Cafe Progreso Restaurant

Good olé fashioned Baleadas. Great breakfast stop, at great prices. People are very friendly.

I ran into this hole-​in-​the-​wall on a walk during my lunch break. With the promise of free wifi, Mexican street tacos, and air conditioning, I walked in with good expectations. I am usually pleasantly surprised by these kinds of cafeterias in Downtown. Unfortunately, this did not do it for me. The restaurant is much larger than I thought inside, with pool tables in the back and signs advertising karaōke on the weekends. They have specials of prepared meals everyday. I opted out for these and ordered 2 chicken tacos and a Materva. On a hot afternoon, that Materva was ice cold and so delicious. When I was served my tacos the first thing I noticed was that these were in fact not tacos but flautas. Luckily I do love some flautas but that wasn’t what I ordered. Additionally, the flautas looked as though they were pre-​frozen. Topping them off was a cold tomato based sauce and some cabbage one could only think they were also store bought. Food was tasty but not at all the home-​cooked meal I was expecting. Aside from this, the service was good and attentive. And the wifi worked very well. Also note, they only accept cash.

Great place to get a bite! Everyone is so friendly & the food is reasonably priced. It’s a hidden little spot that will surprise you. I highly recommend the steak & egg Baleadas! They are very yummy! Service is amazing

I usually do not bother writing reviews for hole in the walls because they are expected to be scary looking with good food for good prices. Truthfully, I never even expect good customer service because they are likely to underpay and overwork their employees. But when it comes to cleanlines or health issues, I think it is important to warn the public.
I have been to this place before, and I have never had any issues with any of the other workers. In fact, I have always had a quick bite of empanada (deliciously and freshly made) with a cup of coffee without any incidents in the past. This visit was the first time I met this one employee — but she has forever alienated a customer.
Ok. So I go in for café con leche and empanada for lunch… they are out of empanadas so I order a Cuban Sandwich… the woman taking my order proceeds to walk to the deli section to prepare the sandwich, but before she begins she’s digging in her nose… sniffling, wiping her mucus all the back of her hands. I politely (though it was clear that I was horrified) ask her not to prepare my food without washing her hands and putting on gloves. She responded that she will let someone else prepare my sandwich (really, she did not want to wash her hands). She then proceeded to put out all the products for my sandwhich, including the bread — yep… for real. I tell her again, I do not want her touching my food, and if it was going to be a problem I would cancel my order. The truth is the story should have ended here… but alas… it did not… I think more because I really wanted her to understand what she was doing… soooooo … the story continues…
…she raised her voice and yelled that all she is was doing was getting the stuff ready for the guy to prepare the meal, she then went about and touched all the condiments, and materials and stood next to the guy, sniffling, touching her nose and wait for it… assisting the man make the sandwich by putting the mayo and mustard on the bread and yes… still sniffling and rubbing her nose over the sandwich. … again… I am shocked that I am still in the café… why did I not leave? It was like watching a horror movie…
…I repeated again, that this was not acceptable and that I was cancelling my order. She then proceeded to talk about me in Spanish… not to worry, I pulled out my Spanish (ya’ll would be proud of me as to how clearly I spoke without one stutter) and repeated my concern in Spanish. She started to argue that I was being ridiculous — I said no problem I would cancel the meal; but that she should consider that her behavior was likely a violation of the Department of Health — since she really could not understand that she was a health risk. I tried to explain to her that her handling the food without gloves and sniffling etc, could be considered a health code violation — should we look into it together? The manager decided to intervene — she threw away all the products from the previous sandwich and prepared another one (I made them wash all the bottles of condiments, just in case cootie girl touched them).
Honestly, I tried be polite and quiet when I asked her to comply with my request, but her yelling and absolute refusal to wash her hands and wear gloves made me wonder what other health code violations she was willing to break. For the life of me, I am confused as to why it was even necessary that I had to explain what she was doing was wrong, and how she really insisted on NOT washing her hands.
Scary. Needless to say, I will not be returning, and I am warning everyone I know that they will be risking health if they should choose to go there while that disgusting woman works there.
Anyway…enough of my rant. Off to find a new café con leche spot.

This place is your typical hole in the wall in downtown but the people were nice and the food was delicious and cheap! Had a papaya smoothie that was made to order and taste just like my mom makes at home. I also tried Baleadas (Homemade flour tortilla with refried beans, cheese and steak) for the first time and they were great. Very filling and cheap. For $ 4 I expected something smaller but I was pleasantly surprised. My brother had their version of a media noche (cuban sandwich) it was good but made with a softer bread. They also gave him the option to add different fillers. I am not from Honduras so I can’t speak to whether or not the food is authentic but it seemed like it and it was good.