Cafe Carolina and Bakery

My advice is to take your business elsewhere.
Café Carolina is located in Meadowmont by the round-​a-​bout and there is a shared parking lot with all of the nearby businesses. It’s big, cute, and very clean. Staff is friendly it’s usually not terribly busy.
The food is overpriced and the drinks aren’t good. Everything is just heated up and it it’s all very bland and unappetizing. The coffee is fine. The wifi is also very spotty and there are very few outlets so it’s not a great study spot either. I’ve been here a few times because it’s a good meeting spot and it’s conveniently located near campus, but I literally only get coffee. The sweet potato biscuits don’t save the place either, the only time I got them they were soggy and tiny.

I am glad to see the ratings coming down for this big waste of space. Any restaurant that doesn’t have an exhaust hood and operates out of a microwave and toaster oven is going to be limited. Breakfast is so, so… nothing else is worth looking at.
And Holy Crap… change the menu once in a while, 4 years and nothing new. It’s boring my tits off!

I feel like this is a very C+ place. Convenient? Yes. Reasonably priced? Sure. But when it comes to the bang for your buck, I’d suggest you try elsewhere.
Salads are meh, sweet potato biscuit is flavorless and the inside of the restaurant is sitting around 55 degrees. Brr!
I’m willing to try breakfast-​only items (because you can’t mess that up), but certainly won’t visit here for lunch or dinner any time soon.

A very casual and cozy spot to come grab some delicious, soups, sandwiches, salads and great baked desserts. They’re great for breakfast or lunch meetings or to just come and do work on your computer. Try the mini sweet potato biscuits if you can get there for breakfast which ends at 11!

Bland and boring. How is this place still in business? I recommend café Carolina if you are blind and missing your tongue. if you have a tongue and your vision, try the garbage bin behind Harris Teeter… The food will be tastier and fresher than the fare at Café Carolina.

I love this place. Always friendly staff and just a cozy spot. The food is great. My favorite is the chicken Fiesta salad and chipotle chicken panini. Reminds me of panera bread in a way but way better and priced better. The breakfast is pretty good. I always get the ham egg and cheese croissant. If you haven’t tried this place yet than its a must try.

Grabbed lunch here while touring the area, the space is really nice and there a variety of sandwiches and baked goods executed well, a little pricey but all in all nothing extraordinary.
We got two paninis, the turkey avocado and the chicken spinach artichoke both with chips. Our food came out promptly and was piping hot! The sandwiches seemed a little lean for the pricing ~$ 9 and there wasn’t much avocado in the turkey avocado. But the fresh bread was crispy and the sandwiches were good, the chicken spinach artichoke was definitely the better one.
Next time I’ll try the pastries and coffee but as for now its a decent option, comparable to a panera bread.

Eh… just a stopped in here to see what it was like… a test I like to do to see how «authentic» a «café» they are is to order a hot chocolate. Real cafes will use powdered chocolate like ghirardelli powdered chocolate and then steam it with the milk. This place used chocolate flavored Hersheys syrup, eh.
Atmosphere seems ok…

Sweet potato biscuit free to get instead of chips or pretzels!
Ham chicken daily special $ 6.50 — delicious. For the price it’s a lot more than I was expecting to get. Full sized sandwich, not a half sandwich.
Spinach artichoke chicken grilled panini $ 9 — Overall pretty tasty, but the swiss cheese had a strange taste. I typically have my swiss cheese paired with a burger, so maybe I’m just ignorant… but something tasted different.

My wife and I live very close to this once wonderful little bakery. Today we went for lunch and found that it has gone downhill. The soup was just warm, the French baguette was at least a day old. No lemonade in the dispenser, times two, but the tuna ½ sandwich was pretty good.

The paninis were just ok. Bread was a little tough. Overall I wasn’t impressed. The bakery stuff looked good though.

Great food and casual environment. I love their Carolina blue cupcakes and tasty flatbreads. I work nearby so I frequently come for lunch. They are great about take out orders as well. The staff is always friendly and helpful. I love their punch cards and have redeemed several free meals. The only downside is finding a parking spot during busy lunch hours.

Great place, love it. I come here often especially for their chicken fiesta salad and sandwiches. Breakfast is great too. Always leave happy, staff is very friendly as well. Good place to come study too, plus WiFi.

Pathetic excuse for a restaurant. Location is great… but the food sucks. If you had your taste buds burned off while being an idiot drinking a flaming shot of something, than this is the place for you! You love the location and not give a crap about the awful food. Enojy!

I like this place a lot for lunch. It’s certainly the best option for a quick bite in the Meadowmont complex, since I can’t take the cholesterol bomb that is Five Guys and Brixx… well, they can keep their pizza. The menu is soups, salads, flatbreads, sandwiches, and wraps. Everything I’ve had has always tasted very fresh and their salads, in particular, are well-​constructed. The portions are perfect for lunch – plenty to eat without being stuffed. Most items come with the choice of chips or pretzels on the side. I can particularly recommend the fiesta chicken salad and the tomato soup – the latter is wonderfully creamy with nice herb flavor and a generous sprinkling of parmesan and croutons. They’re fairly swift with getting the orders out to the pickup station. Also, they have Gold Peak Diet Green Tea at the beverage dispenser, so that makes me very happy. It can get crowded at lunch and sometimes the line to place your order seems kind of slow, but that’s my only caveat.

My family moved in recently across the street and have come here twice now, once for breakfast and once for lunch. The atmosphere is very warm, clean, and classic, and there is tons of indoor and outdoor seating. You order your food at the counter here, vs. a sit-​down menu and waiter system.
Good variety in the menu, from breakfast, to brunch, lunch, and dinner. There are also daily specials, which are nice.
I’ve had the French Toast during breakfast, and it was wonderful. Not too mushy, not too dry. the butter and syrup on top were good additions. My husband had one of their apple baskets (baked goods), and it was light, flaky, and not too sweet.
When we went for lunch, we had the chicken salad sandwich and the roasted turkey sandwich. I LOVED the chicken salad sandwich! It came on a croissant, which was a perfect slightly sweet flavor and flaky texture. The chicken salad was done in what looked like a dill/​ranch, which was wonderfully light and refreshing in comparison to mayonnaise or other variations.
My one complaint is that both times, the tables were very sticky. I don’t know if it’s a wood/​wax issue or poor cleaning, but it was worth noting and mildly off-​putting during the meal.

Café Carolina in Meadowmont is very convenient for me because I live close by. When I want to grab a bite to eat and do some work on the computer I will make the trip to Café Carolina. Overall, I enjoy the atmosphere but I would not call the food amazing. You can get a half sandwich, soup, chips and a drip for around $ 10 which is quite affordable for the area.
One of the best meals I have had at Café Carolina is the Sunday brunch. In my opinion, the brunch menu is better than the breakfast, lunch or dinner menu. The only issue with getting brunch is the place can get packed. I tend to get brunch before a UNC basketball game or football game and it is crazy just how busy it can be. There have been times in which I was unable to find a table.
If you plan on heading over to the Meadowmont area for wifi and work this is a nice location. There is outdoor seating so even after it closes at 8 pm you can still use the Internet. Another location close by, with internet access, is the Starbucks at Harris Teeter. It is about a 100 foot walk and it offers a little bit of a different atmosphere as it is much smaller.
Overall, I would say give Café Carolina and Bakery a try during non peak hours which tend to be lunchtime. Also, the sweet tea is amazing but it has a ton of sugar in it. Be aware of this if you don’t like your tea super sweet.

Disappointing. Supplies out in the customer area (to go area) cleaning supplies out in plain sight.
Sorry, but not very appealing to see all that stuff…
Pleasant staff though. Quick service.

Had the chicken salad sandwich and soup (broccoli cheddar) and was actually quite pleased! The service was really fast and the food was good, and not too big. Price is decent; I would go again.

I go hot and cold on this place as far as their food goes, but recently had an excellent sandwich! It was a Turkey Berry Panini which is smoked turkey, whole-​berry cranberry sauce, Swiss cheese and coleslaw. It really was delicious! The bread was perfectly crispy and the ingredients made for a delicious sandwich!
Lots of seating inside and out. Inside tends to get quite loud and in the summer the AC is up so high it’s always chilly so in nice weather it’s great to sit outside.
Nice choices on the soda fountain, including (and rarely found Anywhere anymore) Fresca! Gotta love that!
Parking here is almost always a challenge unless you opt for behind the buildings.