TIBCO Cafe

Perfect place for lunch. The quality and variety of food is excellent. There’s a deli bar salad bar, ethnic choices but my favorite is the Tibco burger. It has grilled apple slices and brie cheese, it’s so good! The fries are also good, not overly greasy and tasty. I’m also a fan of the quesadilla, with 4 meat choices and they’re all good.

The TIBCO Café is run by the Bön Appetit Management Company, just like one of the cafes over at Google. I often drop off my pops to his doc visits at the VA and come from around the corner to have lunch here. The specials are great, but you may get tired of them after a while. However, here, it is always the healthier alternative to hospital cafeteria food or fast food restaurants. The food is fresh and satisfying, and I do not feel as guilty or disgusting after a meal.

I have eaten alot of salads in California but I have have never paid $ 16.48 for a «make your own» in an employee café. Romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, and balsamic vinaigrette are not luxury fare. Most of the ingredients on Tibco’s salad bar are pretty cheap and should not cost more than a hot /​prepared lunch that you would order at a restaurant.
If I am paying $ 16.48 for a salad I better be getting some grilled chicken or shrimp, and not, potatoes, carrots and boiled eggs. Tibco needs to change their price structure to flat rate boxes so that their customers are not sticker shocked at the register.

The TIBCO Café is a great perk for TIBCO employees and people who work nearby.
For employees it’s subsidized, so you can easily get a meal for around $ 5 (which isn’t so bad considering what it would cost to eat out at a restaurant or even get fast food).
The lines are also not that bad. Rarely do you have more than 2 – 3 people ahead of you, especially if you come right at noon.
There’s plenty of seating and there are several spacious rooms/​areas with tables, including a nice outdoor patio which is great when the weather is nice.

I was going to give a higher rating, however since they have raised their prices so much and changed the hours for the general public they get two stars. Their food is okay not anything special and usually the same things from week to week, with a few exceptions. Their salad bar use to be my favorite but at .60oz or $ 9.60lb now, forget the salad bar. The prices went up across the board on all food. For example, a veggie burrito now 4.25, from 3.85 you get beans, rice, peppers/​onions and sour cream & cheese. They load it with more of the pepper/​onion mix, which seems to be the filler. If you add guacamole add another .85 cents. I would say if you work in the area and don’t want to drive, then Tibco is good in a pinch. But I am going to make more of an effort to bring my lunch now.

So now «public hours» start at twelve so people from nearby businesses can have lunch here, but not until the peak of rush hour. Every line twice as long, and slow. Annoying.
But everything else around here is bad, so we come anyway.
But seriously, why are the salads so expensive compared to everything else? I got whacked for $ 16 the other day for soup and salad because my salad was heavy on the scale. Eek!

Busy place but worth it — though not so helpful if you only have 30 mins for lunch hence time cramming prior to heading back to work. So many cuisine choices. And the aroma of the food as soon as you walk in = absolutely welcoming

Yay TIBCO has a cafeteria open to the public. I work nearby and this cafeteria definitely tops the one in my building.
TIBCO’s cafeteria has a wide selection of food from mexican, burgers, soups, indian food, salads, etc. My favorite is the «Options» station run by David. It changes daily, but it is usually some kind of pasta dish or stir fry made to order. The line can be long, but the food turns out really good.
Prices here are reasonable and there is plenty of seating both inside and outside!

TIBCO cafeteria — saving hungry employees from other companies since 1999 (or whenever it was actually founded…)
Anyway, this place has a good variety of locally sourced organic options. They rotate a mexican and indian food station, along with your standard american burger/​sandwich fare. My favorite is usually the «options» bar, where they bring in a new dish daily. My favorites include the tilapia and the gnocchi pasta.
Also, TIBCO mentions this freaking cafeteria on their career opportunities website! This cafeteria is a perk that the company is proud to offer its employees, not to mention moochers from other companies like me :). It’s a must visit for anyone that works in Palo Alto.

What is this place? an energy company? a secret cafeteria?
I’ll tell you what it is… it’s amazing! A subsidized cafeteria, prices are somewhat cheaper. I especially love the salad bar because they don’t weight it! The food is fresh and delicious! Good for lunch.

Brick oven (with real fire) to grill flatbreads /​la brea baguette sandwiches. I’m in at La Brea. So good — grilled chicken with pesto, on a crusty warm baguette.
$ 5.99 for a very large and delicious baguette sandwich.

Not sure why we came here, but buddy said he wanted something cheaper and I remembered reading about this place and said, let’s give it a shot! All I remembered was that it was across from VA and that wasn’t good enough, as Siri sent us on some delusional journey that wasted a good thirty minutes driving around. It’s kind of hard to find if using the directions from this app, so I’d suggest not using that!
Upon entering the cafeteria area, you’ll see a printout at the entrance with their daily specials and prices. There were two very long lines at both of the hot stations (Think it was Mexican/​Asian cook to order station and Burgers/​Sandwiches lines. Grab hot n ready food if you’re in a rush, which is what we did (Thanks Siri!)
Ended up grabbing the oven bake with andouille sausage and okra ($ 6.47 after tax). Was expecting to bite into some ziti, but the dish was comprised of macaroni instead. Still, it had a nice kick to it and the proportions of meat, veggies and pasta was on point. The plate wasn’t anything unique, but had good, basic flavors to it. One minor gripe is I had a couple of tomatoes that weren’t properly quartered during prep. As someone who has had to quarter a shit ton of them before, I understand it gets annoying, but it sure seems like one got lazy and started speeding through the process.
Priced cheap by Palo Alto’s standards. I’m sure it’s one of the better dining options around that particular area, especially for VA employees, but it’d be hard for me to make a planned return to eat here.
If I’m in area and craving a quick, cheap bite, I’ll definitely come back here for that!

Most of the food here is made to order. I’ve enjoyed the chicken quesadilla (can eat it for two meals!!) and the burger (tibco style) with curly fries. Don’t get the curly fries — they were kind of old. Definitely opt for the Mexican station!!! I highly recommend coming here for lunch — well subsidized by the company and delicious!
I’ll update my review once I try the Indian food (ALWAYS a huge line), and salad bar (fresh and looks inexpensive!)

I love how a lot of the reviews are from VA employees. Compared to the VA cafeteria, TIBCO is like Disneyland and heaven. The indian or thai food is good, though there are some long lines if you’re in a rush. The flatbreads and salads are also pretty decent and fast. I also make it a point to always get ice cream bars here (Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Three Twins, etc.), pretty good selection. It would always be a treat for my team to make a little excursion over to tibco for lunch!

Tibco can be called Godsend. Yes really.
When you work at the nearby VA hospital and you are left with only fried food and pizza in the cafeteria, your healthy self wants to cry a little. Luckily, Tibco is a five-​to-​ten-​minute walk away, depending on how fast you walk/​jog/​sprint/​run. My preference is to take the 10-​minute stroll.
Tibco’s cafeteria has a variety. There’s burritos, Indian, salad bar, soup bar, sandwich bar, grilled food, and foods that go in the oven (pizza-​type stuff). My first choice is the Indian because they pack a lot on the plate and then I go into this heavenly food coma when I return to work. My second choice is the salad bar and soup bar combination. Salad looks the same all the time so it is consistent. Soup selections appear to always be new.
All in all, Tibco has my (healthy, beating) heart. Thank you Tibco for helping with VA hospital staff’s blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

I work at the VA Hospital next to Tibco and have gone here for lunch a couple times with coworkers. The food here is AWESOME! It has a lot of food varieties too. Pasta, mexican, pizza, salad bar, sandwiches, the list goes on! I recommend getting a burrito, they are HUGE, inexpensive, and really tasty. The other great thing about this place is that its fast! Perfect for a quick lunch break! The prices are a steal, for the amount of food you get! Definitely check this place out if work nearby.

Came here with my Uncle who works in one of the banks here. He tells me that it’s one of the best places to eat that’s close and quick. My first impression was that it reminded me of a college cafeteria! The style of the place is basically categorized into a few different sections: salads, Mexican, grill, sandwiches (?), soups, deli, etc. They have a daily special at the grill that is a pretty good bargain – when I went, it was a Hawaiian Pulled Pork Sandwich with fries and mac and cheese. Mmm!
Anyways, great food at a decent price!

‘Want to hit Tibco up?’
I was legitimately confused. Hit them up for what? A discount on their data-​miners? A SQL 2012 interface? Some conversation about No-​SQL extraction?
‘Lunch, man, lunch,’ a colleague provided.
So the thing to do out here in SilVal is to tuck your (Mandated, neck high, RFID-​enabled) badge into your pocket and hit up a competitior for lunch.
I’ve had Xerox. I’ve had PARC. I’ve had Facebook. I keep coming back to Tibco.
$ 3.00 for an arm-​sized vegetarian burrito! With fresh cilantro-​lime sauce!
My friends, this is what IT-​bennies are all about. This the the sword at the bottom of the lake. Over 1lb of fresh veggies and crisp cheese in a quality burrito, for less than a Brett Easton Ellis iBook.
Damn.
Huge ups to a diverse crowd including actual Indians eating with their hands and Taiwanese delicately plucking, chopstick’d. A solid reminder about why I left the vanilla syncretism of Portland.

I worked across the street from TIBCO for many years, and consequently, ate at the TIBCO cafeteria a lot. Like, tons. Like, so many times that at one point I had to «boycott» TIBCO for a couple of months so I could get my head on straight again and eat non-​TIBCO food for a while.
All right: down to it. Lot of food stations where things are either pre-​made (calzones, pizzas, soups), made-​to-​order (burritos, Indian curries, grill), or make-​your-​own (sandwiches, salads). Slightly subsidized pricing, and even more subsidized if you actually work at TIBCO (but I’m sure if you work at TIBCO, you’ve eaten here even more than I have, so why are you reading this review, anyway?). You get your food and then pay at the registers.
Staff are friendly and efficient. Most people eating here are on the nerdier side (hey, they work at TIBCO or the other biotech companies along Porter or Hillview), but I think nerds are sexy, so there!

Pros: Good, fresh food; upscale look and feel; salads are fix priced (small/​med/​large) and sandwich bar is $ 4.95, no matter how big you stack it; two daily specials (one Indian, one cook-​to-​order). Credit cards now accepted! (as of November 2011)
Cons: It’s not close enough to walk to from where I work! But there is plenty of parking out in the back. So much that they have a basketball court painted into the parking lot.

Awesome company cafeteria, with something to satisfy any craving. I usually stick to the grill or the Asian/​Indian counter. At the grill, they offer items such as hot pastrami sandwiches, Philly cheese steaks, and other hot sandwiches, plus grilled fish options. Their onion rings are quite good as well.
They have one Indian option every day, with generous portion sizes. There are other dining choices as well, such as a made-​to-​order pasta counter, which can back up a bit when it gets busy. The salad bar is also well-​stocked.

I was really bummed when Porter Bella closed down which forced me to go to TIBCO instead. I was reluctant to go at first because they only accept cash but now that I have no other options within walking distance I’m pleased to find out that TIBCO cafeteria serves quality food with a good selection every day.
The cafeteria itself looks new and is stylishly decorated. It is always clean and the staff is friendly. They have signs up every day telling you what local farms they have purchased produce from and they are good about offering recycling and composting.
They have a wide selection of Indian, Mexican, grill, salad, soup, and special items. I’ve been pleased with the portobella mushroom burger and sweet potato fries as well as the burritos. You can get two tacos for something like $ 4 which is plenty of food for once person. I’ve heard the Indian food is really good but I haven’t tried it myself. That will give me something to look forward to in the future!