Mega Bites

Open again! Here is the low down.​

Mega Bites is now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Brand new vending machines for coffee, snacks, beverages, and fresh food have been installed.​ The facilities are also available as a gathering spot and for informal meetings for NASA employees, whether you buy​ from the vending machines or bring your own lunch.​

Below are descriptions from the vending machine company of the offerings in each machine.

Coffee​
Our coffee vending machines offer brands you know, and our own label Highland Estates. Coffee, hot chocolate, espresso... you name it; we've got it!​

Beverages
Our glass-front vending machine provides an expanded variety, including teas, juices, energy drinks, waters, ready-to-drink coffees, sports drinks, and more.

Fresh Food
Our salad and sandwich vending machines offer a variety of fresh food, including wraps, hummus, yogurt, fresh fruit, and more.

Snacks
Nuts, trail mixes, bars, sweets, candy, salty snacks, and other treats - we carry it all. We also make sure every snack vending machine includes a minimum of 15% healthy snacks.

Glad to see a return to normal.

Came in for lunch during training. This is a nice cafeteria. Especially if youre from another aviation location. The cafeteria is a nice size with different stations and salad bars.
I had a burrito made. The chicken was so tender and moist, very flavorful. I will come back especially since its walking distance from hangars.

I'm legitimately surprised this place doesn't have a better rating. I eat here 3-4 times a week and have never had a bad meal. Burritos, smoked bbq, chicken katsu, chana masala, make-your-own sandwiches, and a great salad bar (all the avocado you want)! Lots of variety in the hot plates.

It's not fine dining, but it's far and away the best cafeteria I have ever been to!

Mega bites is fairly affordable and has great food that's fresh from the grill. They have the absolute crisp and big ONION RINGS that are the best in town!! So far, I only had a few meals here including the gigantic onion rings, amaaazing tuna cheese melt, O-so-mighty NASA Burger, and..horrid curry. You would think the NASA Burger in the pic. is something a big fireman or toned astronaut might finish, but I completed the glorious burger by myself!!!! In it is: bacon, lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, cheese option, and your patty- Oi I should go there for any of my burger fixes!! To top it all off, the people here are very nice and remember your names :)

It also hosts Happy hours once a month and has volley ball courts, gift shop, and outside seating near by.

Breakfast: Get your eggs cooked fresh and hot by filling out a grill slip instead of ordering the pre-made scrambled eggs. The pre-made scrambled eggs were overcooked. Rubbery. Gross. I usually eat cereal for breakfast, but if I want to splurge (on fat and carbs), I order an egg, fried over easy, sandwich it in-between a warm buttery biscuit and drown it in gravy. Yum! Much better than the golden arches, too.

Lunch: Get your dressing on the side, otherwise your $8 salad will become a $9 salad. The salad bar offers a really good selection of veggies and toppings (this is a cafeteria, after all). Two days in November, Thanksgiving dinner is offered (during lunch). At $6.50, it's a really good deal for turkey, mashed potatoes (re-hydrated from mix?) and gravy, stuffing, vegetables, dinner roll and dessert (pumpkin pie). Definitely more than I can eat. It feel like 3 pounds of food. Depends on the day, but the rotating lunch specials include roasted pork loin, made to order burritos (Burrito Wednesdays), Cuban sandwich, Thai beef salad and baked salmon. Plastic utensils cost five cents if you aren't buying anything. You have to pay for cups, pb, salad dressing if you aren't buying anything.

Happy hour: Bring cash for the $2 beer on tap and wine. It's pretty much a fried food eating frenzy and heart health saboteur. My favorite item is the fried chicken drummettes. Come prepared with your own utensils and ketchup, if that's something you need with your chicken nuggets and fried mozzarella sticks. At the beginning of happy hour, the food comes out quickly, and is fresh and burning hot from the deep fryers. Forty-five minutes later, it really starts slowing down and lots of people are milling around waiting for more food to come out. One hour after happy hour starts, the fruit and veggie platters are decimated and won't be replenished. There is always the "famous" pizza in a variety of topping combinations. What makes this pizza famous? No clue. That's just what they LOVE to call it. It's actually kind of gross when it's not fresh out the oven. Anyway, free food and cheap booze and they will come! Happy hour lasts two hours, but for the best selection and a place to sit with friends, the best time to go is definitely the first hour.

Awesome salad bar.
Cash and credit cards accepted.
No dinner service.
No sales tax.
Wide variety of food offered as it's the ONLY cafeteria at NASA ARC. (Barcelona Cafe is in the research park section).
Great people watching, if you're into astronauts, scientists, physicists and engineers.

I get lunch here a couple of times a week.

Be advised that you have to have a non contractor CAC card (government issued ID) to enter the area this place is at.

Anyway, they have an awesome sandwich bar. Fresh meat, cheese, lots of bread, etc. They also have a really nice grill, and hot line which features some nice meals such as burritos made to order, gyros, meatloaf, etc.

I like the prices here too. Really reasonable. Friendly staff here too. Really friendly!

I uses to work at NASA Langley in Hampton VA, and can confidently say that:
NASA Ames cafeteria is much much mucho bettah than NASA Langley cafeteria!!

I come here once in a while. The food is okay a place I would only go if I forget to bring my lunch to work. it is a bit pricey for what your getting. Also, I wish they gave a little discount if you work inside the campus. They have a variety of selections of foods and drinks.

At the NASA-Ames research center, there's really only two choice for food: the Korean BBQ truck or Mega Bites cafeteria.

Nerd jokes aside, (Mega Bites? Megabytes? get it?), this is pretty much
the only permanent place for food, and its really not half bad.

Theres a different special every day, and best of all? its Tax Free!

But feeding an entire research center off one cafeteria means long lines and a constant hunt for seats. And cash only?! You figure NASA, of all people, would have caught up with technology by now, amirite?

When all else fails, go to Megabites.

When you work on base the pro's of megabites include:

- Not having to dive into the downtown mountain view lunch rush.
- Tax free food.
- Wide variety of food (Vegetarian, Grill, Specials, salads, sandwiches, etc).

When you hear cafeteria food you are immediately taken back to elementary school laminated tater tots and Salisbury steak right? Well have no fear the food here is not half bad. In fact, if you visit enough times, you learn that there are some dishes that are gourmet quality! I personally LOVE the jambalaya and the tri tip. The entire staff is very nice, and they are not shy about portions either. Here's a hint, if you give them a nice big smile, they tend to give you a little extra. If you don't like one of the side dishes, they will be more than happy to substitute it with a different option.

They are CASH ONLY, so make it a habit to pack some lunch money before going to work.