Natural Foods Cafe

Thank goodness the rest of the hospital does not run like this…
Located in the lobby of the Cardiovascular Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Natural Foods Café is a case-​study on how not to run a café in a busy hospital. I’m not going to spend much time on the food. It’s fine. Lot’s of sandwiches and salads from which to choose. The problem with Natural Foods Café is the service. Rarely opening on time, the staff do not seem to be concerned about following any sort of schedule. Many patients’ family members and the hospital staff have schedules to keep and need to be able to get breakfast and lunch in a timely fashion. That can’t happen when Natural Foods Café remains closed 10 minutes after it is supposed to open. Similarly, as people line-​up in front of the counter to order, staff members continue to talk to each other and do anything other than attend to the needs of customers. Same story at the cash register, the staff often are doing something else (putting away stock or arranging displays) and have their backs to the customers who are lining up at the register. Customers will routinely wait up to five minute to get noticed.
I’ve just stopped going to Natural Foods Café. It’s just not worth it. The Hospital cafeteria does a fine job and is much more attentive to the customers.

I can’t help but go back to Natural Foods Café because of where I work. The service is still slow and the servers do so with a scowl more than a smile, but I had the spicy peanut salad which was awesome… I practically licked the bowl!