doc w/ Pen

On Tuesday, I was scrolling through Yelp listings, looking for a place to dine that was located near my apartment on New York’s Upper East Side (UES). I saw the standard fare, as expected — Italian, Indian, Japanese, Thai, and so on. And then I saw this:

I did a double take. I expect Yelp to be comprehensive, but Memorial Sloan Cancer Center’s hospital cafeteria? I wasn’t expecting that.

I’d actually just been to this cafeteria the day before, the morning I started a four-week rotation on colorectal surgery. (This is the second four-week block of my eight-week surgery rotation.) I didn’t buy anything at the cafeteria, just peeked in. But after reading some of the reviews, I have high hopes. As usual, there were complaints. But there was a positive theme to the reviews, as evidence by this pointed comment:

It really is the best when it comes to hospital cafeteria food. Crab cakes, paninis, chicken pot pies, macadamian crusted fish. Enough said.

I’m not sure if the same could be said about the Garden Cafe at Cornell.

The Garden Cafe, for those not familiar with the UES hospital scene, is the cafeteria at New York Presbyterian Hospital. This is the main hospital affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College, and where I do most of my clinical rotations. I agree wholeheartedly with this reviewer that the food there is nothing to write home about.

Even though it takes extra time and effort in the morning, I usually bring my own lunch — both to save money and because it’s healthier. But one of these days, I’ll have to try the cafeteria food at Memorial Sloan Kettering. See what all the fuss is about.