Cafe De Lagniappe

It’s the year 2016, get a credit card machine already! Food is good, but I don’t see myself going here again until they get a credit card machine. «Cash only» places should’ve went away ten years ago.

This place is awesome! The 5 start rating is due to location (I work in the building), freshness (I see the staff coming in with FRESH produce each day!), and they REMEMBER my name! I would go here even if I didn’t work in the building, but due to the parking fees, I may not. The cheaper prices DO OFFSET parking fees though! :) Veggie sandwich and homemade soups are amazing! Breakfast sandwich is a good option and is under $ 3. Prices are good! You get plenty of food without feeling stuffed and you know you’ve just had more of a «homemade» meal than a «commercial» meal. I definitely recommend.
Update* after being here several times, I find the sandwiches are not consistent. Maybe this has to do with the «homemade» cooking, but as a customer, I don’t like loving a sandwich and then getting the same thing a week later that is very different.

This is a great place that our team has weekly meetings. The customer service is great. I appreciate that they are always accommodating for our food requests. I recommend this place!

Granted, there are limited food options in this vicinity which could help boost the stars in this review. The other reviews are spot on though. This place delivers a quality lunch. Everything tastes super homemade (in a good way)
I usually get a sandwich (all are good) with the yummy yummy potato salad as a side. The soups of the day are awesome but you usually need to call ahead to «reserve» it. Calling your order in is the way to go because there’s always a line!

Soup on point.
Pastrami sandwich on point.
Potato salad on point.
Sourdough with butter on point.

Friendly people and good solid soups and sandwiches.

I work in the builiding and visit the café a lot. The staff are firendly and fast. The soups are the best and usually sell out fast. The hungarian gulosh is my fav, but the new cream of mushroom knocks it out of the park. I will definitely be buying at least two bowls next time instead of a cup.

I went here last year for an appointment and got the Turkey Croissant sandwich. Ever since then I’ve been trying to find my way back and finally did today, I am absolutely in love with this sandwich. I will gladly spend that $.75 for parking just to come get my fix once a week or so!
And what is this brownie I just ate? I have no idea what is on the top other than walnuts but it is freaking DELISH!

Things may have changed quite a bit in four years, but if Café De Lagniappe is still one of the best places in Hayward for lunch, Hayward is in considerable trouble.
Which is not to say that it’s a terrible café. Far from it; the sandwiches are of decent quality, the salads are of considerable heft, and they are all fairly priced. Behind the eye-​rollingly corny names are the usual chicken, beef, cured meats, and vegetable sandwiches and salads. Having tried both A Taste of Nawlins and Who Are You Calling Chicken (I warned you), I can say that they are both tasty. Still, nothing particularly outstanding. Perhaps I would think differently if I worked at the courthouse or administrative building, given the paucity of options.

First time here with my girlfriend. Got the #20. Super good. Bread is crunchy but doesn’t get all over the place and the place is fast service as well as clean! Try out their soup!

Just walk in front of their building, you’ll already smell the fresh bread! Their name is actually really nice Café De Lagniappe, meaning the café of gifts! They deserve 5-​stars for creativeness, originality, and great sandwich combinations. Now inside, of course, kudos to full uniformed hardwood floors, chairs and tables. Thank goodness for no extended menus! There are enough people there to help everyone out, and the place is clean as it can get. Their sandwiches comes with a cookie and chips! You don’t have to pay extra for it too! There’s so much different sandwiches that they can make! They wrap the sandwiches just how i want them, no they don’t use french fry holders to pack your sandwich, they use paper, duhh. Their smoothies are also really good, not like a typical restaurant smoothies, it’s really close to Starbucks smoothies, what i like about their smoothies is that you cant really pin point what they put inside, so it’s sure not the regular grocery-​store type of smoothies. The employees and owners are really nice and not cheap.
The prices are way cheaper here than any other cafes. If you’re wandering around Hayward, i definitely recommend this place!

This place is super packed during lunch time! If you are really hungry, make sure you call ahead of time. The big plus about this place is the menu prices! It is a dollar or two cheaper here then a lot of café places and they make a lot of their items fresh and from scratch.
I was excited to try the crab sandwich because it had real crab meat instead of the imitation ones. However, I was a little disappointed because they used regular wonder bread instead of the sourdough bread to give it a nice crunch. Also, the sandwich was a little bland.
Their soups, however, are delicious! i would recommend coming here for the soup and not the sandwiches if you are ever in the area. Most of their soup are slow cooked so the chicken or pork falls apart. The flavor is deep and you can tell it was made with fresh ingredients.

Good sandwich shop in a government building. Interesting combinations of sandwiches, plus homemade potato salad. Has table seating. Many sandwiches have raw red onions. Pretty speedy service too
I know there are a lot of great reviews of this place on Unilocal,but a sandwich shop has to really knock me out to get more than three stars.

This is a great place to go for lunch if you are ever unlucky enough to find yourself in the Hayward Hall of Justice. Hahahaha… Hall of Justice. What a misnomer that is but then again that is another story.
This little café is right across the street in the new county building and looks just like a cafeteria. Tables and chairs are scattered aimlessly throughout and there is a counter where you can get soups, salads, sandwiches, and snack type stuff… fresh…homemade…large portions… and delish. All for an incredibly cheap price for the amount of food you get. I ordered the Salad Special with Curry Chicken Salad. Seriously I could have fed two small children as well but I wasn’t in the mood to share.
Remember, this café is in the same building as the Dept Of Social Services so there are many women, hungry children, and families in the building who can probably use an affordable good meal.
The only drawback is the seating since this is a county building there are a lot of people and few tables. Order your food to go and head back to the lovely jurors room where you can eat and be entertained by the strangers providing TMI about their lives with each other,.

I love this place! As I’ve had to spend a lot of time in the building — finally got into the WIA program to be re-​trained for a new career — I have become a semi-​regular. I’ve had hot chocolate, a variety of soups and sandwiches — all good!
My faves are the tuna salad sandwich and the chicken and sausage jambalaya.
The décor is nice too — one gets a definite feel for a small New Orleans’ bistro. I wanted to steal the demitasse collection…

I work in Hayward and was browsing for a place to get a sandwich. This place had great reviews so I thought I would give it a shot.
Whoever gives this restaurant four and five stars really has to be nuts. There is nothing wrong with it, it is what it is. And it is a small cafeteria style restaurant attached to a government building that serves cafeteria sandwiches. It almost makes me feel like I’m at the airport.
I had the chicken curry sandwich. It was two slices of bread with an ice cream scoop of chicken salad between them. The potato salad was a plastic syrup cup with a scoop of potato salad in it. The cookie was tasty, but the size of a small pickle slice. I hate to say it, but you’d get a more satisfying sandwich at the Safeway deli. If you’re doing business and need a quick bite, then this will get the job done. Otherwise, there are better options to be found.

Working across the street at the court this is the place to hit up for DELICIOUS and FRESH food. Everything that I have had here is yummy. I dont think there was ever a time I didnt have something that was good. There sandwhiches come with a cookie and your choice of either chips or potato salad. So many choices and variety! Theres also soups and salad or you can have the special. Everyday its something different. They also have breakfast sandwhiches and smooties… omg I can go on and on. Just check it out for yourself if your ever in the area.

AAAWWW MANNN! This place is amazing! I actually work at the Social Service office and I just don’t get sick of this place. Whatever you want they have or better. They Have a New Orleans– Creole type of food.
The sandwiches are the BOMB! The Naw’lins, Chicken came before the egg and the on face & in my belly good are the best! PLUS, you get Potato salad or chips with a cookie at no extra cost!
The Iced tea, Home soups, tamales, and brownies are made fresh everyday. And let me tell you, the smoothies are off the hook! The breakfast items are oh so yummy and the Salads are really big and worth the price! Wednesdays they have Yummy salmon, that they bake right there!
I’m currently pregnant and I crave A toasted Bagel with Cream cheese and hot Crispy Salami, and they don’t hesitate to make it either. The bottle and canned drinks come in a wide variety from Mexican drinkable yogurt to odwalla OJ to diet coke and water. and the have CRUNCHY Butterfingers.
all there is left to say is YUM YUM YUM! You have to Go there! You can also order to go if you please.

This place is that $ 20 bill in that tucked away coat you forgot you had in the big walk-​in-​closet…
It feels like a secret you were let in on and still feel you weren’t completely let on when you arrive there. Because everything here is wonderful!
— The staff is super friendly and bends over backwards to make sure your order was right and all is well.
— Food has the stamp of homemade
— They have a sense of humor– just look at the the names of the sandwiches. They are hilarious!
— Oh, and they still have the largest salad you can buy under $ 3! With bread!
— And their espresso drinks are GOOD and cheap, much cheaper than starsucks
Just a few things to remember
— If you’re gonna order soup, call EARLY. It’s always very popular
— This place serves A LOT of offices nearby, that’s a lot of hungry people converging here at 12, plan accordingly. I will walk earlier in the day and pre-​pay my food. They give you a piece of paper with a number of your order. That means no waiting in a long line later, just pick up!
— Call ahead!
— Check for the daily special
So, feel free to share in on the secret.
Oh, and lagniappe is a word used in the South. It means a «just because present.»

Four and Five stars for a place that I’ve never even heard of? I live pretty close to this Café, yet never once have I seen or heard about it. My interested level spiked — and what do you know, it was lunchtime.
As I drove near the location of Lagniappe (lan-​yap), I presumed that the café would be near the Good Eats Restaurant. Parking in the back, I walked my way around the Good Eats building to try and find Lagniappe. Just where is this place? Then I remembered that some people stated it was across from the courthouse.
Across the street I went. There goes the Alameda County Building… wait a minute. It’s the same address as Lagniappe? Peering closer at the building I spot a little yellow banner on the first floor of the huge corporate looking building: «Café Lagniappe.»
Café Lagniappe acts as a kind of cafeteria for this public administration building. It also looks like it. Kinda like a hospital cafeteria mixed in with a college cafeteria, with a bit of Togo’s to boot. Supposedly the food is Louisiana inspired, hence there are Louisiana-​inspired art works and decorations such as ceramic clowns hanging from the ceiling and Mardi Gras masks. They even have a coffee bean bag posted on a wall.
Adding to the somewhat suspect interior, the menu didn’t look enticing either. The usual suspect of sandwiches, smoothies, and salads are easily presented on the wall. The sandwich selection is especially lengthy. I was getting somewhat confused on why this place was rated so high, but you can never tell a book by its cover, or in this case, a restaurant by its presentation.
I had no clue of what to order since everything appeared somewhat ordinary, so I ordered a Soup de jour in a bowl ($ 2.95, 16 oz). I waited about three minutes and I received a plastic lidded styrofoam cup and two slices of bread in a white paper bag.
Opening up the soup I was surprised to find a steaming hearty soup that has that nice homemade look. And boy it sure tasted like it. Potatoes, sweet onion, carrots, beef, and a creamy like broth made my mouth swoon. This was really good! The soft sourdough bread is extremely fresh and tasted like it was made that day. I wish I had more of it, but that’s just me being greedy.
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What a great lunch. I was content in just every aspect. I plan to come here and try out more of their menu. Hopefully they carry more surprises.
Note: The doors beneath the yellow sign don’t work. You have to walk through the main doors and the café will be on your right.