What Hospital Food Looks Like In 13 Countries

Most people don't enjoy staying in the hospital, and understandably so. You're likely dealing with health issues, it's uncomfortable and noisy, and, of course, the food is usually subpar. Hospital food in America can vary, but usually isn't very exciting. You're likely to find scrambled eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and pasta or meatloaf for dinner, depending on the hospital. Similarly, the foods you'll find in hospitals around the world usually reflect the country and culture, although one thing remains consistent: it's generally not considered very good.

Hospital foods tend to reflect the types of things the local population usually eats. You're probably not going to be served tacos in Japanese hospitals or sushi in Brazilian hospitals, but some hospital foods around the world may surprise you. Below, we've explored what hospital food looks like in several different countries around the world. Note that menus vary between facilities and may be altered for patients with dietary restrictions.

Located in South America, Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world. As a result, Brazil has a vibrant, rich culture, including several iconic Brazilian foods. One of the strongest impacts of Brazilian cuisine in the U.S. is the popularity of Brazilian steakhouses, which serve grilled meats and a variety of traditional Brazilian dishes. But what can you expect at a Brazilian hospital?

Several people have posted their experiences in Brazilian hospitals to the r/hospitalfood subreddit. One user posted a photo of their breakfast in a private hospital in Brazil, which showed a packed tray that included fresh watermelon, strawberry yogurt, a corn muffin, a bread roll, coffee, milk, and fruit juice. Other uses posted their dinners, which both included rice, meat, and surprisingly, mashed potatoes. The latter described the food as "pretty good, though a bit bland."

A 2021 study originally published in the Cambridge University Press evaluated the food environment of public hospitals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second-most populous city. It found that the food offered didn't promote healthy eating, as it tended to be highly processed. However, changes may be coming, as recently the Grupo Hospitalar Conceição in Porto Alegre recently partnered with local farming cooperatives to offer hospital food produced through family farming.

China is home to over one billion people, yet many people think of the same core dishes when they think of Chinese food. Traditional Chinese food includes dumplings, noodles, wontons, and spring rolls, as well as dishes like kung pao chicken, sweet and sour pork, chow mein, and Peking roast duck. While these dishes are common in China, they're also favorites in America and other Western nations.

Often these foods can be found in Chinese hospitals, although it strongly depends on the hospital you're in. Thanks to medical tourism, hospitals in large cities like Bangkok are often much fancier and offer a higher-end menu, while some rural hospitals don't offer food to patients at all. For hospitals that do offer food, menus can vary based on what part of the country you're in.

On the r/hosptialfood subreddit, one user posted their simple breakfast, which included a pancake, pork bun, and soy milk. Another posted a full day's worth of meals, providing photos of a lunch that included rice, cabbage and onion soup, and pork sausage, and a dinner with rice, tofu cubes, vegetables, and white fish. Their breakfast also included a steamed bun, as well as a boiled egg, broccoli, and sweet potato. That tracks — as one commenter pointed out, "In Chinese cuisine, there isn't as much of a distinction between breakfast and other foods as in Western cuisine."

Czech food is generally known for being hearty. The country's national dish is vepřo knedlo zelo, which is pork roast, dumplings, and sauerkraut served on one plate. Other traditional dishes include svíčková na smetaně (roast sirloin with sour cream sauce), bramboráky (potato pancakes), hovězí guláš (beef goulash), and the pinnacle of carb perfection, kolaches (fruit-filled pastries).

Czech hospital food seems to be similarly hearty. Reddit user chronicled their Czech hospital meals over a few days span on the r/hospitalfood subreddit, and found that breakfast was usually some type of bread with a spread and occasionally a hard-boiled egg on the side. They described one lunch, which included boiled potatoes, tartar sauce, chicken, and pea soup as having "zero flavor," while another lunch was a step up with mushroom soup and traditional buchty, or sweet-filled buns. Dinner included jelly meat, pickled onion, bread, and a mandarin orange.

After years of criticism, Czech hospitals started to change their food in 2021. They cited countless complaints as the driver behind the changes, which included setting new national nutrition standards for hospitals. New menus were first introduced in Prague's General University Hospital and received favorable feedback.

France is known for its art and history, but also its cuisine, which tends to be a bit different than typical American fare. Traditional French dishes include boef bourguignon (beef stew), bouillabaisse (seafood and tomato soup), cassoulet (bean ragout), confit de canard (poached duck), and ratatouille (vegetable casserole or stew). A traditional French breakfast may include crepes, omelets, or a quiche lorraine, and of course, you can't forget the sweet treats like crème brulée and profiteroles.

You won't see all these dishes in the hospital, however. Experiences tend to vary, with some hospitals offering full three-course meals that usually include soup as a starter and some type of roasted meat as the main dish, while others offer more simplified meals. One user posted their meal to the r/hospital food subreddit, showing eggs, pasta, and bread for dinner. Breakfast is often very simple, with that same user's showing a breakfast of bread, butter, yogurt, and tea, and another user showing just bread, butter, jam, and black coffee, far cries from the usually sweet and filling French breakfast.

Anyone who's ever attended an Oktoberfest celebration celebration has an idea of what typical German fare is like. Common German foods include German bratwurst, schnitzel (deep fried meat), sauerbraten (pot roast), and königsberger klopse (meatballs in cream sauce). German food, like Czech food, is made to be hearty and often includes a mix of meat and vegetables.

Unfortunately, not all hospitals offer a hearty meal, like those where lunch and dinner is usually bread with cheese and some type of deli meat, often salami or ham. However, plenty of hospitals offer more traditional German meals. One Reddit user posted their drab but technically traditional German hospital lunch consisting of a bratwurst, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut. Another user posted their hospital's full lunch menu, which includes typical German meals like königsberger klopse as well as foods like spaghetti Bolognese, Thai curry, and chicken noodle soup, providing German hospital patients with a variety to choose from.

Indonesia is a country made up of thousands of islands in southeast Asia and Oceania, and its unique geography contributes to the country's diverse cuisine. Meals often include typical Asian ingredients like noodles, rice, and tofu, as well as tropical ingredients like coconut and shrimp. Popular dishes in Indonesia include soto ayam (Indonesian chicken noodle soup), gado-gado (steamed vegetable salad), beef rendang, and burbur (porridge made from rice flour, coconut milk, and palm sugar).

This flavorful variety of food makes its way into Indonesian hospitals as well. In the r/hospitalfood subreddit, one user posted their hospital breakfast, a tray made of burbur, chicken, and egg;  another user posted a variety of meals, including a breakfast composed of open zuppa soup and guava juice, and for lunch had orange chicken, fresh melon, and tofu. Another user's lunch included fresh melon, corn and sausage soup, curry, and tofu one day and tofu, fish, rice, vegetable soup, and banana. The former user's dinner included curry, cauliflower, tofu, rice, and a banana, while the latter had tofu, shrimp, breaded chicken, rice, and watermelon; one commenter said, "I think this is the best hospital food I've ever seen."

Not surprisingly, most Irish dishes are loaded with potatoes. Irish foods are usually hearty, with meat and vegetables in addition to potatoes. Iconic Irish foods include colcannon (mashed potatoes and cooked cabbage), shepherd's pie (a dish made with beef and vegetables layered under mashed potatoes), boxty (potato pancakes), coddle (a dish of pork, potatoes, and other vegetables), soda bread, and bacon and cabbage.

Ireland's hospital offerings appear to reflect that fare. One Reddit user posted photos of their menu from an Irish maternity hospital, which shows breakfast options like porridge, cereal, yogurt, and toast. For lunch, the menu shows vegetable or butternut soup, while main options include ham, lamb stew, tofu stirfry, roast beef, baked cod, and curry. They also posted a photo of their lunch, showing a plate with ham with parsley sauce, salad, creamed potato, and mashed turnip. Another Redditor posted their dinner from an Irish hospital — a plate with turkey, carrots, brussel sprouts, and potatoes, while a similar Irish hospital dinner with poultry, peas, carrots, and potatoes. Looks like meat, veggies, and potatoes are really the heart of Irish meals, even when you're on the mend.

Italy is famous for a lot of things: history, art, and architecture, to name a few, but it's possibly most famous for its food. While a lot of what we think of as Italian food isn't actually Italian at all, many traditional Italian dishes are still eaten around the world. Traditional Italian foods include pizza and pasta, although they look a bit different than what we usually see in the U.S.. It also includes sarancini (fried rice balls), ossobusco (slow cooked veal), and risotto (creamy rice).

Despite Italy's reputation for food, the options served in the country's hospitals tend to be lackluster. In the r/hospitalfood subreddit, one user posted their Italian hospital lunch consisting of boiled chicken and carrots, pastina and broth, apple puree, and a biscuit, leading one commenter to say, "Italy has too much quality food to serve this to sick people." Another Redditor seemed to have better luck with his Italian hospital lunch, which included pesto pasta, hamburger, mashed potatoes, steamed greens, fresh tomatoes, and a pear. Unfortunately, their experience doesn't seem to be the norm, as Italians seem to be aware that their hospital food is lacking.

Japanese food has been growing in popularity in the U.S. over the last several decades. This is no surprise, considering the range of bright, flavorful options that Japanese cuisine has to offer. Sushi is the first thing that comes to mind for most people when they think about Japanese food, but things like tofu, ramen, and miso soup are also incredibly popular. Other well-known Japanese dishes include udon (thick noodles), tempura (deep-fried shellfish or vegetables), yakitori (grilled chicken skewers), sashimi (thin-sliced raw fish), omuraisu (an omelet with fried rice), and donburi (rice bowls with meat and vegetables).

In general, Japanese hospital food has a good reputation. Patients will often find rice, soup, and fish with their dishes, though it can vary. One woman on the r/pics subreddit posted photos of the food offered to her after she gave birth in a Japanese hospital, showcasing dishes that included omuraisu, macaroni salad, squid rings, salmon, mackerel, bream, rice, and miso soup. In the r/hospitalfood subreddit, user a user posted a photo of lunch from a Japanese emergency room, which featured a pork cutlet and salad as well as the traditional rice and miso soup.

Situated in northwestern Europe, the Netherlands is known for picturesque scenery, tulips, and windmills, and not usually for its food. A typical breakfast in the Netherlands is usually bread topped with something like cheese, jam, peanut butter, and even chocolate sprinkles, but breakfast may also include yogurt or muesli, a grain similar to oatmeal. Other traditional Dutch foods include raw herring, stamppot (a mashed potato dish), kapsalon (a dish similar to poutine), and rijsttafel (an elaborate Dutch-Indonesian meal with a rice base).

The types of foods you might see at a Dutch hospital can vary from location to location. Hospital breakfast is usually pretty simple: bread with your choice of toppings. One user in the r/hospitalfood subreddit posted a slightly different hospital breakfast of muesli, yogurt, and a banana — still very standard for a Dutch breakfast. Lunch and dinner are where you'll find a lot more variation; a Redditor posted their lunch of egg salad, chicken filet, cheese, minestrone soup, beef salad, and rolls, while the dinner they posted was baby potatoes, cauliflower, "blind finches" (beef rolls), and creamed spinach. Another dinner featured macaroni with beef and tomato sauce. That user even added a comment saying, "For hospital food it wasn't bad at all!"

South Korea has been an independent nation for less than a century, but the area has a rich history. For hundreds of years it was part of various Korean kingdoms and empires, and then was colonized by the Japanese from 1910 until the end of World War II. As a result, South Korea has a vibrant, varied culture that's reflected in its foods. Traditional Korean recipes include kimchi (a spicy side dish made from fermented cabbage), bibimbap (a bowl of rice, beef, egg, and vegetables), galbi (marinated grilled meat), bulgogi (a sweet meat dish), and tteokbokki (sweet and spicy steamed rice cakes).

In South Korean hospitals, rice, kimchi, and soup are common meal options. One Reddit user posted a South Korean hospital meal that included tofu, chickpea salad, steamed fish, kimchi, and rice porridge; a similar meal of rice porridge, pork bulgogi, zucchini soup, and spinach was also on offer. Another Redditor posted a slightly more elaborate meal that included sauced fried chicken, bean sprouts, braised pork with carrots and potatoes, and a chicken wrap, along with the standard rice, soup, and kimchi.

If you've ever visited the restaurant of an Ikea, you probably have some idea of what Swedish food entails. But while Swedish meatballs are delicious, there are plenty more iconic Swedish foods you should try. These include lingonberry jam, pickled herring, knäckebröd (crisp bread), ärtsoppa och pannkakor (pea soup and pancakes), räksmörgås (shrimp sandwich), and the iconic green prinsesstårta (princess cake).

Breakfast in Swedish hospitals is usually pretty simple. One Reddit user posted a maternity breakfast to the r/hospitalfood subreddit that included open-faced sandwiches with cheese, tomato, and cucumbers, as well as a glass of orange juice, a hot cocoa, and even a small bouquet. Another Redditor also posted their breakfast of toasted bread, ham, and boiled eggs, which they rated 10/10 even without a bouquet; their dinner consisted of a minced beef pie with a salad and green beans. Not everything is roses, though — one user found their hospital dinner to be a little lackluster, rating their dinner of folukorv (sausage) stroganoff at a 6/10.

The Southeast Asian country of Thailand is home to everything from tropical beaches to ancient temple ruins. Thailand, known as Siam until 1939, has a storied history dating back centuries leading to the rich culture seen today. Traditional Thai dishes include pad thai (a stir-fried dish consisting of noodles, egg, tofu, peanuts, and dried shrimp), tom yum goong (hot and sour soup with lemongrass, chillies, and seafood or meat), pad see ew (wide noodles with broccoli and meat in a sweet and salty sauce), and gaeng massaman (a curry dish).

Hospital food in Thailand is generally pretty decent. Congee (porridge) is pretty common, with one Reddit user posting a breakfast to the r/hospitalfood subreddit that included congee with pork and mushroom, a croissant, and orange juice, which they called "very tasty." Lunch and dinner at hospitals usually involve rice and some type of soup. Another user rated their lunch, which included pork fried rice, tom kha soup, and papaya, an 8/10. For dinner, one post featured a photo of a tray that included pork stew, rice, and an orange. While simple, this led one commenter to say, "this looks so beautiful," which is not something you typically hear about hospital food in America.