Cisco Building D Cafeteria / Tasman Terrace

This one’s probably my favorite cafeteria out of the ones I’ve been to; I really like the station where we can pick ingredients and they make it on the spot. The cook is always really friendly, and the food is good. The prices are fair, and the food is pretty good. I would give the food 3.5 stars, but the friendly cook bumps it up to 4!

Cisco recently changed vendor for this cafeteria, this location now has great food, many dishes are locally sourced and they change the menus regularly

This is the usual corporate café/​eatery with a coffee kiosk. They have the sandwich, soup/​salad stations. Also they have the grill. The middle station that does the pasta or mexican food have good portion so it’s great for bigger appetite. Cisco employees can check the menu on their website but the menu sometimes does not reflect what is serve that day (e.g. catfish instead of salmon for the grill).
They serve Starbucks at the coffee kiosk. :) Perfect when I don’t want to drive to the one on First St.
The new catering company rolled out a few months ago and everything was great. Now that people are moving to other buildings, the cafeteria has parred down the selection… so we’re bummed that the food is back to regular fare. Hope that they bring back the global items or visiting restaurants. My fave was the Fu Lum Moon dim sum when they were the guest restaurant. That was a welcome change to lunch.

Building D like the other cafeterias at Cisco is always hit or miss for me. What I frequent the most is the salad bar and sandwich bar. After opening up under a new food vendor I thought things were going to change for the better and for a while they were. Not until these past few weeks though I have noticed that things have regressed to the same level of quality as the previous caterer.
Salad Bar:
I love making my own salads and when the new food vendor opened up things were great! Fresh produce, tons of toppings, and most of all they had BACON. However the past couple of times I have noticed the lack of bacon which saddens me deeply. Still sans bacon the salad bar still has other great toppings and there are a decent selection of dressings. The pricing for the salad bar is pretty fair and I get quite a bit for what I pay for.
Sandwich Bar:
I do like the sandwich bar they have here but the ingredients are very limited. I tend to float between there and the salad bar to round out my sandwich and keep up the variety. They really try to push the pre-​made sandwiches which I don’t think taste near as good and not near as filling. I feel like this is one of the best deals in the cafeteria. Make a sandwich and get some of the chips they make there and call it a meal!
Other options that you may want to check out are the random restaurants they bring in to make food or the grill. Fair warning the grill is very hit or miss with some of the items. None of the things I have gotten from there were amazing.
All in all the cafeteria isn’t a terrible place to eat. It has fair prices and is what you should expect from a corporate cafeteria. Be careful and observe which check out stands don’t take credit card and you should be fine.
Main Takeaways:
–Fair prices
–Salad bar is the best
–Experience thus far has been hit or miss

Building D’s food is so-​so, but it does offer a larger variety of made-​to-​order options than the other Cisco cafeterias. The guy at the pasta/​burrito/​etc station is very generous with portions (almost too generous?), and the grill guy likes to joke with customers, but my favorite is the salad station (love the steak and berry salad!)
They’ll take credit cards, but if you need cash, there’s also an ATM available next door to the cafeteria. When the lines get really busy, sometimes they’ll also ring you up at the coffee register.

The food is fresh, healthy, and only for Cisco employees.

My favorite item to get here is a freshly prepared salad ($ 7). They have a live salad station where they will make your salad to order. I’ve loved every one of the salads here and if you ask they always are willing to put in extra toppings/​greens. However, the downside is their featured salad does not always change to something new everyday.
The salad bar is another option, but ranch, blue cheese, thousand island, and balsamic vinaigrette can get boring after a while. The low fat lunch specials are always pretty good (under 600 calories) which usually feature a protein and veggies. The stir fry station is also popular, but it’s nothing special. For an «on-​campus» dining option, I wish the prices were cheaper.

I am not a Cisco employee, so I am coming from a different perspective.
When you take the CCIE labs at Cisco in SJC, you are given a lunch break and you are allowed to buy up to 12 dollars worth of food for lunch. I have gone their twice, and both times I have stuck with the stir fry, a piece of fruit, and 4 waters (which is just under 12 bucks). This is pretty nice, given that I can take the waters with me back to the lab.
The food is pretty good, the service is cafeteria style, and I like having the extra water available for the lab. Unfortunately, I have failed the lab twice, which means that was basically a 1400 dollar lunch. No food is THAT good.
I have also been over at building 17 during a VT, and that is much larger, has some additional storefronts, and some additional food options.
If you plan on taking the CCIE in SJC, at least you get a pretty decent lunch. Just keep enough credit left over for the extra water for the lab.

Location, location, location. This place is pretty nice when you work in the next building over. Not a Google-​class cafeteria, but there is a reasonable variety that changes subtly each day. The food is generally of good quality at reasonable prices.
Skip the line at the grill, and grab either a pre-​made sandwich combo (good deal) or some of that Indian food. (Always a safe and generally tasty bet.)
They have a little coffee kiosk with Starbucks over to the side, which is much nicer than Cisco’s standard-​issue gas station coffee. Be careful to note steam coming from the cup when you squeeze the air-​pot as they have a tendency to let the coffee get cold and bitter.
Might I add: unless you are completely pressed for time, get the food served «for here» in the washable containers, and have a seat for a few minutes to enjoy your meal. Respecting meal time is good for you, and eschewing disposable containers is good for our planet.

You can’t go wrong with stir crazy at building d. Fill a plate with veggies and pick your choice of tofu or meat. The guys cook it up and serve it with rice. That’s my fav, aside from that you’re better off going to one of the bigger better cafs like the one building 11. It’s not bad, it’s just really small.

The Cisco cafes have not been the same since they raised the prices a few years ago. Back then you could get a double cheese burger for 4 bucks. Now, a single cheeseburger is around 7 bucks and the mentality of saving money by eating in the café is gone. Now, walking to Subway or the Greek café for a $ 5 sandwich or falafel just sound like the cheaper and better option.
However…I like Café D, I like the chefs in there, I like the atmosphere of «busy but plenty of seats and not a long wait», and most importantly, I enjoy the food there.
The Indian food is consistently well done, and the stir-​fry is always solid as well. The chefs are never stingy with the food too, they make sure you get enough food to be full.
Still a good place to go for lunch for Cisco employees around building D!

Too good

On the smaller side when compaired with Building 17’s cafeteria, but overall prices seem to be lower, and there’s still pleanty of seating. The selection isn’t as robust as one might like, but the indian food is consistantly pretty good, and the hamburger line is cheap!