LUNCH BUZZ: Where Are the Best Cafeterias?

Tired of being extorted at your favorite Asian pay-per-pound lunch buffet? Are the kids at Union Station getting on your nerves or stepping on your feet? Is the crew at your local Cosi a little too chipper about their flatbread? Where can you eat in peace and at good prices? Listen up.

The eGullet dining forum lends its expertise on the best office cafeterias in town.

Can anyone eat at the National Geographic cafeteria? Yes, just get a subscription.

From "babka" via eGullet:
... [J]ust subscribe to the magazine. They'll send you a membership card, and that will get you into the cafeteria every day that you'd like. The food is cheap enough that the membership will pay for itself, if you eat out a couple times a week, though I actually like the magazine itself. And the food and atmosphere is much better than the the [National Education Association] 'atrium': there's a little half-garden outside with real sunlight and some decent bbq whenever the moon turns blue. Plus eavesdropping on gossipy NG employees is much more fun than doing so on NEA folks.

What about the rumors that the Department of Energy has the best cafeteria food in the executive branch. Not so, says "laniloa":
... Sorry I don't have a link to the article but I see it hanging in the Dept. of Commerce cafeteria! It lists Dept. of State as No 1 and Commerce as No 2 and had Labor pretty low. Any Federal employee can gain access to the Commerce building and, therefore, the basement cafeteria (with outdoor courtyard seating for nice weather). Others need to be cleared by an employee. I don't know if the same is true for the Supreme Court cafeteria but we used to go there sometimes when I worked in the Senate (horrible cafeteria -- House food court is much better).

And what of the buzz about the World Bank dining facilities? According to "Malawry," it's top notch, but stay away from the FBI headquarters.
Definitely get a friend to get you into the World Bank cafeteria if you can. I ate there several years ago and enjoyed a respectable chickpea curry for something like $4 (including rice and bread).

DO NOT eat at FBIHQ's cafeteria if you ever have the misfortune to be invited or hired and therefore given access. I worked on the same floor and they were closed for a couple of days due to evidence of rodents. (We had glue traps all over the offices to catch the little buggers.) Everybody at the FBI eats out unless they're desperate for time or just want a donut delivered by Dunkin Donuts every morning. (Those, and the coffee, are "safe.")

And of course, the Department of Agriculture's cafeteria has a dubious reputation. (Remember this?)