Hot Rocks Java Cafe

As one of two places to eat lunch on the lab proper, hot rocks doesn't have to try very hard, but they make a really good breakfast and a decent lunch. The prices are a bit high, but you're welcome to drive downtown or pack lunch. The place is usually so busy that they run out of food most days. The staff are always extremely busy but still make time to smile and say hello. My only warning would be that if you buy a cookie, check carefully to make sure you are actually getting chocolate chip and not oatmeal raisin disappointment. For being called "Hot Rocks Java Cafe" you would expect great coffee. It's drinkable, just not great. They just started selling that bubble tea stuff. I'm not a fan.

Service is sometimes very good but at other times either scatterbrained or just kind of rude. The food is not very good and they are often out of a lot of things on their menu. They also create a huge amount of trash by using all disposable dishes and utensils. Prices are high for what you get. If the Lab's cafeteria weren't even worse in terms of food and service, this place wouldn't stay in business.

Are you too cool for the main cafeteria at LANL? Then this is the place for you. Get your jargon on while chowing down with the lab scientists. Arrive early to avoid the line at noon.

Basic pretty good food. Beats going all the way into Los Alamos for lunch. Most things seem made in house, so that's a plus. Just not their smoothies.

Great place to get lunch and breakfast foods. Quick service. Great breakfast burritos and they had IBC root beer as well. The most deceiving part is that it looks like it inside the lab and it’s inside the public part of the lab.

We stopped to get some lunch and we waited about 45min for our food. We noticed that everyone that was behind us was already eating and we told the cashier and her response was "and", then the lady who was making our wraps took another 10min to make them. She was very slow, but it looked that she could of been a new employee. Then of course we get back and our wraps are made wrong and when we called and the response was "we run out of stuff". My co-worker took her food back and got her money back, but she said the manager was very nice. But for me I will probably not go back especially if I have to see that rude, horrible cashier.

I changed my rating from 5 to 1. It use to have great burritos and coffee. They have been down hill for a while. Their "Steak grande" burrito should be call "rice grande" steak poquito burrito. All rice, no steak. Today, half o burrito didn't have any meat

Over the course of 4 years of patronage Hot Rocks has continued to get worse and worse. Originally they were actually a pretty good choice. But over time they have managed to consistently screw up orders, take at least half an hour to take a sandwich out of the refrigerator, have apparently sold their microwave as burritos are consistently served cold, and have a coffee machine that ensures that 10% of any given cup of dark roast will be burnt grounds.

And all of that is ignoring colleagues who have found cockroaches in their burritos (it was a whole one though, so don't worry), the ongoing joke that you should never order a panini (I hear some people are still waiting to this very day), and horribly rude wait staff (nothing beats hearing the cashier rant to the people behind the counter that you ONLY tipped her a dollar for an 8 dollar wrap...). And consistently having a dirty order slip resting on top of your burrito when they finally decide it has sit on the counter long enough that it might be warm enough to eat (it really isn't).

And speaking of burritos, make sure you order yours without onions because the Hot Rocks way is to shove half an onion in there otherwise. Although, they have caught on to this trick and now just sell burritos that would look small if you pulled it out of a box in the freezer (and it is only marginally colder)

I understand that this is Los Alamos and that we have much lower standards for service and even food quality. But Hot Rocks is one of those rare places (of which there are two...) that is genuinely bad by Los Alamos standards. Do yourself a favor and go to the cafeteria (which is actually surprisingly good) or take advantage of the fact that everyone else is at work and drive into town for a quick bite to eat.

Very fast service and good clean area to enjoy your food

Tired of the customer service. One lady regularly has breakdowns and is cussing and throwing fits. Other times it's more important to joke around than give me my order that's sitting on the counter (different person).