Harkness Dining Room

Too many birds fly in. Can’t wait for the 2015 renovations! Hopefully many improvements to come.

Pros
1. The salad bar is ok, if you arrive before the supply is depleted
2. The daily specials are ok, if you arrive before they run out (I believe the special begins at 11:30am or 12pm and is always sold out before 1pm)
3. Free ice
4. Microwaves available for people to heat up their own lunches
Cons
1. Drinks are overpriced
2. Hot food is mediocre at best. Tasteless, mushy; everything you expect when you think of nightmare cafeteria food
3. Bad advertising; they make you think the food is cheap by posting ala carte prices and meal prices, but they staff does not distinguish anything for you. As soon as you say «I’d like the meatloaf please» they ask immediately if you’d like mashed potatoes; of course you do, it’s meatloaf. But, they mashed potatoes will cost you another $ 2, and when you add vegetables (because who doesn’t want a well-​rounded lunch?), everything comes out to just under $ 10 for your lunch, before you buy a drink. That’s standard downtown lunch prices.
4. Their snack variety is very limited.
My suggestion: go to the food trucks. You’ll pay the same price and get way better food.

GET IN MY BELLY!
I didnt even know of this cafeteria until one day I had a dentist appointment and my boyfriend mentioned that there was a café. In my head I was like «eww babe, hospital food before I get my tooth pulled?» But i was soo hungry so I went anyway hoping they had good breakfast, if not great.
How’s me. I straight judge this place! When I walked in, there was so much breakfast options! from oatmeal, mush, waffles, hot dog waffles, omelet bar, and a huge section of just breakfast! eggs, spam, bacon, portuguese sausage, maple sausage, fried rice, hash brown, corn beef hash, toast, french toast, and pancakes!
I got 2 scoops fried rice, portugese sausage, eggs, and french toast for $ 5! It was soooo gooood!
I now come here for breakfast and sometimes lunch (:

I have eaten here several times and the food is not bad for a cafetaria. There is a salad bar (fruit and oatmeal if it is breakfast time), custom order bar, and a hot bar. There is a small fridge to get prepackaged sandwiches and sushi.
The employees are nice and during rush hour there is a few registers open — one dedicated to just hospital employees.
Nothing spectacular but I will probably being eating here again.

This place is dirt cheap and I love it! The Harkness Dining Room is the hidden gem of downtown Honolulu. For $ 1.25 you can buy a big fat piece of banana pancake. For under $ 5, you can get the large plate that consists of a big scoop of fried rice, a mountain of eggs, and 10 pieces of bacon! It’s super close to the Capital and not too far from FortStreet Mall.

A friend treated me to lunch here recently and it was surprisingly good. I had sweet and sour pork with rice and vegetables, and it was tasty. She wanted to try the «make your own loco moco,» but they said they had run out. It was after 1pm, so I guess it would be safer to get there around noon. They also had a very attractive salad bar, which I think I would like to try on the next walk over here. It had been a number of years since I had been here, and I was quite impressed by how nice the whole place was. When I worked at Straub, I thought their café was pretty decent, but this place is definitely a cut above. I didn’t feel like I was in a hospital cafeteria at all. Will definitely return soon!

I go to the Queen’s café nearly everyday. It’s not terrible, considering hospital food is supposed to be bland. I was pleasantly surprised. I rated a 3 instead of 4 because the food isn’t that as compared to a 4 star restaurant.
The service is quite good. The lines move fast, and the staff are usually friendly.
They have a large selection of dishes every day. I look forward to the lunch specials in the innovations section of the café near the open salad bar. They have a specialty item every lunch hour, but you have to go quickly otherwise they run out.
The breakfast has an assortment of meats, fried rice, eggs, French toast, etc. On Thursdays, they have an omelet bar. I wish they would have a speciality section for breakfast.

3 Stars = «A-​OK» according to Unilocal… as far as hospital cafeterias go, this place is A-​Ok. not amazing… but A-​OK.
on march 18^th, after a horrendously long wait to get my blood drawn, i was STARVING because of fasting i had to do before the blood draw.
the nearest source of nourishment? Harkness dining room.
specials that day included fried chicken, veggie chow fun, and braised pot roast. i ordered the pot roast with some mash potatoes and the «hot veg».
this was surprisingly good… or maybe its because i was starving… but the meat was moist and tender, the braising juices were tasty, and it came with 3 large pieces of meat! the mash potatoes were your standard box flaked type where you «just add water» and instantly you have your carbs for a week. the hot veg was equally uninteresting… an over steamed vegetable medley of green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots.
but then again… this is hospital food… you should’t expect high quality dining.
also, if you choose to eat outside, they have a nice array of plants surrounding the area, so it feels a little less like a hospital cafeteria, and more like an outdoor café… kinda.
p. s. the vending machines right outside of the Harness dining room are the most impressive, cool looking-​ones i’ve ever seen so far.

Today 10÷19÷11 was Thai Tom Yum. So i give a 5 star for that soup. Usualy I don’t care for Thai food, but this soup is cooked and done beautifully. It is cooked fresh at the Harkness Dinning room on the QMC between 11am-​run out. They serve it only once a month. The soup has fish, scallops, shrimp, and chicken… to DIE for!
Harkness you are BOMB!!! I ate the whole thing!

Morning salad bar looks good with fresh strawberries. Breakfast is a pretty good deal. Food is edible, I can’t complain.

Hospital food had been one of my worst enemies and greatest fears for many years. (The media, especially television, does not portray hospital food in an amicable way…)
I remember being forced to eat that not-​so-​appealing hospital food when I was younger, and swearing I’d never eat it ever again. Nasty. For some reason – I’m not sure if it was an urban legend or a myth my storyteller grandmother had told me – I believed human remains were served in the hospital cafeterias. Now that I’m older, I realize that would be a total health violation and, not to mention, VERY disrespectful
Being that I work at Queen’s Medical Center and a vast majority of the staff dines at the café, I became a little curious. And for me, it is extremely difficult to go without trying something that everyone else claims to be good.
I’m really glad that curiosity got the best of me. The food at Harkness is delish. They have a great variety: a decked out salad bar, pizza, sandwiches, ready-​made sushi, soups, and daily hot food specials. There is a monthly calendar that is available online. The calendar let’s you see what they’ve got ahead of time. Very convenient… Just in case I «accidentally» forget my home lunch.

At first glance, nothing appealed to me as I walked through this cafeteria during a lunch hour on a weekday here, so I defaulted as I always do when I’m around Queens to Yukis Lunchwagon no more than a few hundred feet away from this cafeteria. But on another visit to Queens I was super hungry and had no cash and had to eat at the café, as they accept credit, o-​yah, big plus. Had the chili w/​brown rice, a super tender roast beef w/​brown gravy and broccoli, and side fries. Loved everything but the broccoli, too rubbery. I’d say this would be an above average cafeteria. Then again the last cafeteria I ate at was probably in high school, public high school.

3.5 stars. If you don’t work @ Queen’s hospital, chances are that like me, you are at Harkness under a horrible cloud of ER panic. Queen’s is one of the most labrynthine and disorienting hospitals ever, and Harkness (once you even find it, it’s in a older part of the building between the main hospital and the medical library on Beretania) is equally difficult to navigate. Enter by walking against the flow of traffic thru the checkout line… what? My life is already nuts enough, thanks. The food is a bit less healthy than I would expect for a hospital. Chili is super salty, no unsweetened drinks except for water, fries and kalua pork… but the quality is good, portions are not giant (good) and the price is very fair. The hotline serice is nice, adds a very homey touch. The grounds are so lovely, all that attention to detail with plants makes it a lovely nook to regroup for a weary family member who’s had a rough night.

Food is pretty decent for a cafetera (maybe because hospital cafeteria food is generally underrated). Good price. Good coffee. Better on weekdays as food turns over faster. Had breakfast here on a Sunday.

The food is quite good here, especially for a hospital cafeteria.
Thursday is your best bet — they have made to order omelet specials at breakfast special, which occasionally rotates with Eggs Benedict or Bananas Foster Waffles.
Thursday is also when they feature a made to order pasta stir fry lunch special.
Both the omelets and the stir-​fries are big enough to share if you aren’t a huge eater. They also have daily fresh made sushi and other showcase specials, including personal sized pizzas and occasionally panini.
Also, the salad bar is extensive and includes items like poke and roasted vegetables plus composed salads. The down side is that the price per pound is somewhat higher than average to allow for those fancy items, so you can easily build a $ 10 salad if you’re not mindful of what’s going on your plate.

Yes, I am reviewing a hospital cafeteria. But this is not just any hospital cafeteria! It’s flippin Harkness! I have eaten here almost every weekday for two years.. .thousands of my dollars have been given to this eatery from lunch breaks and early dinners. Ya know, the food here is not great, but it’s good.. .especially since it’s catered toward patients so it’s low sodium, low fat, perfect for your health. Alllllllssooooooo, every Thursday is pasta day! I moved back from New York for pasta day (almost, but not quite). I would kill for pasta day. Actually.. .. .yes, I would kill someone for pasta day.
ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDD.. .the specialty chef also cooks for 3660 on the Rise. Seriously, the creator of 3660’s ahi katsu? I bow down to you.
And 10% discount for Queen’s employees.. hallelujah hollaback.