Brackenridge Cafeteria

I was admitted for 7 days with «gluten-​free» and dairy-​free on my medical orders. I made sure those orders were communicated to dietary, since the admitting RN failed to do so. Sometimes a bun would come with my meal or cheese on my salad. Every meal — almost without exception — had wheat or dairy or both (on two occasions, they delivered my meals so late that there was no re-​ordering, so I had no dinner). Even the couple of meals that did not *obviously* have meat or dairy were making me sick. I complained about it. I spoke to person after person in the kitchen. I spoke to two administrators. Finally I spoke to one of the head chefs. I had to spend 10 minutes (I wish I were kidding!) breaking down in the most basic terms possible what gluten is and what wheat is! He kept telling me that I couldn’t have anything with corn, right? I systemically had to explain what grains were, what the different grains look like, and how gluten fits in the picture. The next day I was getting ready to be discharged and got a wheat bun with my lunch. Unbelievable! Really? There are people who not only do not know what gluten is, they also don’t know what flour really is, and some even don’t know what WHEAT is — and they are working at Brack! WTH.
I told the administrator that they are literally KILLING the patients in that hospital who have celiac. How irresponsible!
DO NOT use this hospital if you are gluten-​intolerant or Celiac.

This is a cafeteria that is in UMCB-​the hosptial has it’s share of indigent care. Let’s cut to the chase and hit the easy to read pros and cons:
Cons:
–Fried food everyday. Keep in mind this a hospital café. Are they drumming up business for future cardiac patients?
–Salad bar not fresh. Weighed salad over priced. Remember, many customers are some of the poorest people in Austin who’s family are inpatients.
–Lack of truly healthy options. Vegetables swimming in butter.
–Poor quality. Lack of imagination. Healthy attempt-​selling plain cut carrots. Fail.
–Poor hours. Closed at 645PM.
A cafeteria represents a hospial the same way the lobby does. Seton, what are you thinking?
Honestly, no «Pros».

1 word: Breakfast.
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it’s definitely something they do right here. Breakfast tacos (best thing offered here, period.), pancakes, omelets, etc. There’s a trick though… you’ve got to go to the grill and ask them to make it fresh! Otherwise, the eggs are most certainly powdered in their pre-​cooked form!
The lunch and dinner foods are just plain jane cafeteria food. LOTS of fried items, a sandwich bar, salad bar, a couple of soup selections, and another non-​fried entrée.
It’s not the best hospital food around, but for those of us who work here, it’s all we got!

Can’t believe I am the first to review this little gem…(cough, bs, cough). Seriously, come UIL high school basketball season in March you cannot get in here. People from all over the state eat here… on purpose. It’s close to Frank Erwin, I’ll give you that. But so is Serranos, Brick Oven, Ihop, Jimmy Johns, the list goes on… and you can’t argue that it’s cheap anymore. Just recently they raised their prices so I can’t even afford to eat there and I get an employee discount!
But, for those of you who, god forbid, are in hospital or visiting in hospital, these are my recommendations.
1. Anything Tex-​Mex. It’s something they do pretty well… from enchiladas to salsa. And honestly if you are lucky enough to come on chicken tortilla soup day, then you will be in for a treat (however unexpected). They load it up with real shredded chicken, jalepenos and a tasty broth. You add your own chips and cheese as you like.
2. Salad bar… You can’t screw up a salad. And usually they do have the bar stocked with a decent assortment of veggies and pre-​made pasta salads and either chicken or tuna salad. This option can be pricey tho, as you pay by weight, so beware adding that extra hard-​boiled, heavy egg.
3. Breakfast tacos… This may fall in the tex-​mex category but it deserves it’s own. You can have them made fresh for you with whatever you like to put in them.
4. Fried okra, fried corn fritters… they do fried well also. It’s a hospital people, only the healthy fried food please!
Things to avoid:
1. Sammiches… They are oh, so tasty but, seriously, who wants to pay $ 7 for it, even with chips and a soda? Not in a cafeteria anyway!
2. Any roast beef dish be it beef hash, beef stroganoff, beef ragout… whatever…stay away! Nothing but fat…
3. Making eye contact with the servers… some are nice but generally they are a surly bunch.