Allspice Cafe

If you got to be sick and need to catch a bite to eat before or after seeing your doctor, the second floor at Northwestern Memorial Hospital is the place to be. «They» remodeled the second floor into a shopping/​foodcourt destination head and shoulders above any hospital I’ve been at.
Restaurants include a remodeled Au Bön Pain, Asian/​Thai cuisine, Greek and the ever present smell of gyros, a protein bar for all those yuppies and hipsters as well as the usual stock of serving stations in the main cafeteria.
Give them kudos for presenting a more relaxed informal atmosphere for those patients wanting to escape the bland, impersonal cafeteria aesthetics for a few minutes for lunch.
I do have to say I was surprised at some of the prices, even from the serving stations in the main cafeteria. 10 bucks for a torta seems pretty steep. That’s how they get you. Who wants to walk blocks to find something to eat when not feeling well.
Anyway… It’s worth a look

You would think that since this cafeteria is in a hospital that they would have a greater selection of healthy food but you would be wrong. But they do have a variety of foods to choose from and some of it is even healthy. The décor is nice and it is much nicer than the cafeteria at Rush. That cafeteria is just depressing

Meh, hospital food, during lunch great selection, but after hours things get a bit sketchy

Decent hospital cafeteria fare with a HUGE assortment of fried food. You’d think that at a hospital, they’d serve healthier things, however, allspice loves to deep fry. Follows is a listing of fried fare I remember seeing: French fries, sweet potato fries, waffle fries, corn dogs, mini corn dogs, zucchini fries, battered mushrooms, taquitos, mozzarella sticks, mozzarella scoops, chicken strips, chicken nuggets, chicken wings, battered fish filet, fish nuggets, hush puppies, and cheese cream stuffed jalapenos. I’m sure that there’s a ton more that I’m forgetting too. You won’t see all of those options at any one particular time, as they rotate.
The non-​fried food is decent, but I haven’t had enough of it to make a truly informed judgement. I just can’t say no to the fried food because it’s delicious, always available regardless of the time of day, and the best value.
Oh, and unlike Prentice’s cafeteria, they don’t charge you here if you grab a plastic cup for water.

The Allspice Café is the official name of the cafeteria for Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Employees call it «the cafeteria» and it looks exactly like a cafeteria. This cafeteria, The Allspice Café, is extraordinarily good, and offers a wide variety of food, all at prices that are reasonable, although they are not cheap.
The cafeteria is broken down into multiple sections. There is a section which displays and serves dinners. Patrons line up there for salmon, chicken, mac and cheese, eggplant, and the like. Usually there are two or three entrees, vegetables and starches available.
Another section makes hamburgers and the like, to order.
There is a nice section that does nothing but offer two entrees, plus various vegetable and starch dishes, all of which are nutritious and calorie counted for the customer. Here is an example of a meal from this station: baked fish, choice of couscous or bulgar salad, choice of two vegetables from: spinach, asparagus, mediterranean salad (like a horiatiki), squash. Calories = 600, according to the chalkboard, and price = $ 6.95.
Another section makes sushi, to order if you like, but mostly to stock a chiller with boxes of sushi. The sushi is not particularly cheap, nor is it great, but it is made fresh.
There is a frozen yogurt bar, almost like a frozen yogurt store, where a worker will put together your yogurt to order.
Some items in the Allspice Café/​cafeteria are quite a good deal. The meal that I described above is one such deal. Most hot dinners, for example salmon, mac and cheese and one vegetable, would also run about $ 7.00. The hot dinners are quite good.
There is also a salad bar that charges by weight.
I recommend the Allspice Café, particularly at lunchtime when all of the stations are open. The food is very good, freshly made, and fairly priced, or, in some cases, a bargain.
To get to the Allspice, enter the East side of the Feinberg Pavilion on the Erie Street side, then go up the escalators to the second floor.

Not a lot of healthy options. Standard salad bar, but most of the options are greasy, cream-​based or fried options. It’s awesome to see all the medical professionals get fried chicken on top of their giant slices of pizza.
Overpriced, too. A medium salad + small chili = $ 11.11? Redic.
Friendly workers, though. And open till 3AM for the munchies whilst studying.

Restaurant Review
Is there good hospital food… maybe. I have been here numerous times for the past three years and seen the variety of foods available. You can get a custom tossed salad, Mediterranean food, soups, grill items (turkey burger is healthy and the best), sushi, italian pasta station, and gourmet burgers. The new addition is soft serve yogurt and smoothie station. You can round out your meal with starbucks coffee. Well stocked, but at a price. The food is very expensive even for the streeterville area. If your hungry I would recommend the turkey burger with a nice helping of fries. If you are looking to be healthy I would give the sushi and yogurt w/​granola a try. Only 3 stars because of the price.
Pro– wide variety, quick service
Con– very expensive, you can get a cheaper meal outside of the hospital
Hidden deal– NMH employees get 10% off and there is a 1 dollar special on the fried food bar everyday

Had lunch here yesterday. Nice salad bar with healthy selections (spinach, garbanzos, black beans, eggs, beets, peas, chicken, tuna). Topped off with Tazo Iced tea and the bill totaled $ 8.00 even!
However, I was surprised at how much unhealthy and fried food they were serving, all being scarfed down by overweight hospital workers… hmmmmm.

For a hospital cafeteria, Not bad. With some exceptions of course, But will be said later. The salad bar is fantastic. LOTS to choose from. The entrees ain’t bad either. However, AVOID the Dolmadas. Bland & tasteless. There was another entrée which I didn’t particularly care for either, I believe it was the Mustard Greens. The desserts are OK, Some may be not as fresh.

Not for me. Expensive for what you get.

I’ve had breakfasts, lunches and dinners here and the selection is always great. The prices are a bit high, but that’s to be expected at a hospital cafeteria of this caliber. It’s clean and the staff are mostly friendly.
I especially love the area after you pay where you can find all the condiments, silverware and microwaves because it’s so extremely organized which is very refreshing in a large cafeteria like this.
The special are usually awesome with an equally good price so check them out.

The lack of decent non-​corporate lunches on Michigan Avenue led me to resort to wandering through a hospital and dining among a mix of scrubs and senior citizens. I seemed to recall that Northwestern University was noted for best vegetarian dining by PETA, which somehow led me to assume that perhaps the Medical Center’s cafeteria might be something decent.
I was wrong.
The salad bar selection was oddly limiting. I tried to make something decent out of it, but wound up with an odd mélange of spinach, firm tofu cubes (plain), beets, crunchy noodles and french dressing. It tasted as strange as it sounds, not to mention the greens were wilted.
Then I got some soggy pasta in some sort of sauce… marinara? No, more like salty watery red stuff.
The case of cake and pie slices looked lovely, though, and I was depending on this to make my meal more satisfying. I picked out a flavorless Oreo crème pie with a soggy cookie crumbles and crust. In other words, a chunk of mush.
BOO Allspice!!! Maybe I just picked the wrong things though? I mean the overall selection was definitely wide and varied… maybe my expectations were just too high… but I don’t think I’ll be back.

I have breakfast here often enough, and I do love me my scrambled eggs, hash browns, and bacon.
Mmmm bacon.
Occasionally, I’ll come for the salad bar too, but I’ve definitely had better salads.

Very reminiscent of good old Owen Hall…
The salad bar is a little on the expensive side ($ 10 for a pound of salad? err… Northwestern, I pay you enough in medical care that you could certainly subsidize my healthy lunch so I don’t end up in your offices so often… wait…i think it’s a ploy… eat the unhealthy cheap shit so you DO end up in their offices more often…)
Conspiracy theories aside, it’s a quick decent lunch and you can eat it by a sunny window with invalids and other interesting hospital types.

Aw, dang! I totally thought I had the lock on being the first reviewer!
Mike W. ain’t lying, this hospital cafeteria beats all ideas one has of such places to death (Code Blue! HaHa! eeehh…) with a wide selection and reasonable prices.
It’s a place that reminds me of the University type cafeterias with seven or eight different stations featuring different types of «cuisine». Remember though: you’re not going for selective quality, you’re going for food: quick and not too overly priced. Their salad bar fits the bill nicely.

If you’re in Streeterville, can’t decide what to eat, and want something fast and cheap, you can’t beat Allspice Café — Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s cafeteria.
They’ve got a great selection of all kinds of cafeteria foods, plus they have signs with everything’s nutritional value. My faves are the extremely cheap soups, or a mix of sides with a small salad.
Btw, this place is hidden on the 2^nd floor of the hospital, next to a large Au Bön Pain. There are escalators near the central entrance that will lead you there.