board, comfy seating areas, and the hidden messages written in code up on the ceilings. Can you decipher the messages?
Lastly, although this amazing space sits on the Symantec campus, it is open to the public. There aren’t a lot of options in this tech triangle, unless you want Carl’s Jr. or Specialty’s every day. You really need to come give this place a chance. You will not be disappointed.

If a friend didn’t work nearby, I’d never have known this café/​bar existed. It’s on the Symantec campus but is open to the public and is actually a pretty cool spot for small plates, Verve coffee and fresh juices. There’s even a bar that opens at 4 p.m. with a good selection of cocktails, beer and wine. They’re calling it a gastro-​lounge but it’s run by Aramark. The Croque Monsieur and coffee I had were good. There’s not a lot of other food options in this area (unless you work at Google) so it seems to fill a need. Just not sure how much foot traffic they’ll get other than Symantec employees. It’s in the building near the corner of Ellis and Middlefield, where the main cafeteria is. But not the building right on Middlefield.