Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Cafeteria

Disclaimer– I am using a favorable rating system for this place bc it is a hospital cafeteria after all so it would be fair to rate it with the same criteria as say a Ruth Chris. Firstly, EVERYONE here is Sooooo nice! I personally loooove the breakfast selection. Made to order fresh waffles, pancakes, omelettes, French toast. My favorite is the granola French Toast. Very tasty and a good size. Throughout the day you can get drinks, chips, fresh fruit, sandwiches salads and other things from the grill. They also have a sushi station and a different cuisine daily. I’d give it 5 stars if the dinners were a bit better.

Let me start by saying the 5 stars is compared to other hospitals. And for a hospital the food is pretty great. There are a couple places you can eat while you are at CHOP. The first is the main cafeteria, which is the biggest of them all. It has a sushi station, an ice cream station, a sandwich station, 2 meal stations that rotate, a burrito station that is run by the Jose Garces restaurant Distrito (the short rib burrito is awesome), a salad station, a pizza station (my wife loves the pizza salads) and a grill station. All of the cafeterias serve Wawa coffee but there is also Dr Coffee and the gift shop serves Starbucks coffee.
The other places to eat is in the Abramson Research building. They have a grill station, salad bar, sandwich station and a rotating station (every so often they serve ramen and it is delicious)
Very good for hospital food

I have never had such tasty hospital food until my last stay at CHOP. I couldn’t believe the amount of variety in foods they have to offer. Their sushi is soooo good, a bit pricey for hospital food but who cares. They also have a build your own station with different types of oriental meats, veggies, rice, etc., but I never had a chance to try it. I’m sure I will be back at CHOP since it’s my daughter’s hobby is to get sick from daycare. I’d probably go broke if I worked at children’s hospital lol.

We had spent way too much time at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the last 2 months, but the cafeteria has been the sweetener that made it less bitter for my son, and sometimes his sister, who has had to tag along all too often. I can well imagine that eating there every single day for years might get boring, but that is true of any institutional kitchen. The food is nice, graciously served, and shows an effort to address both nutrition and taste. I also find that seeing the health problems of other families makes me count my own blessings.

So disappointed, My five year old daughter whom was having troubles breathing was admitted through the emergency room for further evaluation. Emergency Room staff great however once my daughter reached 7 West MHT the floor she transported to is where the service went down hill my daughter was admitted into a room which housed another patient due to a high census no problem however I do have issue with the little things that I see as being important for a hospital that is considered to be number 1 in the country. First off in each room there is a welcome with the patients name and patients nurses on the board my daughter’a board remained blank and bare while her roommate was completed. Secondly when inquiring about the use of patient iPads I was told that they were for sicker children. So my daughter having to stay in the hospital for three days but I guess this isn’t considered sick. The third issue I had was when my daughter roommate was brought a portable Wii and the nurse said my daughter didn’t need one because she had a tv which was shared for both my issue is that the nurse would have been better off not saying anything than being rude and ignorant. The fourth problem arose when my daughter roommate was moved into another room and five hours later a nurse comes in and tells my daughter dad hey u can’t sit on the sofa because it’s for the next patient who comes into the room and you can only sit on one side. So now I’m agitated these rooms were meant to house one patient and we are expected to not sit on the couch which is part of the room just in case someone else come. CHOP really has to work on their customer service it’s fine and dandy that they have expertise in so many things pertaining to children however some of their employees are just idiots and makes me wonder how were they even hired. To work around children takes a special person CHOP must do a better job of finding great employees because these are the worse I was deeply disappointed because I knew that CHOP was suppose to be the best so I was looking forward to the quality service this experience made me say If I have to bring my daughter back to the hospital it will definitely be Jefferson where my daughter was admitted 4 months ago at first I was skeptical because it wasn’t a children’s hospital however there children’s unit is perfect the staff is great CHOP need to take a step back and not focus on the mass of services they offer but the quality of care given to the children.
P.S Doctor Kulasekaran and Nurse Amanda are great if all medical staff had the same passion would make it a great unit.

The food here is terrible, while it’s better than HUP next door. I am sure I’m not alone in saying that I only eat here out of convenience not for taste. When I do eat here I stick to the safe bet of pizza and fries. They do have a stall from Distrito there which is extremely overpriced and a mediocre resemblence of what the Garces restaurant group is capable of and ironically charges 2x the price.

For those saying this is regular hospital food, you should check out the cafeteria at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania, then revise the review.
While not gourmet by any means, CHOP’s cafeteria contains lots of options, especially if you are spending extended time at the hospital.
They have a nice salad bar where you pick your base (mixed greens, romaine, or spinach) then add 5 fresh toppings — all for about $ 5.
There’s a Mediterranean bar that has hummus, pita, grilled asparagus, etc.
There’s a sandwich bar with fresh made sandwiches and house-​cooked chips.
There’s a burrito/​taco bar.
There’s pizza and a burger bar as well with all the fried sides you could imagine
They also have sushi, which is usually fresh fish and decent.
And.they have Chinese food, which always smells and looks much better than it actually tastes. So tread carefully.
Sure, you can say there’s nothing special and the prices can be quite expensive, but for a hospital, not bad at all!
If you unfortunately end up being at CHOP, give it at try, and hopefully the staff will great you and serve you with a huge smile to brighten your day.

It sucks being in a hospital especially a children’s hospital but this staff does everything to make sure you get to eat. They even had people walking around with pizza if you couldn’t leave the room. They have crazy hours too with the cafeteria opening around 1am which is super convenient.

Regular Hospital food. Nothing special here

Fora hospital cafeteria, I don’t think it’s too bad. I love the salad bar! For $ 6 you can choose up to 5 toppings on your leafy salad.
Sushi stuff here is not too great…
Tons of choices and not just for kids! The tacos are decent too.
Fast check out. Everyone’s friendly. Tons of seating.

Whoa! World-​class hospital’s cafeteria is even better than expected! I went straight to the familiar name when I entered – Garces. Had a good pulled pork sandwich and a smoke turkey sandwich. $ 8 each.
How do you rate a place like this though? If I had this sandwich at this price at a bar or a food truck, it might be just above average. But in a hospital? It might be perfect!

I think they get their soup from Au Bön Pain. The Curried Rice soup was very tasty.

Overrated. So overrated. They should re-​open McDonald’s so people have a healthy alternative for lunch.

Definitely clean, serving a wide variety of pretty good food. It’s a relief to be able to get a decent meal without leaving the hospital when you are dealing with a sick kid. Since health and disease are on my mind when I’m there, I usually go for the $ 5 salad, made to order by a gloved employee. Sometimes I’ll get the brown rice sushi. The biggest drawback is that about half of the employees are surly and clearly don’t want to bother with working for a living.

I’m a fan! It’s all about the salad bar, in fact, if it wasn’t for the fact it was so bloody expensive, i’d give it 5 stars. The sushi and everything else is good, but not great! Although, it is nice having the choice to have a chef cook you up something on the spot (don’t grab the pre-​made stuff, they sell it up to 5 days after preparing it (through numerous freeze thaw cycles)). But the chinese, sushi, and fresh stuff are all worthwhile…
BUT!!! I disagree with Teresa L. … it’s not more food for your buck than a good truck… 100% DISagree… the carts still win out… but Abramson is a nice alternative for a one stop shopping deal with tons of assortments!

More food for your buck than a good truck. Hoagies, paninis, «specials» like a salmon burger, poor pizza selection (but hey, there’s pizza!), fresh and abundant salad bar.
They also have revolving monthly specials (i.e. dollar off foot long hoagies!).

Tired of buying lunch from food carts at PENN and eating from polystyrene containers? Well the cafeteria on the ground floor of the Abramson research building at CHOP offer a healthy and cheap alternative for lunch. There is a good sandwich and deli bar, a salad bar, freshly made soups, a pizza bar, a burger bar, some healthy pre-​packed meals and pre-​packed sushi. The canteen is spotlessly clean, the staff are friendly and there is plenty room to sit inside and outside on a sunny day.