Café De Novo

The workers are nice and fast and the food is great and fresh!

The sandwiches are good, but the coffee can be a hit-or-miss. The cappuccino and latte especially are often too milky.

For a tiny dining area like this, they have quite a few healthy menu items to choose from.

Counter serve coffee and food inside Duke Law School, but available for non-students as well. The food is inconsistent but not bad for a school cafeteria. Others have told me they think this is one of the best value lunch spots in all of Durham. I am not so sure. Others have made the legal joke that De Novo review only becomes necessary where there is "clear error."

For breakfast, De Novo offers made to order eggs with several options from a steam table. I have had the chorizo hash, turkey sausage, breakfast sausage, hash browns, biscuits, and toast. The chorizo hash is sometimes good, other times it tastes stale and has too many potatoes and too little meat. The turkey sausage and breakfast sausage were both dry, hard, and flavorless. Not good. Hashbrowns were nothing special. Biscuit was actually pretty good considering the above. I have my eggs over medium and they are, again, inconsistent. Sometimes overcooked to the point that the edges of the white are crispy and tough to cut and the yolk doesn't run.

For lunch, De Novo offers either an "express line" with rotating steam counter options like baked/roast chicken, fish, and more. Sometimes more faux "ethnic" options like Beef & Broccoli. As you would expect, this food isn't always great. It's pretty cheap though (less than $8) for main and some sides. the better options are the sandwiches and salads. The chicken pita is tasty although not particularly authentic or anything. The cuban sandwich is a favorite and pretty good, although not as flavorful as one from a legit cuban place. They use a nice mustard and the bread is soft and warm, but the meats aren't as savory and juicy as I would like. They also have specials every day. I have seen things like crabcake or turkey and avocado. They also usually have shrimp, steak, fish, or chicken tacos available for about $3-4 each. They are okay, a good smaller snack option. You get a choice of side salad or french fries with your sandwich. The side salad is not particularly interesting but tastes good. The french fries are probably the best thing on the menu. Good portion of crispy fries, well salted with some parsley flakes. Finally, they rotate in some soup options, typically two per day.

You can also get several styles of coffee, soft drinks, or bottled sodas, teas, juices, etc. Grab and go options are available until 5pm and include a bunch of energy and granola bars (Clif, Kind, etc.) chip bags, etc. You can also get refrigerated pre-made sandwiches and slices of cake/pie from a cooler, but I have never tried these.

Service is extremely kind and friendly when they take your order and call your name. Make sure to request "to-go" ahead of time though or you will get it in a plastic basket that you have to leave near their trash cans.

Here's the other big problem: long, long lines and waits during lunch. It's not just law students and law professors. Lots of undergrads come here to get lunch as well so it can get packed for everything but the "express line."

You get to eat in a pretty nice place. Star Commons is a big windowed atrium in the law school with many tables and seats. When it's warmer there are seats and tables outside.