Cafe Options

So, little did I know that things had changed, but I will say I’m still a fan. Got the Banh Mi salad and it’s quite tasty, and reasonably priced for the (huge) size — two lunches for me! My coworker got the Cubano and said it was good, too.
If you haven’t been or like me haven’t been in a while, don’t let these negative Nancies deter you.
To the negative Nancies out there: There’s a lot more to be disappointed about on the 16^th Street Mall dining scene, be fair.

Love the mission of this eatery! The staff is friendly and the food is delicious. For the price you pay they serve a tasty but very generous portion. The line moves very quickly during the lunch hour. Food options change often but there is not an item that is not worth trying.

To this day this place still does not dissapoint. I’m not sure why it isn’t as busy as ModMarket. Their food is fresh, made daily, unique flavors and they bust ass here. I enjoyed the Bahn Mi salad today. How did they come up with this? The Vietnamese meatloaf, braised cabbage and mint-​cilantro vinaigrette is a delcious combination I’ve never experienced. If you’re downtown check them out. You’ll be supporting a great cause as well.

Although I love the concept of the place, I find the quality and service has decreased significantly.
As the menu has changed, I find most options too greasy. I ordered a half chicken salad and half Reuben sandwich and found the Reuben soaking in grease and mostly inedible and the chicken salad was chicken with lots of mayo and seasoning over a few green leaves. Not really what I consider a salad.
The service has also become chaotic. My order had to be typed in 3 times at the cashier who kept asking me to repeat my order and then after 25 min of waiting and seeing other orders get served I asked to check on mine and they had missed my order.
I hope the place can rethink its menu and service again

I’ve got to update my review after they changed their menu. I’ve tried twice to enjoy the new food, but it just isn’t good and the prices are way too expensive for what you get now. I’m bummed, as this use to be one of my favorite lunch spots. Now it’s a place I won’t return to. Looks like I’m not the only one who didn’t care for the changes!

Soo BUMMMMMED. Ever since the change has happened with the menu, prices, and chef I haven’t been back and neither have my co-​workers. I’m not one of those who freaks out with change but plain and simple it just wasn’t good
I also understand that sometimes cost need to be cut down especially for an establishment such as this with there mission, and I’m fine with that. Charge me more but don’t take away from the quality. The roasted veggie salad was my FAV! You couldn’t beat the portion size too, ½ a salad and I was stuffed. But the ingredients changed and the goat cheese is no longer part of the salad so I opted for the chicken curry. I hate to say it because I really do want to root for this place but it was so bland, I felt like I could have had the same meal at an airport. I hope they take a second look at the menu!

Let me start by saying that Café Options was my girlfriend and I go to salad spot downtown. After finding out that the roasted vegetable salad was discontinued really put us down a bit. Never the less we still go occasionally given the updated menu still does have quite delicious food. We just really loved the roasted veggie salad hah. The Bahn mi had bold flavors that blended well together.
All in all despite the recent changes, Café Options is still producing great food and you should definitely come and get a taste. I just wish they’d bring back the salad every once in a while!

Because people aren’t critical enough…
So bummed and disappointed with some of these reviews. Especially, because of this café’s mission. This place is a non-​profit. Everything this café makes goes back into its students and mission.
Their mission states: To help impoverished women gain the skills and confidence they need to work their way out of poverty and become gainfully and permanently employed in the food service industry.
To write such things that could hurt this institution is shameful and embarrassing. I think it is one thing to give your opinion, but some of these folks leaving reviews lack couth.
For some of these women, this opportunity has given them some purpose. Fostering them in ways they’ve never imagined. Giving them a trade that no one can ever take from them. Shame on you for leaving such a nasty trail behind.
After reading some of these negative reviews, I couldn’t help but chime in. Most of these recent negative reviews sound like people are upset because they are actually having to pay a reasonable price for exceptional food? If you want a cheap sandwich and want it super sized-​maybe you should stop by a fast food joint! You’re upset that you don’t have enough leftovers to feed your family, really?
So stuck on MORE of the SAME!
Why do people always think more is better? Not to mention, the absolute fear of change. If you know anything about exceptional food and restaurants-​you would know that they are constantly changing their menus, being innovative and evolving. 5 years with the same menu… seems like time for a change.
I have eaten here and I was actually really impressed. The Ruben sandwich was exceptional-​it melted in my mouth. I was practically salivating. Yes, it is a twist of a Ruben-​but a damn good one. If you’re looking for that old tired Ruben with thousand island dressing… you’re right, maybe this isn’t the place for you.
The food here feels like fine dining wrapped up in a sandwich. The soups are creative and complex. If the quality of your palate is more like elementary-​may be safer for you to stay inside and not come out and play.
This new chef seems like a foodie-​someone with a lot of knowledge in ingredients and flavor combinations. I appreciate the dynamic menu, which has the ability to get you out of your shell and trying something new and different. All the places on the 16^th street sound the same-​time for someone to shake things up.
If I have to be critical about the café and something I’d change… It would be the décor. The space is amazing and has a ton of potential, but outdated fabric and color schemes make it drab. This place needs an edgy facelift if it’s going to keep up with the food.
For those folks working hard at Café Options-​KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK. Do not let trolls on the internet damage your spirit or stop you from being the artists that you are. I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.

I’m so bummed and disappointed with their «new menu». I am not a fan. The curried chicken salad sandwich was blah, they have a beet salad or sandwich also not very good. All my favorite salads are gone. My most favorite part of café options was the pepper biscuit that came with soup. No it’s just a not so good piece of dried french bread. The salads no longer have avocado on some. I can tell they tried to have «different» things, but for lunch there really is no need to go so out there, or at least allow some of the old menu and new menu for the few that may be into those odd things. The problem is, the menu doesn’t provide options you would want on a ‘daily’ basis. Their soups used to be what was the different and amazing part as well. The soups now are ok, but not spectacular like they were. And very salty now. More things you’d want 1−2x’s a year. I won’t be coming here much any more.
They took away ½ sandwich ½ soup and ½ salad option. Just very disappointing. I used to come here almost everyday. Now there really isn’t anything on the menu I like at all.

Love the food and their mission. I’m not one to become a regular at a restaurant, let alone a lunch spot, but these guys have me convinced. Everything I’ve tried has been delicious and it always hits the spot. Im pretty sure the biscuits and soup are my favorite though. Fairly priced, too. I’m sad they got rid of the ½ and ½ deals, but they were kind of too good to be true ;)

I agree with the other reviewer about the menu changes here and the rating. Prior to the new menu, Café Options was a solid 4.5−5 star place. It was just good food that was fresh, well-​done and tasty. It was a big plus that the mission is to help women. I was borderline obsessed with Café Options and raved to people.
I was truly disappointed the last time I went there. I took my wife because I’d raved to her about how good it was. The new menu is more chic, higher priced, smaller portions and not as good, IMHO. My ruben-​obssessed wife got the ruben and said it was the strangest ruben she’s ever had. She said it was just fair and not worth the $ 9 it cost.
I tried the banh mi sandwich. Mehhh. I really love real banh mi sandwiches, so I’m not sure what I expected. They said it had homemade chicken sausage on it. The sausage was like none other I’ve ever had. It was like sheets of «sausage» that was spongy and a really odd texture. To be honest, it was freaking me out. The vegetables were just bleh, and it was soppy with sauce. It was stone cold like it had been sitting there in a fridge. Total meh and, again, not worth $ 8.50 (I think that’s what the price was). The texture of the banh mi was freaking me out and was so bad that I took it back. I got the turkey club instead. Eh. It was just ok. Really, it was nothing special. It was supposed to have some bacon remoulade on it, but I barely got a taste of that. It was skimpy and not worth the price.
All told we got one soft drink and two sandwiches. It came to over $ 20. They weren’t even really big sandwiches either. For that kind of money, you should get fruit salad or chips or something with the sandwiches. However, the sandwiches were not that great. I’m totally disappointed and sad that a place I was totally in love with, well, it’s just not the same and wasn’t very good.
I don’t really care to go back now. I miss the roasted vegetable salad and regular chicken sandwich. You used to be able to get a half salad and half sandwich for $ 9, but it was a massive pile of food and left you with leftover and stuffed. It was solidly good too. SAD PANDA FACE!
I commented on the menu changes to the cashier when I was ordering. He told me they had the same menu for five years. Well, my response now is — IF SOMETHING AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT!
I hope they respond to these new reviews and customer response. I’d love for it to be back to the old caliber that it was, so I can give it a proper review. This new menu just isn’t doing the trick.

Prior to the menu changes, this place would have been five stars. The new menu is decidedly more haute. Which is fine. But the full salads are now smaller than the former half salads and, while the new salads are certainly more artfully conceived dishes than the old salad stand-​bys, it is a decided change in tone that may not hold up well to salad offerings at ModernMarket or Protein Bar.
The quiche tends to be A-​OK.
The soups have always been excellent. It isn’t clear what’s in the soup though – it would be nice if the menu provided some assurance that the soups didn’t use trans fat, and the same goes for the quiche and biscuits served with the quiche. Too many restaurants use cheap ingredients in their soup which are hard to detect, and some soups haven’t used enough fresh ingredients to be clear about their product origins.
The salads and sandwiches have always been solid here, notwithstanding the new menu. I think the Vietnamese bahn-​mi style sandwich is an excellent mixture of vinegar, hot peppers, and protein. It works. The new menu is just less food, more artfully conceived, at a higher price. I preferred the old classic salads without dressing, because they were large, full of high quality and healthy ingredients, without pretension. The new salads are really very well thought out, but served on a plastic tray and not very filling.
I look forward to seeing the adjustments made to the new menu, so that I can give this place the ratings it is capable of.

Wow, expecting average, but this place has a phenomenal take on a reuben. Very impressed. Sampled some of next week’s curry chicken. Also very, very tasty.

Great food and great atmosphere, and great mission. 100% proceeds goes to work options for women (WOW) which apparently is an organization that strives to help women gain skills needed to get out of poverty.
So in addition to eating great food, fast and friendly service, and nice atmosphere you know that some of your money is going to a good cause.

I eat here so frequently, I cannot even begin to express how consistently wonderful it is. Everything is freshly prepared, and the soup combinations, while sometimes seemingly questionable, are absolutely to die for! I usually go for a soup and salad combo, which comes with a black pepper biscuit that is divine. I have had every salad on the menu, and they are big! Always loaded with items, not one of those where you have to hunt for the goodies. The dressings are made from scratch, and you can tell! The environment is a great vibe, for an amazing cause, and the staff is incredibly friendly, and VERY customer service oriented. The only not perfect comment I would make is in the winter, you have to set towards the back because the front tables are cold from the door opening (note, so frequently because this place is a crowd pleaser), and toward the back, if it is busy, those people waiting for to go orders end up hovering around your table. All said, though — this is a don’t miss spot!

Every time, it is just perfect, there really isn’t a better lunch spot downtown. I got the half soup and sandwich. the soup was tomato bacon soup which was SO delicious and it came with this perfect biscuit for dipping, OMG. I got the caprese sandwich that came with tapenade and it was excellent. Everyone is nice and friendly and my very satisfying meal was under $ 10!

Highly recommend the coconut curry pumpkin soup with delicious biscuit. Good chicken salad sandwich.
Proceeds go to train women to help them out of poverty. Good cause and good food. PERFECT

I’m a fan of the Work Options for Women cause and have had their catering but had never been in Café Options. Soup, Salad and Sandwich options all looked good but I went with the Rare Roast Beef Sandwich with Horseradish and a ton of lettuce. Really good bread, high quality sandwich.
Definitely check them out. In the Fall, they are opening another coffee shop at Park Ave and Stout so go see that too.

This place is a cut above the rest! I wish I’d visited earlier. Proceeds go to help impoverished women gain employment in the food service industry. What a noble cause!
Their portion sizes are large! I’m currently thoroughly enjoying today’s special– the white bean and kale soup and it’s delicious!!! The roasted vegetable salad is also amazing! They give you a whole lot for a half a salad.
It’s clean, spacious and comfortable. I’m very happy and impressed!

After removing myself from 6 months at a job in the boonies, to one back in downtown Denver, I’m finding the need to reacquaint myself with local favorites so close to work. New restaurants and bars, pop up all the time, making lunch and happy hour a new experience I am anxious to try! Café Options is one of them. Recommended by my co-​worker, we ventured there today for a bite to eat and loved the following things:
1. The concept behind Café Options is amazing. They offer a Options for Women program that helps impoverished women gain/​learn cooking skills in hopes to provide them employment in the food service industry! how awesome is that? Giving back to the community, tastes so good :)
2. The food here is delicious! I ordered the ½ soup [white bean and kale] and ½ salad [steak, grilled onions, tomatoes and cheese] which was not only perfectly prepared, delicious but absolutely HUGE. The ½ salad looked like a full one i would make at home and the soup was a massive bowl. mmmm! talk about bang for your buck!
3. Prices are decent, and go towards a good cause :)
4. They serve Breakfast & Lunch at this joint and always seems to be busy. Snag a table, and you’re set!
5. Just a block off 16^th street mall and a block away from my office!
5 stars for 5 awesome reasons to come back! :)