Cafe Ole

Contributor

Citysearch

The Scene
Lunch spots downtown often get overlooked by restaurant reviewers since we sometimes tend to think of lunch as a hurried stop between appointments and deadlines. Cafe Olé is one of the busiest lunch spots downtown, and with good reason. What they can do with a burrito in a matter of minutes, a lot of local restaurants couldn't do during the course of a full meal.

The Food
The California-style burritos are enormous; directions on how to eat the massive, foil-wrapped treats are included on every table. For the patron in a hurry who wants to bone up on current events without smearing salsa and cheese on the Op/Ed page, an ingenious solution--hang each day's Richmond Times Dispatch flat on a wall, put it behind a plastic case and put bar stools underneath it. It gives the solo lunchtime muncher something to occupy his eyes while his mouth is busy. The green and red chili sauce and salsa on each table are the perfect dab of fire for the fresh spinach, black bean and cheese creations you'll find here. Cafe-style dining adds to the haste (important for businesspeople on the go), but, thankfully, the taste hasn't gotten lost in the shuffle.