Plates2go

With all the lunch places to choose from on the L street/​16^th to 19^th street corridor… this little café is worth checking out!
Open Monday-​Friday 11am-​3pm
1) Eating great food is enjoyable. But throw in a great cause… heck that makes the dining experience even more enjoyable for me. Saint Johns church, which is right next door, offers previously homeless mothers culinary and restaurant experience via this café. The woman gain experience and graduate to jobs in the industry. How great is that!
Plus the café participates in farm to fork. That means they deal with local farmers to get their fresh local produce.
2) Food! This place offers tasty food at comparable prices to the surrounding eateries. Recently I had the French dip sandwich. It came with either a side salad or house made chips. $ 9.50. I got the salad. The sandwich was tasty. It had tender & flavorful roast beef, caramelized onions and creamy horseradish spread on a hoagie roll. The onions were cooked perfectly and had a sweet taste. I loved the creamy horseradish. But if you’re not use to the taste, ask for it on the side. And I’m undecided about the hoagie roll. It was just ok. They also gave me a small container of au jus. It was true au jus and not greasy sauce that most eateries try to pass off as au jus. The salad consisted of quality micro greens with housemade dressing.
You can even view their menu online.
3) Staff are courteous and friendly. You order at the counter.

The CalMex salad is delicious! I ordered it with a light amount of dressing and it still came out drenched, but otherwise tasty. I’ll be sure to order the dressing on the side next time.
The corn is cut from the cob and all the ingredients are fresh and yummy. Now I want to try all of their salads. Nomnom.

Great food and a great cause! We had the tuna salad sandwich, pastrami sandwich, and Kale salad, along with the homemade bar-​b-​qued potato chips, and all were excellent! The pastrami was lean and the tuna salad was just the right balance between moist, but not excessively watery. The sandwiches and salad were interesting and flavorful. Plates2go is an employment training program that provides formerly homeless mothers with culinary work skills and is part of the farm to fork movement. So you can feel good about your lunch and enjoy an excellent meal at the same time!

I completely agree with the reviews here. The salads and sandwiches are fresh and very tasty. The new patio provides a nice quiet retreat for lunch. They have done such a great job, I am really excited to see what they do next.

Great and fresh! One of my favorite counter service midtown go-​tos for sandwich/​salad lunches. And OK! –House made chips here are the bomb. Also-​what a cool organization. They’re making Sacramento even awesomer by being here.

This is a wonderful place for lunch. Big beautiful salads and sandwiches, smiling servers and the best oatmeal raisin cookies on the planet.

Best sandwich in Midtown I’ve had in a while, maybe ever. I ordered the Chicken Salad on 9 grain bread. Awesome. Homemade chips. Awesome. Strong unsweetened iced tea. Love it.

Very affordable restaurant in downtown Sacramento. They have a great turkey BLT and Chinese chicken salad. Great place to stop for lunch. I’ll be back again soon!

AMAZING! I called this morning asking for sandwiches and salads for 25 people to be delivered at 11:30am to our office. I wasn’t laughed off the phone, NO, my order was taken, a price quote was given, and I happily hung up the phone with a smile on my face. Awesome customer service, to say the least.
Ok…now on to the food. Delicious. Bountiful. Fresh. Intoxicating. We received French dips, veggie sandwiches, chicken and bacon sandwiches, a green salad with candied walnuts and feta cheese, and an amazing Chinese chicken salad. We’re all stuffed and happy, and have proclaimed this is our new go-​to caterer.
Way to go folks! Thank you x 100 million!

They changed their entire menu. Build your own sandwich can get really expensive and catch you by surprise. Everything is a la cart… chips no longer included with sandwich (now extra charge). I’m not going back. :-(

Just had the jacked up blt. Very flavorful. This place is doing great things with an inexpensive menu. Keep up the good work.

I love this program and everything it offers. Just one small way in helping the families of Saint John’s program is by purchasing lunch here or catering your office lunch with delicious salads or sandwiches. This is a non profit and does do much for the community… Oh the Organic greens with chicken, is sooooooo good! The Cal-​Mex is also a BIG hit! Come by and check it out

First time — WOW! I will be back. The cobb salad was fresh, yummy, and plentiful. I loved that the counter clerk asked if I wanted my dressing on the side. Usually I have to make that request — it is rarely offered. The employees are very customer oriented. The location is a little difficult if you are driving and need to park, parking is very limited. Not a place for a large group to go in mass. It was a nice walk from the office (16 & K St). My boss got the special — an Italian sandwich. The meat was stacked high on good quality bread and she really thought the side salad was quite tasty.
Good food supporting a good cause. What more can I ask for?

Excellent food for a great cause! I just had the bomb Portobello panini & bell pepper soup. The soup didn’t sound good but it was yummy! Their spicy tomato soup is great too & their salads. Best of all, you’re supporting a great cause!

I have wanted to try this lunch spot out for some time and finally took the hike from the office to give it a try. Since the menu did not offer a sandwich/​salad combo, my friend and I created out own. We split an albacore tuna salad sandwich and the calmex salad. It was interesting that they do not have ice tea as a beverage choice, but there are a number of bottled drinks available.
I was uncertain whether there would be a lot of competition for the tables inside the café. Turned out we had our choice of tables. While we ate a number of people came in an picked up orders to go. The server thoughtfully prepared each of our plates with the half sandwich and salad. Both items were very delicious. The salad was fresh and not over dressed. The sandwich had great bread, produce, and a tuna salad light on the mayo.
It was a great lunch and it helps others help themselves. Good all around.

Very nice peeps!
It was recommended that I ‘like’ this place on Facebook. I did. Since I wanted to experience what I was ‘like’-ing, I decided to stop in.
I love EVERYTHING about this place. The ladies behind the counter are very friendly and the chef is AMAZING!!!
I had a panini that came out just right.
I will be back!!!

Ordered the roast beef sandwich without the cheese. Customer service is friendly. My feelings about the food is somewhat mixed.
The sandwich itself was way too salty. And considering the price of the food, I expected a little more. However the potato chips were fresh (looks like they make their own chips?) and yummy. Overall, it’s worth a second try from me.
Check-​in here for a $ 2 off coupon.

Deeelicious! Ate lunch there on a weekday with a few friends. We ordered the Asian Chicken, CalMex Garden, and Feeding Crane Farms Organic salad. They were all SOO GOOD! I would definitely eat here again, maybe try one of the sandwiches next time. The ladies who work there are really friendly. Also FYI: they are an employment training program of St. John’s Shelter and a supporter of the Farm to Fork movement so you’re not just getting some delicious food, but helping two good causes.

It’s nice to know your meal benefits more than your stomach. Even better, an all-​around great sandwich served up by some gosh darn friendly employees. Ladies and gentlemen, Plates2go is the new standout lunch spot in Midtown.
I walked in this pleasant and unassuming little shop on a whim and after reading the story of the uplifting story of the sous chef pictured on the menu in the window. I was greeted with a smile and ordered up a surprisingly fresh and satiating tuna fish sandwich which included celery, dill pickles, capers, green onion, English cucumber, crisp lettuce, Ray Yeung vine ripe tomato and lemon-​tarragon mayo on toasted New York rye. The most pleasant surprise was the side of house made potato chips — crisp, perfectly salted and thick cut. I wasn’t planning on eating chips, so I finished the bag.
As I began, it’s nice to know you’re eating for more than yourself, and this spot benefits the St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children’s Employment Training Program, which provides formerly homeless mothers with the skills and experience necessary to enter the culinary and service industries.
Tip: At the time of my visit, there was a $ 2 dollar-​off-​your-​meal-​yelp deal. Be sure to check in!
Tuna salad

In case you don’t already know why Plates is so great: «As an employment training program of the St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children, Plates’ mission is to help train formerly homeless mothers with children learn valuable skills necessary to enter the culinary and service industries.» This is a business you want to support.
I was a big fan of the Plates Café and Catering on Business Park Way, but in that industrial location it was never convenient for dropping in for lunch. Plates2Go is a perfect addition to the neighborhood. Healthy salads and tasty sandwiches are on the menu, you can put your order in online, and they have a few tables inside if you want to eat and relax. The place is nothing fancy, just good food you can feel good about eating.