Nestled in an office park off of Edwards Mill Road, behind Stough Elementary School and the back entrance of Crabtree Valley Mall, is Glenlake Café (4141 Parklake Ave Raleigh, N.C. 27612), a small place that serves breakfast and lunch, M-F, 8am to 3pm. Unless you work in the office park or live in the area, you may not know it’s even there. However, if you are close by, you definitely should give Glenlake Café a try for its daily specials, tasty sandwiches and wraps, homemade soups and most awesome salads — all reasonably priced!
Here are some of my plusses and deltas of Glenlake Café.
Plusses:
- Fresh, fresh, fresh food.
- Tons of awesome salads/sides.
- Focused hot bar (a couple of thoughtful entrees each day).
- Mediterranean foods now available (grape leaves, spinach pies, etc.)
- Nice selection for vegetarians
- Prices are great.
- Friendly service.
- Specials are updated daily on its website at: http://www.glenlakecafe.com/
Deltas:
- Sometimes the café runs out of specials early (tuna salad in particular, probably because it is so good!)
- Parking isn’t great, but not awful.
- Pepsi products only. Ick for all of us Coke fans, but at least you can get iced tea.
- Limited hours.
Recommendations
So much of the food here rocks, including a number of the wraps, the muffuletta and tuna sandwiches and the hot Reuben Panini, which was one of the specials the other day. It was served on marbled rye bread with spicy mustard instead of 1000 island dressing. The corned beef is so tender and the mustard is zesty and perfect.
My favorite lunch item lately has been the grape-leaf hummus wrap – this thing is awesome! The grape leaves are quite good — firm but tender with a nice hit of lemon juice. The hummus is yummy and the Greek salad in the wrap is great. Put it on a panini grill and you are in heaven.
The side salads at Glenlake Café are definitely the stars and one of the main reasons I like to have lunch here. I normally get the fresh fruit, but, in the name of the blog, have recently tried the Greek and pasta salads. Both were fresh and quite tasty. If you don’t care for a side salad, you can get a bag of chips instead.
Ratings
- Price: Excellent. Lots of fresh food for a price that won’t break the bank.
- Service: 4.5
- Food: 4.25
- Recommend: Yes
- Kid friendly: N/A — Not really geared to kids, but to business people, especially considering the hours and location. But I know Lexi would enjoy it, especially the salads!
1= hater, 2=poor, 3=adequate, 4=above average, 5=superb
Bon appétit!
Eat, drink and be merry!
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Kel's Cafe of All Things Food 
However, they haven’t had new sandwiches/salads offered since I’ve been eating there (for over a year). In addition, the green salads have gotten particularly stingy in recent months and I seldom order them as a side any more. With the salads lacking any “toppings” and no new deli choices being offered, I seldom eat here anymore.
Hi Ann–In the past few months, I’ve noticed a few new salads (though not green ones, which I normally don’t get anyway.) And with so many choices on the menu, plus the daily specials, it will take me a while to eat my way through the menu. So you may want to try it again! — Kelley
Kelly,
We wished to thank you for your recent review of Glenlake Café’ on your blog, Kel’s Café of All Things Food. Most customers simply enjoy our food, and that is why we are here, to create a good food experience that hopefully draws customers back to experience our other items, giving us the opportunity to make a living doing what we love, cooking!
We learned when we first started out, that the customer makes or breaks you from a business perspective. The best way, we have found, to keep them happy, is by offering quality products for reasonable prices. The fact that you took the time to photo and write such a nice blog really blew us away and was totally unexpected, but so very much appreciated. Again, we just wished to express our deep appreciation and gratitude for your time and effort. If we may be of service in any way, please don’t hesitate to stop by and see us.
Yours in Good Food,
Christine Haddad
CEO – Glenlake Café’
My pleasure, Christine – you have a great little gem of a restaurant with fresh, good food! Next time I’m in (which should be in the next couple of weeks) I”ll introduce myself. — Kellety