Carving Board Cafe

Really great sandwiches at a fair price. Family run and always very nice, with quick service. Best lunch sandwich on the north end of town for sure.

Stopped in for an early lunch and the staff was great… the food was very good. One of those local finds that you want to go back to the next time. Would recommend this spot as a go to lunch spot in Charlottesville. The guy at the counter is probably the owner and he is passionate about the quality of the food.

Crazy good Reubens and onion rings where the onion doesn’t come out with every bite. Nice.

Great lunch spot. Good service, very good food. Everything is made fresh daily. This is everything a lunch spot should be. Skip the chains and eat here! There’s a wonderful nail salon right next door, too, but that’s another review.

The food is awesome! Salads or sandwiches are a good choice and fairly cheap. Great service and fast! The fries are also on point.

Unless you know this place is there, it’s easy to miss. But don’t! Their sandwiches are great and loaded with your meat of choice. My go-​to is the Crab Melt – a nice, hearty crab cake covered with cheese.
It’s a good choice for office lunch pick-​ups.

This place makes all their own bread, soups, sides etc. and even smokes their own meats! No luncheon meats here. Highly reccommend the turkey sandwich and the seafood chowder. Was really really delicous, I can’t wait to go back and try other things. Guy behind me had beef bbq and looked and smelled amazing!

Best in C’ville. Known for crab but this turkey rocks. Large sandwiches with Fresh full of flavor ingredients. Turkey sandwich with homemade mayonnaise and flavorful tomatoes. Friendly service is the fifth star.

The ingredients are fresh and the service fast. I have been a few times, both at peak lunch hours and off hours and never experienced the kind of hold up that some of the other reviewers claimed. Maybe they got their things sorted out, because the food really seems to come out fast, especially if you order the special.
Edit: Actually pretty greasy tho

Nice lunch spot!
We needed a quick lunch and spotted this place across the street from our next appointment bldg.
my husband had the turkey Reuben. I thought it was really good from the one small bite I took from him. There was just one thing he didn’t like. He said it had some type of dressing in it, like a thousand island or something similar, he couldn’t quite get the flavor but there was an after taste.
I just made my own. Grilled turkey with mushrooms and onions on Sourdough with just half a slice of provolone cheese. Hot. It was very tasty. The onions made it sweet and I just love mushrooms on everything.
The man who took our order was very accommodating to my request. It took me a bit to decide what I wanted, I don’t eat mayonnaise or cream cheese and the sandwiches I wanted both included these condiments. He was very patient and nice! Definitely coming back!

Excellent sub/​deli place. Great turkey Reuben, fries, onion rings– best fries in a very long time. Friendly service and accommodated two picky kids requests. All home made soups and meats are baked, roasted, or grilled there. Yum!

By far one of my favorite places in town. Really small sandwich and Greek shop in town run by a Greek family. They are very friendly, and service is always great. The food is delicious and priced great as well.

Grilled, smoked, and baked meats on the premises. Salads made to order and soups are homemade. Ruben sandwiches (corned beef and turkey) were terrific. Gyro was delish and they were willing to make special sandwiches for the kids. Nice and clean too!

I can’t speak to the service at this place during the rush as I seem to have only eaten here during off hours. But that being said, this place is great! The owner was super friendly and honest about his personal favorite choices and the food was made and delivered quickly. Their grilled cheese is awesome and the seasoning they use for the fries is super tasty too. I also heard the philly cheese steak here is great but I haven’t personally had it.
Great sandwich place!

Was glad to try this place out before moving from Charlottesville — had the special on Friday — pulled pork sandwich with fries + soda. The staff was friendly and fast and we had a very enjoyable lunch (my ‘last day of work’ outing).

Everything here is absolutely delicious. They make everything in house and the quality really shows. The reuben sandwich is other-​wordly! I am a self-​admitted reuben snob and this place just knocks it out of the park. I really enjoy their soups as well.
My one gripe, if you can call it that, is that because they have odd hours (only lunch) and serve incredible food, the lunch rush is intense and getting your food takes a long time. I have learned to avoid this by calling in my order ahead of time.
If you haven’t been, go! Call ahead and order if you’re short on time.

Carving Board is exactly how lunch places should be: focused menu, delicious food, friendly service and consistently pleasant experience.
I agree that during

I love the chicken salad at the Carving Board, which is why I am a repeat customer. In fact, the chicken salad at the Carving Board Café is my Charlottesville favorite. The soups are all homemade and great, too. The food here is fresh and perfect for lunch, and there is something for everyone on a large menu. The food is the reason to go back for more at this restaurant.
However, I have a few issues with this place, and here they are:
1. Slow service during the rush: The service here is much slower than it should be when there are a dozen or more people in line to buy lunch. It is nice that the proprietors enjoy chatting and small talk with customers, but a little less talk and a little more action during the lunch rush would be a better approach.
2. Seating: The seating area is small and there are never enough tables or places to sit. Many people end up spending a good part of their lunch outing uncomfortably standing around with their Styrofoam-​encased lunches (see below), waiting for an open chair or table to sit down. More tables, please!
3. Wasteful packaging: A big problem with the Carving Board Café is that the food is delivered wrapped in lots of Styrofoam, which makes me feel bad in contributing to the mountains of polystyrene foam packaging tossed into the restaurant trash bins on the way out the door. Perhaps this place could switch to washable plates for customers eating in the restaurant? I am sure that dish washing is a pain, but I can’t imagine that hauling all of that barely used Styrofoam to the landfill is an easy task, either. Plus I get a little sick at the thought of all that stuff, which is not biodegradable, sitting in the Albemarle County landfill a million years from now.
So enjoy your visit to the Carving Board Café. The food is fresh and delicious, but you may want to take a book to read while you wait to place your order, a folding chair if you like to sit down during lunch, and your own washable plate and utensils if you dislike the option of using Styrofoam for 30 minutes before sending it to the landfill for an eternity.