Iris & June

When a café is named after both of my grandmas, damn you got my attention. Are you gonna serve me some the lovely homecooked food I get back home? Damn right you are! Delicious!
I ordered the Kenyan filer coffee which was amazing! Nice, strong and you could taste the quality. Already restraining myself for ordering another.
Food wise I got the frittata, which melted in my mouth. Yum yum and I got the salad with it! They have two choices and so I tried both — a lovely ricotta & broccoli pasta and a grain salad, which were equally as good. It’s the perfect comfort food for the winter!
Overall it came to £9.20 which I’ll admit is. Little pricey for lunch, but it’s sooo good and in the cold weather, it’s like eating at home — you can totally taste the love that went into making the food.

Perfect place to hang while waiting for a matinée at the Victoria Palace! Stopped in for a coffee, was not dissappointed. Nice people, relaxed atmosphere, and great coffee. Will definitely come back next time I’m in the area!

My wife and I went for a stroll here one afternoon to have a coffee and a bite to eat. The reviews on Unilocal were promising and it looked like a solid choice to get a well crafted coffee.
It has a hipster minimalist feel: the interior piping near the ceiling is exposed and the floors are polished concrete. The range of food was consistent with this. There was not very much choice, but there were a few things I would like. I got a sausage roll and my wife got the sweet potato and feta frittata. The sausage roll was nice, but it would have been even better heated up. I sampled some of the frittata: it was sweet like bread and butter pudding and I couldn’t detect the feta.
I got my usual flat white and my wife asked for a hot chocolate with soy milk. Both of these were well made. The flat white had the signature pattern on top which looks like a cross-​section of an onion to me. I didn’t have any of the hot chocolate, but I was happy with my coffee and I made it last for ten minutes.
There is plenty of space inside to manœuvre a big pushchair and it is very family friendly. While we were there, we noticed a dad and his two small daughters having drinks. They were happy to make fluffies for them.

Very good coffee, and attentive service. Décor is a little cold, as it’s very sharp and minimalist. Doesn’t encourage you to linger too long, but maybe that’s the idea! Victoria is a coffee wasteland otherwise.

Hands down the best coffee place I’ve found in Victoria. Coffee made the way it should be — fresh ground, weighed, timed extraction, etc. You pay a little more than Pret or Starbucks but this is a whole different experience. Friendly staff and a great minimalist style inside. Pick up a stamp card because you’ll be back for more. Try the almond croissants if you’re hungry — definitely not good for you but the best I’ve ever tried!

Amazing coffee. I will even go as far as saying its the best coffee in the area!
Sausage roll & lentil salad pretty great too.
A lot more choice for food during the week though.

How London’s Victoria district is changing. For years, a dowdy, dated backwater home to tens of thousands of civil servants and lost tourists, the recent decision of landholder Land Securities to redevelop large swathes of Victoria Street is giving Victoria a jolt of cool and class that would have seemed impossible in the past. All of a sudden, Victoria Street is home to the biggest cinema from the Queen of independent cinema, Curzon. 100 luxury apartments are being built in place of the tatty old Sainsburys and shops selling cheap suits. And somewhat unbelievably, nearby streets host headquarters for major fashion brands like Burberry.
Kiwi-​run, Ozone-​using coffee house Iris & June’s arrival in Howick Place, just off Victoria Street, is the latest cause for my jaw dropping. Previously the coffee scene in Victoria was predictably drab: Starbucks, Eat, Pret. Sure, Flat Cap Coffee has had a stall at Strutton Ground’s market for a few years, but by necessity their offerings have been takeaway only and a simple (if decent) range of espressos, lattes etc. Surely sit-​down, Antipodean coffee houses were the preserve of trendy east London, right?
Apparently not. Run by a friendly Kiwi woman called Jody, Iris & June offers an experience almost other-​worldly for this part of London: sipping top quality espresso in a stripped-​back, cool, modern environment to the sounds of Foals and the sights of Birkenstock-​toting hippy chicks and skinny-​suit wearing fashionistas.
They even serve food — in my case a large, filling bap and anzac cookie — which was decent, if perhaps slightly pricey (their brownie for example is £3.50) but such are, no doubt, the properly rental prices round here. Service is friendly, quick and pleasingly laid-​back. They even have free wifi.
The coffee — from Ozone — is good too, if currently only espresso-​based. I prefer filter coffee myself, hence me holding back a fifth star for now. They plan to introduce Aeropress and pour over filter coffee soon. When they do, I’m sure I’ll be updating this score to 5.
UPDATE 29÷3÷2015: Iris & June do now offer filter coffee (Aeropress and V60). It’s good, but it’s also rather pricey at £4. Compare that to Four Corners café in Waterloo who sell the same Ozone filters for £3. Thus I’m sticking to 4 stars for Iris & June for now.

Iris and June is an oasis of cool in the faceless, chain restaurant desert of Victoria. Everywhere you look is something you could get on any other street in the city and is rammed with office workers all jostling for the same sandwich they get every lunchtime. You step into this very chilled, stylish coffeeshop and instantly feel at peace. Despite being on the darker side of the street, it has plenty of light and airiness.
Iris and June is across the street from my office and there had been quite the buzz about their opening. I spotted its cool-​Kiwi-​coffee-​font and zipped in. The staff are so friendly and welcoming, chatting and advising on what to order.
I had an americano and an anzac cookie. They also have chocolate chip cookies and brownies — mmm. Usually I find these Antipodean coffees a bit bitter for me, but this was delicious. If I didn’t already have lunch I would have chosen from the colourful spring salads or a smoked salmon bagel. Everything looks so fresh, handmade and full of quality ingredients, so unique to what else you can get around here.
Sure, it’s kinda pricey, but these artisan coffeeshops always are — treat yourself!