HAMBURG, Germany — Ask the regulars seated at the sturdy, rectangular tables in the Staff Restaurant Billstedt, the cafeteria for workers in the basement of a municipal building in Hamburg, whether they have a favorite dish. They all give the same answer.

“It’s all good,” insisted nearly a dozen patrons, most of them over 60, packing four rows of five tables each, when asked about their favorite meal on a recent Wednesday.

“You can get salads, soups, a proper meal and whatever you choose, it is good,” said Karin Ahlf, sitting at a table along the back wall watching patrons arrive, hang up their coats on a row of hooks beside the door and head past the tables for the rack of melamine trays at the counter near the back.