Varian Cafe

Best work/​business cafeteria I have been to.
The food is amazingly fresh and yummy.
Service is fantastic.
Lots of options.
Menu changes weekly with some regular dishes.
Salad bar is very good, kept clean and stocked with lots of fresh stuff.

BUSINESS LUNCH
This café is located on Varian Medical Systems campus. Yes, even if you don’t work there you are more than welcome to eat there. When I am working at the Southbay office I am surrounded by first world problems. 1) unfamiliar with the area and don’t know where to eat 2) it’s not the city it’s Silicon Valley so seeking a place to eat is minimal 3) selections… There aren’t many. The trick is to goto other corporation/HQ’s campuses and eat at their cafes. Scored me a great place! Selections selections selections AND AFFORDABLE PRICING! On Unilocal it says they close at 4. That’s a lie, it’s actually 2pm. Maybe the espresso bar connected to the café is open until 4 and that’s not the café. Service is predominantly self serve but the staff were so friendly — I appreciate friendly staff!
They have a variety and to name a few: salad and soup bar, grill station, deli station, pizza etc etc etc. all items were priced decent for its portion. That sounds like a fairytale when considering working in Silicon Valley! I kept my first experience simple. If simple can impress me I’ll be back for the other heavier goods.
MINESTRONE SOUP — cup or bowl, your choice. Self portion control, pour as you please. The soup was very hearty and tasty. It want overloaded with sodium and didn’t put me in an afternoon food commas behind my computer!
SALAD BAR — they charge by pound. Their salad bar was «off the hook» with a lot of healthy options. I didn’t know where to begin with all these selections to choose from. I must recommend getting the sweet potato dish located next to the soups. It was phenomenal! I can eat an entire plate of it by itself.
FRUIT SHAKE — super healthy. It had a mixed of fruit, Greek yogurt, and honey. Kind of pricy ($ 4.95 for a small) but it was needed because Southbay is hot.
Will I be back! Yup.

No, I don’t work at Varian. Yes, I eat there anyway. (I also get my coffee over at AOL and I do’t work there either.) Welcome to Silicon Valley!
Anyway, the food here is fantastic. You can choose from the salad bar, grill, or several (delicious) daily hot entrees, plus assorted beverages, desserts, and snacks. The food is pretty balanced with reasonable but not-​too-​huge portions, and the prices are great even without the discount. The employees are super-​nice too.

Best food service ever. Courteous pleasant wait staff. They are a pleasure. Open to the public, including Starbuck’s coffee.

Stumbled upon this gem of a place last week. They had different counters for different food type. We had burger and sushi. They have a big salade bar and soups.
I would say to reach before 12 to avoid the rush.

As a Varian employee, I’m so glad to have this place as part of our campus. Quality local food, prepared awesome-​ly. Always a great variety available. Love the soups and the husband is always asking me to bring back a Kobe burger when they have it on the menu.
They also have a great breakfast spread too! Hot and cold items available. Open to the public, and come by when you are expecting a Giants game, they might have it on!

Varian Medical’s cafeteria has plenty of options to choose from, and I will definitely be back for more. It may be under the radar because it is on a corporate campus, but is open to the public and certainly worth a shot as a food court with multiple options that change daily.

It is definitely good if you are in a crunch, There are definitely some bargain foods here…
Medium size Chili, best bang for your buck.
Sandwiches or burgers include 1 side.
Specialty items are good as well.
Always check the menu before going, and if you aren’t varian, befriend someone and save yourself some dollar dollar bills yo!

Full service cafeteria within the Varian Medical campus. Includes hot food service and a full do it yourself salad bar.
It definitely felt kind of awkward since I’m… not … an employee at Varian, but I saw some people rocking Nest shirts so I figured it’d be okay: D
They have daily specials ranging from phở to salmon to Korean beef bowls, and if the beef bowl I had was any indicator, it’s all pretty good (my coworker said the salmon was excellent as well.) The prices were under $ 10 (a rarity), the beef was perfectly seasoned and cooked, and the rice wasn’t dry or mushy, which was surprising since I got brown rice (!). Be warned, though: the person who makes the kimchi has apparently never eaten it before, since it was just pickled diced cabbage. What? Still, everything was pretty good (a bit too many snappeas, maybe), and definitely worth the $ 8.95 I paid for it,
In addition to a spacious sit-​down and eat cafeteria area, there’s a large salad bar, sandwich bar, and a secondary «grill» station which has even more specials, but the awkwardness of using some other company’s cafeteria finally overcame me and I left after paying.
I will definitely be back, if only to survey their other specials: D
sweet: fresh, delicious food, cheap (possibly subsidized?!) prices that’s open to all
bitter: «kimchi» is not kimchi, I’m sure that after a few months of going here their menu will seem kinda stale: p