Begin’s Cafe

Love this place, especially for breakfast!

This place seems to be the mecca for greasy food. The thick-​cut fries are really good. They’re crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. I haven’t tried the grilled sandwiches, but supposedly they are really good too. A few of my co-​workers get them on a weekly basis.
As far as the healthy food selections go, the food is so below average. The «steamed» veggies is more like soggy veggies. The chicken is really dry. The healthy choices are just so unappetizing.

I usually reserve one star reviews for places that have practices which will make you physically sick, or where blatant intolerance or ineptitude is displayed. To be fair, that was not necessarily the case here. Except maybe an intolerance of me personally. I really don’t get it – I’m usually pretty cheerful. Maybe cheerful pisses them off. Anyway, I had just enough time to grab something before hopping on the DASH D to go to my training. I waited patiently while I was not acknowledged and ordered the Fruity Pancakes on the menu, at which point the short order cook told me they don’t have that. What? Then why have it on the menu? Anyway, I pause to re-​check the menu and then ask for French Toast. At which point he doesn’t acknowledge me and instead takes the order from his colleague, who has just asked the next customer what they want. Douche wad didn’t even start my order. So my order was now placed behind two others – except he hadn’t even noted it, because then the other cook asks me what I want, when I already told Douche wad. Ugh. I was out of time, so I left with nothing. Never returning. If you have no other choice, just get the oatmeal. I had it once. It was soupy and of poor quality, but at least you don’t have to deal with the douche, and the cashier is pretty nice. Moving on.

This is terrible. My boyfriend’s coworker found a rock in his pea soup and thinks he may have cracked his tooth. That shows an astonishing lack of care with food prep.
I tried this place once and never intend to go back.
Everyone at the Caltrans building drags themselves to Begin’s Café once, maybe twice, then never go back if it can be helped.
The breakfast is barely edible and it is their best meal they serve.
To their credit, they often have soccer matches playing and the eating space is often filled at lunch — mostly with Caltrans workers brown bagging it from home.

I have been to Begin’s Café numerous times for breakfast and lunch. Begin’s has wonderful breakfast specials, as well as excellent prices for the regular breakfast and lunch items. I had an excellent lunch special on Friday, 8÷15÷14 with a pastrami sandwich, steak fries, and a 16 oz soda for only $ 6.99. The food was cooked perfectly and served fast. Although this is essentially a cafeteria, the food is always good and service efficient.

Begin’s café is a great choice for breakfast or lunch. The facility is enormous and very clean. The cooks are some of the best chefs downtown. Menu selections are plentiful. I love all the staff because I feel like I’m at home when I visit this establishment. My favorite choice on the menu is the tubs melt.

Ok, so one 5 stars out of 8 reviews… hmmmm…
I’m not saying that a place can’t improved but this place? …me think not!
With cafeteria like atmosphere located on the first floor of the Caltrans building, I’ve had my fair share of good services here but mostly bad. I’ve been coming to this place on and off for 3 years not because there’re great but the convenience. The only place around here that has your typical breakfast like eggs, sausage, breakfast burrito, etc. (if you like dried sausage sitting under the heat lamp then this is the place for you). Their price keeps going up and their service keeps going down. If you want ketchup with our breakfast, or for fries with your burger, and jelly for your toast, you practically have to beg for them since they’re not sitting at the condiment section anymore.
For lunch, you get your typical menu like burgers, sandwiches, salad bar and different main dishes for a pretty fair price. They also serve kebab everyday.
I just wish that this place would improve since it’s very convenience. It has big potentials with hundreds of employees working in the building and the surrounding areas, but they kept reducing their service.

Some of the breakfast items here are ok, but lunch leaves quite a bit to be desired. The prices were decent for the quality back when they first opened, but since raising prices and reducing quality, it’s just not worth unless you are really just want something quick and you work close by. Most of the people in the seating area are eating their own lunches brought from home.

Love Begins Café! When Im in the DT area I pop into the Cal Trans building and order a kebab. Last time I was there it was pretty packed as its the one place in the area where you can go and watch soccer on the televisions there. Some of the Cal Trans workers were getting into it which was nice to see. The food there is relatively inexpensive… Im not sure what the rest of the reviewers are talking about but I was being nosey and overheard a bunch of CalTrans employees complaining about how they weren’t getting paid enough… So Im thinking that even if the food was a nickel they would complain about the price.
Anyway the following week I wanted to watch soccer and headed over and ordered a cheeseburger and fries. It was a cheeseburger and fries… cooked to order and tasty. Not sure what people expect when they order a cheeseburger from a cafeteria but it was good and I watched the match in peace until it was over. I like kebabs and I can recommend you go there if you want to try some Persian food. Will probably go back for a breakfast and do another review later…

Wow, I didn’t even know Begins was on Unilocal!
Since they opened, their prices have slowly climbed & quality well it is not like before. $ 2.50 for a «bran muffin»? Wow!
Only go there because it’s convenient, but rainy days it can have long lines, & your spend almost your whole lunch waiting to get & pay for food.
The quality of food always differs, because they’ve gone through so many cooks since it opened. Back then, their soup selection was limited for awhile (Russian borscht) but think now they have more variety. Took away the Coffee stand & have serve yourself like 7 – 11 does.
They cater too.
Engineers are cool people, (now to the previous reviewer’s comment «sexy», which ones are you talking about? with do respect they are all old men), but they are really cool people.
Positives:
Owner is respected, couple of employees, a lady whose been there since it opened & John — both of which I can honestly say have been very loyal & friendly employees, they go out of their way for you. But John left & is no longer there :(
He was really good & offered great customer service.
The cooks & the one guy that buses/​cleans, well lets just they are «interesting» to nicely put it, & if your female & don’t mind them staring right at you all the time, which I just prefer not to go.
Reading the few reviews they have (surprise surprise) cracks me up!

Keeps going down hill… If you order a cheese burger. you should get a cheese burger…

Do you know what the essence of «setting the bar low» is? I’ll tell you what it is. It’s the food concession at the Caltrans Building. Can you see it in your mind’s eye? The cafeteria at the friggin’ Caltrans Building! That shouldn’t conjure up very high expectations now, should it? And if, for some reason, it does, then I feel quite sad for you and I have no idea what you’re doing on Unilocal!
Well, Begin’s Café manages to do the damn near impossible: Underwhelm when the bar is already set pretty damned low. This place is reminiscent of my elementary school cafeteria, which is to say, atrocious!
The breakfast offerings are often cold, limp, and almost always greasy. The lunch offerings are uninspired, and unappealing. I know a lady who ordered a BLT sandwich which was completely devoid of bacon. How does shit like that happen? That’s what I call not paying attention. Dammit, there’s a «B» in there for a reason.
I once ordered wheat toast with no butter. The cook buttered it anyway. I complained and they made a replacement batch of toast. It had been buttered too. Amazing.
The food preparers seem to operate under an ever-​present haze of confusion. They seem more like first semester students in some community college commercial food prep curriculum. It’s just weird.
Sure they feature a Mexican food bar and a Middle Eastern kebab grill for lunch. Both are mediocre at best. This isn’t quality food by any strech of the mind. The only thing at Begin’s which is acceptable is the salad bar.
Don’t you expect more from even the most humble cafeteria than this? I know I do.
Sorry, Begin’s, the bar was set at midget level for you and you knocked it off the stand just the same. Sheesh!

I eat here quite frequently due to the difficulty I have in getting up early enough to see that I’ll have nourishment throughout the day. They make a tasty chorizo and egg burrito. To differ with a previous reviewer I do a little happy dance (on the inside) when it’s kabob day the sauce is flavorful and the hummus is zesty. Also try the Mediterranean slaw sooo good. Everything else is merely ordinary and I recommend you avoid the steam table fish. The atmosphere is cafeteriaesque but it has great light and you can listen in on engineers. (sexy)

Wow, I feel like I’m back in college at some of the dining hall meal-​stations! Except I’m the only one in here… that’s kinda odd…
Anyways, It’s a caffateria in the Caltrans building, featuring various made-​to-​order dishes. I got the grilled cheese (it was OK, but nothing special) and a French Dip (again, not bad, but not Phillipe’s either).
Still, it’s affordable and decent, so if you’re at a loss and don’t feel like anything in particular, it’s not a bad place for lunch. That said, if you have any idea what you want to eat, you can probably do better without too much effort.

This is the café located within the Caltrans building on the corner of Main and First streets in downtown L.A.
A cafeteria style place, it has a pretty diverse menu: a grill, entrees, sandwiches, pre-​prepared stuff, all pretty average and all priced slightly above-​average.
When I went, I ordered the beef entrée, which was a lula kebab, which was fine, on basmati rice and it came with a cold broiled tomato and a broiled chili that I didn’t even touch. One nice thing was they had that red sumac seasoning and halfway decent hummus, but that’s about it. The butter I asked for the basmatic rice seemed like margarine, not that it mattered; the rice was barely warm enough to melt it.
Their other, more conventional items might be better, like burgers and sandwiches, but unless you’re absolutely sick of eating in J-​town and want this kind of cafeteria-​style service, I’d go elsewhere. Still there were quite a few people buying their lunch and the service was pleasant.
I thought it was a little too expensive, but the prices are typical for cafeteria food in this area.