eBay Park Café — restaurant review — California
Oh no! I’m officially a Silicon Valley whore. I’ve worked at Apple, Yahoo!, Adobe, (am still currently a Research Consultant for Google), but eBay made me a juicy offer and a tops title plus pet insurance(!), so I’m there now, helping with the overhaul design bonanza. Woowoo! So far, it’s an awesome place to work; I seriously never thought it would be, since their old site wasn’t much to look at and their homepage now looks very gossip mag, but I’ve been promised big big, albeit graaadual changes on the horizon. I’m starting on the cusp of CEO-for-10-years Meg Whitman’s departure, so anything goes I suppose. I love the eBay culture– that’s the SV catchphrase for a company’s overall perspective as a collective, emanating from its employees. This, for me, includes FUN open-minded, consumer-minded personalities (go UED!), courtesy and security. Oh, and good food.
Wellll, not sure about the latter, but I definitely think the food is better (but far less healthier) than Café Adobe, with slightly less variety. I’ve been told that the caterers are the same as Yahoo! (which means yummy pizza and calzones and seasoning to the point of overseasoning–good in my book), even though some people at Yahoo! who migrated from eBay said the food was better at Y!. Go figure. Y! has a more flamboyant menu, including more Asian and Indian influences (to appease the employee race majorities I would imagine), but I hear Café 17 at eBay (at North Campus) will have a Noodle Bar, Dim Sum Station, Dosa Grill and Tandoori Oven. For now, adventurous eBay Park Café regulars will have to stick to the Global Specials (once a week they have something like Chicken Tikka Masala or Curried Eggplant with Cumin Scented Rice, Daal and Naan -or- Stuffed Leg of Lamb with Organic Greens, Roasted Yukon Potatoes, Mint Jelly and Lamb Au Jus, but today they put Pasta Alfredo as a Global entry??)
I’ve heard people say eBay Park Café was cheap, others say it was expensive; a Marinated Seared Ahi Steak runs close to $8 for a fat five-ouncer, including starch of your choice (fries, curly fries, rice, couscous) and veggies, or two starches, or two veggies, whatever. It was a little odd to eat fish sans sticky rice and with fluffy long grain, but they heap it on overflow and were generous with the steamed veggies as well. The staff was pretty militant, but they were just trying to be as fast as humanly possible. I liked the separate cashiers for each major food type section; maybe it was to save space, although it seemed to create a backlog and one single-file line of varying degrees of order-dom. On my first day of work, three people told me about the chili, which is basically leftovers one said, but if you just want a quick bite (or slurp?) for under $2, that’s the way to go. If it’s vegetarian, and I’ve forgotten my homemade bento, I may someday go there.
NOTE: eBay Park Café at eBay Headquarters (South Campus) in San Jose is not open to the public. You must be an employee or a guest of an employee to dine here, but we still love you.
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