Cafe Express

My first visit to Houston and in need of a breakfast, found Café Express close to my hotel and had the tastiest scrambled eggs, southwest scramble. Friendly happy staff, which I look for and great coffee.

Walked in there around 2:45/2:50 and didn’t notice it was almost 3pm (closing time). The cashier lady had the worst greeting face. It almost seemed as she was not happy that I came in a few minutes before closing time. I thought it was completely rude and not very customer-​oriented. Unfortunately, I’ll give it a low star. Was really looking forward to eating the Mediterranean salmon but she really gave me a very uncomfortable feeling I decided to eat somewhere else.

Was greeted with most wonderful enthusiasm when it came my turn to order. It was a welcomed energy to break me from the office during my late lunch. When you can forge a smile from a customer who is preoccupied with the work they left and have to return to kudos! The food was exceptionally good at this location too. Great visit for me

The Roasted Vegetable Tart was the best thing I’ve had at a restaurant in a long time.

THE GRILLED CHICKEN PLATE IS AMAZING. The chicken was very juicy and the side of veggies tasted fresh. I always like Café Express and feel that it is a healthy restaurant where you leave satisfied.

Not bad!
I was pleasantly surprised. Food tastes good and healthy. I thought it was a bit pricy when I was initially looking at the menu but they give very generous portions. I also love the fact that they have pickles, jalepenos, carrots, and other extra things you can pick up for free while you are waiting for your food. I ate the swiss mushroom burger with fries my first time there and the chicken fettucini alfredo the second time around. I highly recommend the burger over that particular pasta. I’ll probably try the soup and salad the next time I visit.
There’s a lot of space but it gets packed during lunch time (come before 12:00 pm if you can). Prepare to wait at least 10 minutes for your food. If you are in a hurry just call in before and pick up your food.

Nothing blows me away about this place but it is solid and very good. The lunch rush is huge, so I call in and pick it up. the service is mostly good. A good everyday staple for salads and sandwiches.

Great lunch place.
I came here nearly 10 years ago for the first time when my high school friends and I came downtown for a historic tour for extra credit in AP US History…
ANYHOO, for what this is, it’s fine.
–Spacious, if you come around 11:30, there’s plenty of seating
–speedy and staff is friendly like all other locations
–healthy options and good value compared to other lunch places in downtown
–accessible from the tunnel
I’ve come here with a range of party sizes, from 2 to 10. Always had enough seating and prompt food.

Café Express is another one of the more decent eats downtown for the lunch crowd. We went there a few times because their food is good and it was convenient.
Atmosphere: There is a lot of seating here, but it’s also one of the most popular lunch spots downtown so it is really hard to find a table. From 11:45 — 1:15 this place is packed. They try really hard to get the orders in and send out your food as fast as possible so that is pretty nice. However it’s really packed which is kind of annoying.
Service: It’s cafeteria style so service isn’t really an issue. They get your food out pretty fast and everything else is self-​serve.
Food: I only get one thing here which is the Milanese Pasta. I really like it. The pasta is normally cooked really well and the chicken breast is very flavorful. I’m normally not a big fan of chicken breast and make my bf eat it, but I would say I ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ this chicken because it is very good. They have pretty good sweet potato fries and the bf seems to like their sandwiches.
I would say I like this place and it’s one of the better and more consistent downtown lunch locations.

This Café Express location is a staple for the downtown business community. I know many people who eat here a couple of times a week. This restaurant is very consistent in its delivery.
The challenge is that the restaurant is slammed with guests during the lunch hour. They are pretty good about cycling people through the line, but it is sometimes difficult to find a table. They have outside dining and for about half the year it is pleasant enough to sit outside.
I love the chili. It is nicely seasoned with just a touch of heat. It is great in the winter or a rainy day as it will warm you through and through.
The salads are all very fresh. There is plenty of diversity from pasta salads, to tuna salads, to green salads. All of the ingredients blend well and offer good textures. If you want to watch the calories, just get the dressing on the side and avoid the mayo based salads. The accoutrement bar has all the extra you could ever want!
The turkey burger is really good. The black bean burger is awesome! Lots of good healthy flavor. You can top it with cheese for extra burger goodness.
There are lots of pasta choices as well. I love their pesto! Add capers and sun-​dried tomatoes… and it is full of textures that please the palate.
The iced tea is freshly brewed. The black currant is wonderfully flavorful. I usually drink my tea plain, but here I always add the black currant.

Can’t beat their turkey burger and sweet potato french fries. Love it. I take off the top bun to make it a bit more low carb. But then probably destroy it with all the ketchup I use. Haha.
Many new varieties of in-​house tea to choose from.
Very quick lunch if you work downtown.

I’ve only been to this Café Express for lunch, as it is very convenient to my work location downtown. Like any Café Express, the menu is diverse enough to please most, while also being [relatively] healthy without sacrificing taste.
Everything I’ve had is delicious – the veggie sandwich is quite unique with the pickled veggies, the veggie burger is gigantic, and the Amore pasta are my favorite vegetarian dishes. Oh, and their pesto is really good, too!
I like the condiment area with roasted garlic, sundried tomatoes, grated parmesan cheese, and other goodies. And this location has outdoor seating, as well as the usual free wi-​fi.
If you want to order food for a meeting or event, their box lunches are a great change of pace from some of the usual suspects.

I don’t know why people hate on Café Express, but the veggie sandwich (hummus, carrots, grilled onions, spinach) and the sweet potato fries are so good. Plus, stock up with goodies at the free salad bar.

I love this Café Express, the food is similar to all the others but the staff are even nicer. I arrived in search of dinner to eat in front of the telly not realising it was three minutes before closing time. They did not give me the ‘go-​away silly person, we want to go home’ stare, just served up a perfect meal and I was good to go, literally and figuratively. I have never had a bad meal here and will be back. Hopefully in a less last minute fashion.

What were they thinking? The management needs tighter control in the kitchen! Usually I love Café Express. The one in the Baybrook Area is really nice. The one on main street looks pretty, but the service and food were ill prepared.
I just started a quick work project around the corner from this café. One of my new coworkers and I decided to have a late lunch at Café Express. At 2:00 PM the place was almost empty. The young man took our order. He was pleasant. What surprised me was the usually bountiful spinach and pasta salad looked very sad in its big bowl. It seemed to run out of spinach and it was light on the other vegetables. My new coworker ordered a hamburger that looked fresh and juicy, but the sweet potato fries were very brown around the edges.
Their special berry tea did not have the same flavor I remember either. The restaurant was clean. They had to go boxes for our leftovers. What they ran out of was plastic utensils! I was planning to finish my dish at work for dinner. How can you run out of plastic utensils? Now I understand when I was getting tea in the kitchen at work why another coworker was scrounging around for a plastic fork to eat her food. I had to wait until 8:30 PM when I returned home to finish my meal. I thought I would make this my regular stop, but I was disappointed. All the salad toppings in the world could not doctor the salad to make it taste the way I wanted it flavored.

I had never been to a Café Express before, and, while I wouldn’t object to going back, I can certainly find better. Overall, this place left almost no impression on me. I sat inside for lunch, and the place seemed really cramped. Not because of the number of customers, but because of the number of tables that are physically crammed into that place.
I had the Mediterranean Salmon, and it was acceptable. I was a bit surprised that it wasn’t over cooked, but it was really just acceptable. The flavor was good, but not great, and the sides were fine.
This place really embodies the spirit of, «Meh, I’ve had better.»

David K. and I went to Café Express together for lunch today. This is one I would give 2.5 stars if I could. I’ve been to other Café Express locations in the past; the biggest problem I had here was the lack of space. Tables are packed in here like nowhere else. The entire time we were sitting down, I had people squeezing by, holding their trays over my head. To me, this is a recipe for disaster, and I was almost waiting for a tray of food to end up on my head.
I had the chicken salad sandwich: a definite «it’s pretty good» sandwich, but nothing thrilling at all. It came with fruit, and I also ordered a brownie. The brownie had a bit of a cinnamon taste, and not enough of a chocolate taste. Once again, «it’s pretty good» but nothing out of the very ordinary.
Would I eat here again? Sure. Would I be excited about eating here again? Not really.

Finally, a decent dinner place in downtown Houston!
Of course I’ve been frustrated & fed-​up with Houston’s food choices in comparison to my lovely home city of San Francisco (and our plethora of fabulous restaurants — fresh & healthy). But I couldn’t give up on finding somewhat healthy & affordable dinner options in downtown Houston (given I don’t have access to a rental car during my weekly travel here).
Café Express provides both — healthy dinner options & affordability (so I don’t have to splurge on all my per diem every dinner). Well, I’m at least assuming the dinner choices I selected are healthy. After all, it seems no restaurants in Houston actually post their nutritional information on their websites (i.e. Café Express), nor provide it when I ask them for it, since it’s not on their website (i.e. Alonti).
Last night some friends of mine in the area got take-​out from a different location of Café Express (I have no idea of the location, so I’ll include that review here). I ordered the «Mediterranean Salmon,» and was most pleased with my selection — it seemed healthy AND was delicious.
Tonight, I went to this location to pick-​up the «Roasted Vegetable Tart & Spring Mix Side Salad» and the «Roasted Artichoke Hearts & Tomatoes» veggies. I didn’t eat the side salad, since I preferred the artichoke/​tomato vegetable. But I must say, the veggie tart and the artichoke/​tomato app were both incredible! I loved them.
So, maybe the locals don’t like the speed (or lack thereof) of Café Express, but I called in my order ahead of time, and given NO ONE is downtown in the evenings (circa 7pm CST), I had absolutely no problems with a wait — it was dead inside.
At last, I have one reasonable dinner option within the downtown limits.

Café Express in Downtown Houston.
I eat here often, way too often. It isn’t anything great but I love how everytime I am in line, I go on a diet. And for that, I give it three stars.
I don’t know how fresh the food is and I don’t really care, it’s an ever affordable lunch and that seems more and more difficult to find anymore in downtown unless you eat subway everyday.
The wait can sometimes be bad but I don’t know of any place in downtown that it’s not so I don’t really mind.
Eh, it’s Café Express.

**There’s nothing «express» about Café Express**
I think when you’re confined downtown for work and lunch, people significantly lower their standards. For example, I would NEVER consider eating at Burger King normally, but because there is one downtown by my office, I have been quite tempted. I have resisted the urge (partially out of the fear that that creepy/​crazy Burger King character might make an appearance) so far, but I don’t know how long I will be able to hold out.
Another prime example of the standard lowering effect of downtown is Café Express. I am not a fan whatsoever. If you get there any later than 11:45, be prepared to wait at least 10 minutes to place your order and another 15 – 20 to get your food.
Café Express prides itself on «fresh ingredients.» It’s kinda like a proud mother that is still proud of her son no matter how much of a screw up he is. What Café Express does not pride themselves on is any respect to your schedule or lunch hour. I am all for extending the average lunch hour to 1.5 hours, but Café Express needs to send a memo to my boss and the rest of corporate America.
Even though the food is supposed to be fresh, I am convinced they make most of their food 80−90% of the way ahead of time, wait for your order, wait another 10 minutes and heat it up quickly. I mean, if it takes a while, it MUST be fresh, right?
The burgers here are dry. The pasta is swimming in oil and the salads are too heavy on lettuce. To top it all off, Café Express is actually pretty expensive and they charge you for almost anything you’d want to add to your food. I am happy paying for extras but it’s not worth it here.
Redeeming qualities? Outdoor seating is nice on a nice day, but you may have to share your food with the swarm of pigeons that make their home nearby.
I will probably go back here again not because I like the place but because my coworkers insist on it. Or, I could just pack my lunch and bring some bird feed for the «locals».
Great for: Nothing, really.
Good for: Outdoor seating, Sweet Potato Fries
Bad for: Anyone in a rush or wants good food.