Cafe Rendezvous

This place is a golden nugget hidden in between the more pricey establishments on Victoria street. I recently started working in the area and had exhausted from the upscale chains already, when a co-​worker took me here! Diner type experience, you can either get your food to go or sit at one of their tables. We choose to sit. Starting at £4, you can get some wraps, paninis, sandwiches, jacket potatoes… And they have a plethora of options. Overwhelmed by all the choices, I asked the waitress what her favourite was: #27 chicken escalope sandwich with mozzarella. Went for that and it was a great choice. Definitely will be one of my regular spots for lunch!

I’ve been here a handful of times now and am yet to be disappointed. Rendezvous are very reasonably priced for breakfast and they do a fair range of wraps, salads and hot food at lunch.
There is a distinctly eastern Mediterranean slant to the food, which in my books is a very good thing. On this occasion I had the Adana Kofte special — firstly it was huge. So big that a normal round plate wouldn’t have cut it, so I got given what looked like a platter.
The Kofte was covered in a medium spiced tomato based sauce. It came with two large piles of rice, a variety of salad as well as chilli sauce and hummus on the side. The meat itself was succulent and moist — because it was sat on a pita, the bread soaked up all those juices.
Normally this would have made the pita soggy but they had the forethought to toast it first and so it said crisp but tasty with the meat and sauce. Honestly I could have just had the pita and gone away a happy man.
It was the best Kofte I’ve had outside of Istanbul — and even there this so similar that it’s hard to choose between them so I’ll call it a draw. Certainly the spicing of the Kofte took me right back to that day in Turkey. Rest assured that the Adana is going on my lunch rotation — the only problem is that it was so big and having eaten it all, I feel like I need a nap now!

This is my favorite lunch spot when I’m working in London. Their servings are HUGE, and usually include rice and a salad and are only 5 pounds! That’s such a steal in London. They have various specials daily. I’ve tried mainly chicken dishes, and they’re all delish — roast chicken, Indian Chicken and Thai Chicken are all very good. It’s quick as well, you can’t go wrong here!

This is a decent enough place. It’s a little cramped maybe, with a long, elongated room and the service can be variable, but the food is surprisingly good and well-​priced. Worth checking out if you fancy a change from your usual lunch eatery in or around Victoria Street.