Lina’s Café

great ownership in a clean place. Enjoy!

Had lunch here with a group of friends from work. I had one of the daily specials and didn’t find the food to be all that great. It also wasn’t very filling. Several of us commented that we were starving by mid afternoon. The place was clean and the food wasn’t inedible, but it isn’t somewhere I’d pay to eat at again.

First off — love boars head deli meat.
Secondly this place has a great rotational menu with food immediately available.
For a quick lunch under $ 10 this is perfect.
Recommendations:
Try the chicken sesame salad from menu or literally anything from the rotational menu.
The cookie on top? Those huge cookies at the register are homemade and have a perfect softness.

Recently came from out of town and had lunch at Lina’s. Consistently good food with fresh and best ingredients ! My family and I really like the various wraps and their dressings. The service is friendly and courteous and the price is good– IMHO can’t beat it for good lunch time value!

Lots of unique sandwiches and great pasta salad. They usually have good daily specials and are fast. The staff is nice too. They are great for what they are great for what they are meant to be

For what it is, a quiet fast lunch spot with fresh sandwiches and salads, I think Lina’s does a great job. Menu is simple but has enough variety that there is definitely something for everyone. I love this place. The staff are very friendly and gracious. Not meant for large lunch groups but a good place to share a break with a few friends or coworkers. Pretty much my go to place when I’m in the mood for a sandwich. Big fan of the Reubens and Russians.

Another crime against Unilocal!I’ve dined at Lina’s a few dozen times and haven’t Unilocaled about it to the rooftops. Apologies to my fellow diners…
Let’s see… Lina’s offers sandwiches, salads, and a few du jour entrees in a modest café in RTP.
What’s good? — the paninis are off the chain. Now that I’m GF, I really would give nothing more than to have one of their Cuban sandwiches again. I have never liked one at another restaurant. A full on pork chop on the bun. So delish. The salads are also pretty good, but they cut the chicken up into such tinsy pieces it looks cheap and isn’t filling.
They should probably stop… the hot entrees or think about doing something different like maybe a baked potato bar? Really anything but what they have been serving. It looks like cold cafeteria food. Just bad.
What you should know… go early, be prepared for a line.

Lina’s had a nice variety of sandwiches, wraps, and salads. Some of the wraps were hot pressed and others cold; same for the sandwiches – some were hoagies and others were paninis. Most of the sandwiches were in the $ 6 – 7 range, and came with either chips or a side salad (read: premade lettuce salads, macaroni salads, potato salads, etc.).
I came in around 2pm (they’re open until 3), and there was no one behind the counter. I looked around, waited, a little bit confused. And after maybe about 5 minutes, someone who was eating at a table came up and offered to make my sandwich (she did work there). I opted for a roasted vegetable hot pressed wrap, and it was pretty darn good, but not great. Also, they were almost out of all of the salads, except for a macaroni salad (not sure what it was, but it sure didn’t look very appetizing or healthy – I assume that’s why it was full while almost all the others were empty) and some potato salad that looked really heavy on mayo. I asked her to scrape out the rest of a greek salad, so I got the leftovers. I opted for a bit of balsamic to dress it, and I probably got two tablespoons on a third of a cup of salad – the salad part was barely keeping it’s head afloat.
I wanted to like Lina’s, but there are so many awesome cafes and sandwich shops at RTP that it will be hard to get me to go back to try their other options. I would have given it three stars, but the service bumped it down to two because the two staff members seemed really annoyed that I walked in and interrupted their lunch.

not bad but not awesome

This café looks almost shabby when you walk inside– certainly not a fine dining experience. But the service and quality of food more than make up for it. I usually get the veggie delight sandwich, and I’m happy I do each time I go.
Give Lina’s Café a try. It’s not a great place to take clients, but it is a fantastic place for lunch when you want a healthy sandwich and no pomp.

I tried it today and was not impressed at all, not sure where the hype is with this place. I ordered the chicken supreme. It was rather bland, not flavor at all. Chicken was dry. I also felt that it was small size sandwich, supreme it was not.

Small shop, very few options. Food was mediocre. I know many of the reviews here are good. That just wasnt my experience. I had hoped it was better. It’s more of a salad and sandwich shop with preset salad and sandwich options, although it is made on the spot.
My co-​workers were OK with it. I wouldn’t go back

I love this place. Their food is so unique and refreshing. From their wraps to their sandwiches. There is so many different things you can choose from. Their cuban is great, so is their California wrap. If I would make comments to the menu, I would say change up your pasta salad, the mayo. is a little heavy. Try a more healthy option with a roasted red pepper, or maybe more of a olive kick to it. The Mayo is not healthy and it really kills the pasta salad as a side. I also wish this place had better hours, weekends and after 3 would be great. I feel I have a lot of missed opportunities here, but their potential outweighs their negatives. Therefore I gave this place a higher rating.

Tried it once with 3 other guys from work. 3 out of the 4 of us were very disappointed and won’t be back. Club sandwich is made wirh 3 pieces of pita, that’s a little odd but a single thin slice of meat between each pita slice makes for a bread sandwich. Looked around at other sandwiches people had. There was no joy.

My co-​workers were wary of Lina’s when I suggested we try it for lunch one day (possibly because its in a strip mall with only a sign reading «Deli» to distinguish it from the other store fronts), but after we ordered our food and dug in, they were singing a different tune.
Lina’s is a great lunch spot that features my all-​time favorite lunch item: the sandwich. They have a bunch of different ones to choose from. I’ve heard really good things about their club (which is made with pita bread) but have yet to try it.
What I really like about it though is the side dish options you get. Each sandwich comes with a side, which can be plain olé chips, or one of their many fresh salads. Caesar, macaroni, potato, Greek, and mandarin orange salad can all be added to any ‘wich, and are a step up from the usual chips and fries in my opinion.
Don’t be fooled by the discrete «Deli» appearance, Lina’s is where it’s at.

Lunch here last week was lovely. Gina B. and I met up to gab some girl talk — oh and eat. We placed our orders and our dishes were made before our eyes. It seems like a family owned Café, but I’m not sure. all the staff was super friendly.
Gina had a huge salad that looked quite delicious, but I was busy with my own Italian panini. Yummm. I’m just now getting into paninis, but I’ve been on an Italian sammich kick lately and let me tell you — this Italian sammy had a peppery kick to it! Lina’s did not disappoint. Neither of us could finish our food so we got the rest to-​go. I heated my panini up the next day at the office and it still had that fresh kick to it.
Good stuff. Very affordable. Thanks for the love Lina. I’ll be back!

This is a very good lunch spot, in a part of town filled with office nadz like myself who need said good lunch spot.
I’m eating like a girl these days (no offense ladies), and the quasi-​Asian salad was good and filling, and under $ 10 with a drink.

This is one of my favorite places to eat that is close to my job. When I’m in a rush or can’t decide what to eat, Lina’s never disappoints me. Their specials changes daily so you’d never know until you are close to the counter to place your order. In addition, they have a lot of salads, wraps, cold deli, panini and hoagie sandwiches that can be ordered from the menu. The owners are always really pleasant to deal with. I took my twin girls here once and the owner gave them a huge cookie! I always pleased with my meal here, highly recommended. Tip: their lunch specials goes by quick so arrive early!!!

Went by during the lunch rush, it seemed very crowded but i was helped right away and got my food within 5 minutes (most of this time was the sandwich being pressed). I got the cuban sandwich, which was alright. Having lived in miami and being cuban I guess my standards are pretty high. The pork was a tad dry and no where near Old Havanna in Durham, but for a generic deli serving 30 different sandwiches it was definitely acceptable.
The greek salad was also nice, had big chunks of feta and the lettuce was fresh and fork-​able. Considering it came with the sandwich for 6 bucks i’d say this meal as a whole was pretty good. The big draw in my opinion would be coming with friends/​coworkers as they have such a large variety of stuff including veggie options. I’ll probably go back and try one of the more tradicional deli sandwiches.

I just finished a «Delight» with smoked turkey, ham, L.T.M. & Mustard on whole wheat. It was Definitely a Delight! Condiments weren’t too heavy.
Most places charge extra for the side salad. Here, you get the salad on the side of the same plate for no extra charge (or a bag of chips you prefer chips, but for a big guy like me — big around that is — the salad was the perfect choice). I had the salad with the greens and the Kale and little mandarin oranges with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Almost heavenly.
I listened to my pastor talk about some things going on in the church, and the new way the services are going to be held while I ate bite after bite after bite of a quality sandwich. I had been tempted to take him to the Worth It Café, I’m glad I brought him here instead. Don’t get me wrong, I like both places but if I were forced to choose between the two, Lina’s would take it, hands down. I didn’t try the lemon bars, as tempting as they were — next time.
My pastor had a BLT and get this — they cooked the bacon as it was ordered — not precooked and sitting in a steam table for 2 hours so they could just quickly slap a sandwich together. Sure, he had to wait an extra 5 minutes for the bacon to cook but it was well worth it.

Jerry’s right. This deli is always crowded.
I’ve had company catering there multiple times and I just got lunch there.
Why you should go:
1. Price: you get what you pay for and some more. I just got a superb fresh cobb salad with mixed baby greens, egg, bacon, cheese, chicken, tomatoes and AVOCADO for $ 6.99. It’s a HUGE salad.
2. Food: The food is fresh and delicious. They have daily hot food specials that you can’t go wrong with. They also have a huge variety of salads/​sandwiches/​wraps. They are creative with their menu items. I’ve had their catered wraps. The veggie with pesto wrap is OUT OF THIS WORLD. Also their chicken salad is simple (just pickles, chicken and mayo) but SO scrumptious. I always over-​eat when we have catering. They also have home-​made desserts: Lemon bars, cookies, brownies. I’ve tried all of them and they’ve all sent me to heaven and back. Especially their chocolate chip cookies. *drool*
3. Service: The service is pleasant and efficient, which makes it a great spot for lunch. Nobody rolls their eyes when you ask for extra dressing.
This is a definite try.