Cafe57

Not open to the public, get off my Unilocal search. Unless I put my location as «inside this building» I don’t want to hear about this place.

Cafe57 is not open to the public. It is in a corporate office building. Unilocal is doing a disservice to people by posting this location. They should remove it.

Unilocal reviews of this place are very helpful for people that work in this building OTHERWISE YOU CANT GET IN!

It’s a testament to Café 57 that half the charges on my debit card are from here. It’s rare that I leave the building anymore and most of my co-​workers eat here daily too. Even if they bring in their lunch, they go down for drinks, chips, dessert, fruit and other little things. It also serves as the entire building’s lunch room. Thank God they don’t have a lounge for after hours or we’d never leave.
The food is broken down by 6 action stations. Everything from burgers, pizza, sushi, and sandwiches is represented. I’ve had almost everything, and it’s all above average quality.
It’s also nice the Café 57 workers seem to care, cleaning up quickly after minor spillage, keeping food piping hot (something no deli seems to do right) and constantly trying new cuisine. They are also very friendly considering the volume they have to deal with.
For the negatives, Café 57 can get massively crowded. And the food, while mostly delicious, has a sameness about it. I.e. you can count on the same breast of chicken being served, whether it’s Cuban flavored instead of Thai flavored. The salad bar is also nothing much to write home about; some of the dishes fall very flat in taste. Breakfast is probably the worst with the same powdered eggs, dry potatoes and bland sausages.
There’s also a bit of confusion as new employees and visitors gawk at different stations. Even veteran diners are milling about looking for whatever is new. The lines start to queue very long and decent seating fills up very fast.
Still, there’s not much in the area (or NYC really) that compares. It’s a unique, almost fun experience. The prices are a major step below everywhere else. You can’t go wrong the first time around … or even the 50^th time around. But there is a point you’ll start crying for something, anything new, and you’ll make the trip out past the waterfall for the first time in months.

I work at Hearst as an intern and hands down café 57 has some good food. It’s also pretty affordable compared to the other places in NYC. I mean where else can you get a grilled cheese for under $ 3? I love the salad bar as well. The hot stations (grill, etc) are pretty great as well as the sandwich bar. There’s always something new so I’ve never gotten bored. I think my favorite so far has been their chili and the turkey club sandwich. The prices and the food are great, but unfortunately it’s private, so I’ll definitely miss it when I leave my internship position.

Hands down the best cafeteria food ever. I interned at Hearst for a semester and would always grab some food from the cafeteria at least once every time I was in the building. The variety is great — there is always something new to try and enough to choose from that I wouldn’t be tired of having the same thing every time I’m there. In addition, the prices are unbelievable for the quality and quantity of food you are getting. Unfortunately, this cafeteria is private and cannot be accessed unless you work in the building or have a friend working there.
For breakfast, I started getting into egg whites. They usually have either sausages or turkey links (I prefer the sausages). There is an omelette station that is really cool, but the downside is having to wait a bit for it to cook and sometimes the line gets a little long.
The international section in the center always has something different. They have a menu online so you can check before going down to see what’s there. I would say it’s either a hit or a miss, but thankfully there are always other options if you don’t like what is being served there. From my experience, I like the Italian days the best. The penne alla vodka really hits the spot.
My go-​to lunch is usually at the sushi station. There are two chefs who make the sushi right in front of you and the prices are completely affordable compared to if you get it in a restaurant. The portions are fair — I don’t know where you can find a better deal.
My personal favorite: slider days! You get to choose three sliders and two different sides.
The dessert: cookies! They are some of the best cookies I’ve eaten and they are super affordable. They are always soft and have the perfect amount of chewiness. There are also other baked goods, such as brownies, blondies, or cronuts (on some days). I love that there is also a frozen yogurt machine. It really doesn’t get better than that.

Best cafeteria ever, you can’t beat the fresh ideas and quality!

For my #250^th Unilocal review I found it only fitting that it be something near and dear to my heart and an absolutely 5 star review (especially after #249 which was a rousing 1 star) — my work cafeteria! Which I find honestly hilarious is even on Unilocal!But since it’s already on Unilocal I shall go ahead and review!
Kay, so first off, shout out to Junior who mans the Grill Station and is my best friend at the cafeteria! Everything he makes tastes amaaaaazing! He always brightens my day with kind banter and for some crazy reason — always knows what I want to eat before I do :).
Junior will make some wacky out of this world things for me that aren’t on the menu — if I want spinache, 3 cheeses, a sour dough bun and garlic powder on my chicken, he doesn’t mind! If I ask for chocolate chips in my pancakes, he’ll happily oblige! Grilled cheese on wheat with 2 or 3 cheeses and medium rare burger wedged in there? On it! He’s fantastic and usually my go to shop in the cafeteria unless I’m tempted to chow down from…
THE INTERNATIONAL HOT BAR! Foods served here have been Chinese, Korean, Southern Thailand, Peruvian, Venezuelan, Cuban, Indian, Italian, Mediterranean, Greek, Tex-​Mex, Spain, Austrian, Portuguese — etc. It’s generally an amazing selection of traditional foods that always have options for vegetarians, carnivores and occasionally Pescetarians too! AWESOME.
Sometimes they’ll have some random «festival» days like the pumpkin festival, asparagus festival, greens festival and my personal favorite CHEESE FESTIVAL DAYSSSSSSS!!! Sometimes it’ll also be genres rather than actual ethnic food, like Food Network Day, Comfort Food Day, Pasta Day, Taco Day, etc.
Next to the grill station there’s a «B-​Well station» that serves up delicious meals that are always 600 calories or less — and an offering of awesome brick oven pizzas (both slices and generous personal pizza pies), garlic knots, chicken rolls and delicious calzones. Then there’s the «Action Station» which also differs with awesome themes… like Mac N’ Cheese, pasta, pitas, schwarmas, noodles, ramen, baked potatoes — etc. It changes every week, but every week it’s something glorious.
There are also two different «make your own» salad stations here, regular anti-​pasta and salad stuff and then «anti-​boring» salads that coincide with whatever is going on with the International Hot Bar theme. Also AWESOME.
Hearst’s Café 57 also has 2 (actually Japanese) sushi shefs here that make fantastic rolls, sashimi, dumplings, miso soup, etc. Beside the Sushi station is the deli where you can get regular carved meat, cheese or whatever type of sandwich or wrap strikes your fancy.
There’s also a soup station with usually 3 – 4 different soups everyday, a pre-​made lunch station with sandwich/​wrap/​chip combos, a frozen yogurt station with a PLETHORA of toppings (cookie pieces, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, granola, raisins, chocolate chips, M&Ms…you get the idea. Flavors always change and can go from the regulars like chocolate, vanilla, strawberry to more interesting and diverse flavors such as s’mores, red velvet, tropical island banana and my personal favorite — Irish Mint!
Deserts here are usually ridiculously amazing, decadent and awesome. Things like mini chocolate lava bundt cakes, awesomely designed (and TASTING) cupcakes, red velvet loafs, macaroons, mini doughnuts and always freshly baked cookies… always a variety of 3 – 6 different types of cookies neatly organized and ready to be inhaled… I love Café 57. It’s amazing and I can’t believe sometimes that my food is from a corporate cafeteria! ^_^.

I don’t normally eat much for lunch when working or at all. Though, Good Friday was a SPECIAL day. My friend just happens to work in the Hearst building and offered that I could meet up with her for lunch in her building’s cafeteria. The inside of the café is beautiful with natural lighting coming in from the transparent ceiling. I felt like I was sitting in a greenhouse atrium in the good kind of way. Also, its an amazing location for checking out people’s crazy, adventurous, and bold fashion wear choices. A complete contrast to my normal Wall Street everyone is depressed and must die attitude. The Hearst building is all about color and sun and fun and makes me feel incredibly relaxed and kicked back for the corporate world.
Moving onto the food. There are various stations. There’s a rotating chef that cooks up a specialty item, a grill station with different burgers, chicken breasts, grilled cheese, etc. A sushi station, salad bar, a hot item bar with a different theme each day, and a desert station. There probably are more sections of the café. So many options! It was almost overwhelming what to pick. For midtown prices I would say it’s generally cheaper than what you would find walking into a restaurant or doing take-​out. I ended up getting a creamy ravioli dish for their Italian cuisine day item on the hot bar, a brownie, and tall Starbucks coffee for around $ 9. Not bad. Not amazing. The food was so-​so. I think the grilled items and sushi honestly looked better than the pasta sitting out in the food tray for so many hours. Next time. But generally I was pleased. They also have tons of condiments and various milks for your coffee charge free when we all know that Starbucks makes you pay for Soy milk now. Bitches.

Upon entering the Hearst Tower I was amazed to see the scene from the Dark Knight Rise. The waterfall wall was pretty breath taking. Place can only be accessed if you know someone who works in the tower building. Looking around the people were dressed business casual and just came down for a lunch break.
The architecture was amazing, if you are extremely tall you will have no problem because you will be accommodated well. Onto the food, the Café is a grown up sized cafeteria from grade school. With fancy food and great selections. I would say this place is fairly reasonable in price in comparison to eatting lunch in the city. Was able to have their sushi and deli sandwich. Sushi dragon roll was great they know no limit when putting spicy toppings (two thumbs up). Many beverge options and salad bar. The décor is awesome obviously and cleanness is exceptional.
If you can enter this building I do say try out the café for yourself! Happy hunting fellow foodies.

wow, what it must be like to work at hearst. I was lucky enough to be invited here by an employee recently and I had an incredible lunch. I’m not sure which was better: the view or the food. If you have a chance to visit, definitely do it. I’m not even going to attempt to write a better review than Lisa Q’s below, so just read hers, it says it all…

I love that Café 57 is actually on Unilocal.I freelance at Hearst, and when I do, I always look forward to breakfast and lunch! The iced coffee is good and cheap ($ 1.90 for a 16 oz cup of Starbucks) and there’s a ton of options. I’m vegan and eating here is still pretty easy — they have tofu cream cheese for breakfast, soy milk, and usually have something tofu-​related/​vegan in the specials. If not, there’s a huge salad bar and other pre-​made sides. If it’s good enough for Marcus Samuelsson, it’s good enough for me.

I want all my friends to get jobs at Hearst so we can all eat together in this awesome cafeteria. I’m a regular at the rotating International hot bar. I love that I can eat lunch in Spain on Tuesday and Thailand on Wednesday. It’s possible to get a really healthy and tasty hot fresh lunch here for about $ 8, but I still manage to spend $ 11 or $ 12. The people who work here are all really friendly and helpful, and the chef is terrific. The only drawback is that the desserts are delicious, and I’m afraid that I may be gaining weight…

I am so proud of [NAME REDACTED] for making employee of the month…
Great eats, great times, great friends. Love the sushi, in particular.

You Hearst folk have it pretty damn well, lemme tell you…
Without a doubt, the nicest office cafeteria I’ve ever ate in. Not only is it an aesthetically pleasing space, but all the food they serve here is outstanding. The sushi and sashimi they put out ranks up there with some of my favorite sushi spots in Manhattan and Queens. Their pizza and garlic knots are top notch. Everything from the grill looks equally delicious. The food is outrageously cheap, given the area. Plus, the cafeteria has a huge salad bar and drink selection, so no matter what type of food your in the mood for, you’ll be set. I look forward to lunches here!

Dude! I can’t believe people have Unilocaled about Café 57!
Hahahaha, it’s Hearst Corporation’s private cafeteria. You’ve probably been here if you’re an employee of Hearst, like me, or you’re friends with one.
When I first became acquainted to it, I thought it was swank and pricey. These days I can get around having six dollar lunches.
The feed goes like this:
Designer chef station: Prepared meals by the people from Landmarc and other fancy restaurants— usually runs about 8 bucks.
Sushi station: Ranging from 4 bucks to 12 bucks. The line moves extremely fast for this station. They give you the option of brown or white rice with no extra charge. The sushi makers are actually Japanese!
Cuisine buffet of the day: .45 cents an ounce of the international cuisine of the day. Careful! Your eyes are bigger than your stomach. This option was made for lunch sharers.
Flatbread station!!: Yummm, I love the pancetta and fig flatbread. They have a 7ish dollar value meal of a drink, a side, and flatbread from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. I usually get this if I’m having lunch at my desk.
Sandwich station: 7ish dollars no matter what you put in your sandwich, so just stuff it with all of your fantasies. I’m not a fan of the Cajun mayo though. Also, this is the slowest station.
Soda fountain: You have a choice between Diet Coke, Diet Coke without caffeine, and Coke Zero (amongst the usual carbonated selection). Dude, what kind of deal does Hearst have with Coke?
Coffee: It’s all Starbucks. Meh. Yeah, I say meh, but I have a $ 1.90 tank of it iced every morning.
Healthy choices option: Dear lord, this station does not look good. I’ve never gotten anything from here.
Salads: Yeeeah buddy, you best believe we have a salad bar and prepackaged salads. They’re all what you’d expect. I can’t brainwash myself into pretending that any of them are exciting anymore.
Cheese station: The cheeses featured are all the hits (Roquefort, Goat, Pecorino), I love drizzling honey over them on water crackers.
Dessert station: I usually never touch this. Unless I’m explicitly just eating dessert for lunch or the boss is buying. My favorite is their apple pie, I’ve never had one so densely packed with fruit. The apples are sliced so thinly that each sliver just melts in your mouth, buttery and spicy. Mmmmmm.
As for the check-​out line, choose Maria if you can. She is beyond pro, her line moves the fastest and she is the sweetest. A mother of five children, she has no trouble remembering your name and radiating a sweet beam of maternal lovingness your way to keep you sane and remind you of the interconnectedness of humanity. Ave Maria!

I bring all my friends to lunch here. They have great food with reasonable prices. I especially love the sushi and wraps.

Café 57 sets a whole new standard for workplace cafeterias. Organic food, farmers markets and other healthy meal options all for an affordable price. It is obvious that whoever created the menu was thinking of the editorial assistant as well as the publishers and editors. There are a variety of cuisines on a daily basis: pizza, sushi, salad bar, sandwiches and grill, as well as a few changing stations: action bar, international bar and Chef’s table. In addition, every station has its own daily specials which the employees can look up online before even setting foot in the cafeteria.
When the recession hit hard (especially Hearst Magazines) Café 57 came out with a new line of even more affordable lunches called «6 under $ 6» which are six different meal combos priced under $ 6.
The people at Café 57 often have all kinds of events such as book signings, food tastings and they even have cooking classes a few times a year that any employee can attend for an additional charge (pastries 101, pasta making, wine tasting, etc.)
In addition, the Café (as well the the entire building) was designed by the renowned architect Lord Norman Foster. It has plenty of white tables and lots of windows, giving you the feeling of outdoor seating.
The cafeteria serves breakfast and lunch, but alas no dinner or brunch on the weekends, otherwise I’m sure many employees would venture there on their own free time to enjoy the food.