هذا الطعام أفضل من طعام المستشفى.

هذا means this and is used to point to a singular masculine noun.

Here it refers to الطعام (the food), which is grammatically masculine, so هذا is the correct demonstrative.

If the noun were feminine, you would usually use هذه instead.

هذا الطعام means this food. Adding هذا makes the noun specific.

• طعام = food
• الطعام = the food
• هذا الطعام = this food

Arabic often uses the demonstrative plus a definite noun, so this food is literally this the-food.

In Arabic, when you say this food, the noun after this is normally definite.

So:

• هذا الطعام = this food
  not
• هذا طعام in this context

That is a normal pattern in Arabic: demonstrative + definite noun.

There is no separate word for is in the present tense in sentences like this.

Arabic often makes present-tense equational sentences without a verb like is:

• هذا الطعام أفضل...
  literally: This food better...

But in natural English, we translate it as:

• This food is better...

So the is is understood, not spoken.

أفضل means better or best, depending on context.
With من, it means better than.

So:

• أفضل = better / best
• أفضل من = better than

In this sentence:

• هذا الطعام أفضل من طعام المستشفى
  = This food is better than the hospital food

This is a very common comparison pattern in Arabic:

• أكبر من = bigger than
• أصغر من = smaller than
• أحسن من = better than
• أفضل من = better than

Arabic often uses the same form for both the comparative (better) and the superlative (best).

So أفضل can mean:

• better when followed by من or when a comparison is clear
• best when the context shows a superlative meaning

Examples:

• هو أفضل من أخيه = He is better than his brother
• هو الأفضل = He is the best

In your sentence, because من is present, أفضل clearly means better.

Here من means than.

Although من often means from, it also has other uses, and one of them is in comparisons.

So in this sentence:

• أفضل من = better than

That is the standard Arabic way to form comparisons.

This is the iḍāfa construction, often called the genitive construction or noun + noun possessive structure.

طعام المستشفى literally means:

• food of the hospital

But in natural English, that becomes:

• the hospital food
• the hospital's food

In Arabic, this structure is extremely common.

Pattern:

• X Y = X of Y

So:

• طعام المستشفى = food of the hospital
• باب البيت = door of the house
• كتاب الطالب = the student's book / book of the student

In an iḍāfa construction, the first noun usually does not take الـ.

So:

• طعام المستشفى = the food of the hospital / hospital food

The first noun, طعام, becomes definite because it is attached to the definite second noun المستشفى.

This is an important rule:

• First noun in iḍāfa: no الـ
• Second noun: can be definite or indefinite depending on meaning

Compare:

• طعام مستشفى = food of a hospital / hospital food in a less specific sense
• طعام المستشفى = food of the hospital

Because من المستشفى would mean than the hospital, which does not make sense here.

The comparison is between two kinds of food:

• this food
• the hospital's food

So Arabic repeats طعام to make that relationship clear:

• أفضل من طعام المستشفى = better than the hospital food

English sometimes avoids repetition more easily, but Arabic often keeps the noun when it is needed for clarity.

المستشفى means the hospital.

In this sentence it is the second noun in the iḍāfa:

• طعام المستشفى = the hospital's food

So المستشفى is not the thing being directly compared. It is part of the phrase describing the second food.

The final ى is called alif maqṣūra. It looks like ي without dots, but it represents a final long ā sound.

So المستشفى is pronounced roughly:

• al-mustashfā

not al-mustashfi

This spelling is common in some Arabic words ending in a long ā sound.

With full case endings, it would typically be:

هٰذا الطَّعامُ أفضَلُ مِن طَعامِ المُستَشفى

Here is why:

• الطعامُ = nominative, because it is the subject/topic
• أفضلُ = nominative, because it is the predicate
• طعامِ = genitive, because it comes after من
• المستشفى = genitive as the second part of the iḍāfa

In normal everyday writing, these short vowels are usually omitted, so learners usually see:

هذا الطعام أفضل من طعام المستشفى

Yes, Arabic word order can sometimes vary, but this version is very natural and straightforward.

هذا الطعام أفضل من طعام المستشفى is a standard nominal sentence:

• هذا الطعام = topic / subject
• أفضل من طعام المستشفى = comment / predicate

You may see other structures in Arabic, but for a learner this is the clearest and most normal way to say it.

It is a very natural and standard way. It literally means the food of the hospital.

Depending on context, Arabic can sometimes use adjective-like expressions or other phrasing, but طعام المستشفى is simple, correct, and very common.

For a learner, it is a good example of how Arabic often expresses ideas like:

• school bus
• hospital food
• city center

by using an iḍāfa rather than an English-style adjective.

A careful pronunciation would be approximately:

hādhā al-taʿāmu afḍalu min ṭaʿāmi al-mustashfā

A few notes:

• هذا = hādhā
• الطعام = at-taʿām in actual pronunciation, because ط is a sun letter, so the l of الـ is not pronounced
• أفضل = afḍal
• من = min
• المستشفى = al-mustashfā

In connected pronunciation, learners often hear something close to:

hādhā ṭ-ṭaʿām afḍal min ṭaʿām il-mustashfā

depending on style and speed.