Side Bar Cafe

yum! The cafeteria in my building took a dive so I was told about this place. You can order and pay online which is a plus. They have a great salad bar and they don’t charge by the weight, which is rare. I will definitely be going back as eating here is much more affordable than other places in the area.

Visiting my friends at AG office. Had peets coffee, and breakfast burrito. Im not sure what type of tortillas they wrapped my burrito with but it was not good. Tortilla was thick but filling was good. I unwrapped my burrito and ate the fillings with a fork.

Located inside DOJ (Department of Justice) building, love their menu for breakfast and lunch too and really affordable.

This has been my go to place for about 8 years. In the past, I started the day with a breakfast burrito filled with eggs, bacon, potatoes and cheese. It was so good. Then for lunch, I would have a grilled sandwich with crisscross fries. Yum! Except on Wednesdays, I would opt for the Chicken Tostada Salad lunch special. Double yum!
Since then, I have changed my diet to be a bit more healthy. Now for breakfast, I order scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, and mushrooms, and occasionally ground sausage. Still good. For lunch, I eat at the salad bar and order a chicken breast to put on my salad. Except on Wednesdays, I still opt for the Chicken Tostada Salad lunch special, just without the tostada.
The coffee used to be just okay, but now it is even better since they started selling Pete’s coffee.

This place just keeps getting worse and worse (especially the last few years). I’ve gotten sick to my stomach from their grill; I don’t think they clean it properly.
Avoid this place ~ there are plenty of downtown eating establishments

I usually eat here once a week. The staff is very friendly. Before 7 – 11 opened up on the corner I’d get my morning coffee here every single day. Now I’m hooked on 7 – 11 coffee and can’t stand the coffee at side bar café. The food on the other hand is always good. I order the grilled ham and cheese or the grilled pastrami and cheese frequently for lunch. Their entrees are always good too, a different featured entrée daily. For breakfast they serve really good pancakes and as others have already said, they have good breakfast burritos. The omelets are not good, they are as thin as a crêpe and they mix in the small fillings with the egg instead of «filling» the omelet and folding it over. They are cheap though so I order one and tell them to scramble it and put cheese on top. It tastes better that way. Occasionally they have «fresh baked banana bread», it tastes just like the banana bread my mom used to make and you get a very thick slice.
Previously someone mentioned annoying signs. I have been going here for almost 6 years and I have never seen these signs, I think they are confused with someplace else.
Go here, you will not be disappointed.

If you are looking for a quick, tasty lunch downtown, this is the place. It offers a good variety of grilled items and has a decent salad bar. You can’t go wrong here. The food is tasty, the price is right. If you don’t see what you want, ask for it. They will do everything they can to accommodate your special dietary needs. This is a small, family-​owned café.
To the owner: I would you another star if you carried a decent Greek yogurt. Crystal Greek yogurt is awful. Bring in a better Greek yogurt and I would stop going to the 7 – 11 next door. Dannon Light & Fit or Oikos, please! I would prefer to give you my money rather than take it to 7 – 11.

Wednesdays is Chile Verde day. Large portions with refrieds or black beans, flour or corn tortillas, sour cream, guac and pico with the indispensable cilantro. I’d give it five stars, but haven’t had anything else except pizza by the slice, which I also recommend at less than two bucks. Reasonably priced. In the Dept of Justice Bldg. next to the lobby.

After a meeting with the Department of Justice, I needed a quite bite to eat. Since discovering some food allergies, I need to get egg white and turkey. That’s it. Nothing more nothing less. Although this place is far from fancy, I got exactly what I ordered.
Solid.

I make regular business trips to Sacramento and for some reason my co-​workers keep dragging me into this place. I have never been dissapointed with the food, or the prices. My problem is that it is a bit confusing for someone who is new to this place. At first I wasn’t sure if it was cafeteria style where you get your food and then pay, or if you pay first and get your food. To clear it up, you pay first and then gather up what you ordered. The people at the grill are prompt. The salad bar is well stocked, but not remarkable. I tried their soup last time. It was very tasty. Also, when you are done, don’t forget to bus your own table and take it to the dish room.
I’m sure I’ll be back, but it isn’t really my first choice for lunch downtown.

This cafeteria-​style eatery is located in the Dept. of Justice building. The assortment of items offered are varied, and they offer cooked to order breakfast and lunch.
They have daily specials, but if you don’t get there by about 12:15, they will be sold out of them. They have recently updated their website, it looks better, but they have removed the section of the site that lists the daily specials. Not sure why, it was an important part of the website.
The food is decent and the quality is consistent. I just wish they would get the orders right… if I order my food «for here» they inevitably put it in a «to go» box. I don’t like to eat off of styrofoam and besides, it is wasteful.
The other thing I noticed is that they have the cheapest possible plastic utensils. My plastic knife bends when I’m cutting soft cooked eggs (yes, I’m totally serious).
Also, I’ve never heard of an eatery charging for soda fountain refills, have you? I can see having one refill only, but come-​on! Charging for a refill when your price is the same as every other restaurant that doesn’t charge?

Since I work in the building, this place is very convenient for me. I am constantly getting the one egg breakfast here, not bc it is great, but it is good and it is cheap. It’s under 4 bucks and it tides me over until lunch time. I get it with a scrambled egg, bacon, hashbrown, and raisin bread. The bacon is thin and wimpy, the egg meh…, the raisin bread burnt sometimes, but the hashbrown is good. Ok… so this place maybe should be a two star for breakfast… but I do frequent this place often (I work upstairs) and lunch is a little better. Oh and steak breakfast burrito was not very good, the steak was overcooked and dry.
Lunch fares a bit better– I only go for the Wednesday Taco Salad, and Friday Fish and Chip– sometimes I get the shrimp instead. The taco salad and the fish/​shrimp are very good and a good price (about 6 bucks I think…), I don’t like their fries so I sub it for a bag of chips. FYI the they are a bit stingy with the shrimp, you’ll only get like 6, and they are small. You get more fish if you order that, it’s like two decent sized fish pieces. Sometimes they are a little burnt so I look at it before I order. The taco salad is good and huge. They are a bit stingy about ingredients though, I asked for extra sour cream when I saw how much she scooped on (tiny little scoop), she told me that I needed to pay extra, but since this is a pay first get your food later thing I was not about to go through the line and charge my credit card for whatever the sour cream cost. I understand charges for extra meat and guacamole, but sour cream, really? So know that very small bit of guacamole and sour cream come with it, so if you like lots order it beforehand. You were forewarned.
I’ve also gotten their hotlink… it wasn’t great it tasted more like a hotdog. I like hotdogs, but a hotlink should be better than that. I will stick to my hotdog lady on Capitol.

I wish more places were like this! A small cafeteria tucked away in the Department of Justice in Downtown. Its open to everyone but not a lot of people venture into it. Like Becca F. said, this place is not fancy, but its cozy and comfortable for breakfast and lunch. Stocked with made to order sandwiches, burgers, daily specials, and salad/​soup bar, this little cafeteria that could delivers on satisfying anyones taste buds.
They run a myriad of daily specials from steak breakfast burritos to carnitas nachos. This place has a special place in my heart because it takes me back to my days in the dorms. Food is easy, fast, and delicious! The dining hall is open and clean. And this place is really cheap!!! The other day I got the special which was a heaping plate of carne asade, beans, rice, salad, and tortillas for like 6 bucks~!!! LOVE IT~!!!

I submit to you Exhibit A: a good, inexpensive, grill in downtown Sacramento. Most people just walk pass this place, thinking it’s a cafeteria for only the Department of Justice employees. No, it’s not fancy… but it’s what a good cafeteria is and I haven’t known one since grade school. (High school cafeteria was dark and nasty.) And the dining room is professional looking!
Breakfast burritos are huge; able to feed two people … or save half for a second meal. I usu bypass the salad bar b/​c it has iceburg lettuce. But KUDOS for two different soups. They have quality-​tasting food, esp grilled cheese sandwiches & delicious cross-​cut fries (more than a bite, but not too many to make you feel guilty). Don’t forget the prepackaged ice cream novelties in the cooler =)

After walking past here a million times, and a recommendation from a co-​worker, I finally decided to try the Side Bar Café for lunch yesterday. This is the cafeteria in the Department of Justice building that you can see on the corner of 14^th and I. You get to it by walking in the main doors then taking a left right before you have to go through the metal detectors.
It was a little confusing figuring out how to order food — you order and pay at the register and then pick up at the hot grill line — but once I figured it out it was super fast! The prices are great too. I had an egg salad sandwich for less than $ 5. They have burgers and grilled sandwiches too, and it looks like one choice of hot entrée per day. There is also a salad bar and two different types of soup. They even have breakfast, but I didn’t check that out really.
This is definitely a good place for simple, fast lunches on a budget. It’s nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.