Paul Gurney
The easiest 5 star review I’ve posted yet.
Simply put, you know when someone puts their heart & soul into what they present to total strangers.
The menu is not exotic, but the quality of the ingredients and very clear labour of love that is invested into creating these works of palate pleasing deliciousness is what sets Raison D’Etre apart from.
If you’re having the breakfast & partial to a bit of sausage - this is the one to go for ... the best Cumberland sausage I’ve had in a very long time!!
Oh, and one of the finest Flat Whites I’ve had anywhere 👌🏼
... and it will be a sin not to highlight the splendour of their own freshly baked goodies ... get in early so you don’t miss out on their Croissants & Pains 😋
T R
First day back in London, only 20 minutes approx from London Heathrow airport via the Piccadilly line. 3 minutes walk from South Kensington station.
This place was recommended to me because of their reviews, pictures from visitors and the look of the menu. Opens at 8am, currently closed on Sunday’s.
Absolutely loved the experience today, food was all fresh and tasty.
Cappuccino was amazing, the juice amazing, the baguette super fresh and made in store!
Forgot to mention that the food was super valuable!!
Jamie Chong
Very sincere and welcoming staff, makes me feel like a guest at home. Nice cozy little cafe. Serves good hot chocolate, had the salmon cream cheese rockets baguette , simple but nicely put together and taste good. Pretty good overall experience.
Michael Pruski
Best breakfast in South Kensington and quite possibly in London. Delicious sandwiches and panini's with top quality ingredients. Freshly squeezed orange juice and great coffee. Service is incredibly friendly. Very good place for going solo or with a family. Must visit.
Hari Iyer
Le 'Joseph' is the best sandwich I've had in London. £5.50 only. Lightning fast service, and the owner's authenticity and focus on quality was evident in every aspect of the interaction.
boe thoe
Ate lunch here while waiting for check in at our AirBnb. Had the New Yorker sandwich and a bruschetta in an open baguette, both tasted great. The staff was nice and welcoming, helping us with out luggage.
Be aware that you’ll have to use cash on orders below 10£.
Ariel Cahn
Lovely staff and atmosphere. The people were very accommodating of my particular eating habits. 😁
The warm sandwiches & baguettes are delicious and an excellent way to deal with those cold, dank & depressing spring mornings. 😉
I recommend this quaint little café with the greatest pleasure.
김뫄뫄
Awesome!
The staff were very kind and the best bacon I had ever eaten was. I think Coffee is rather acidic.
It was the best breakfast while I was in London.
Edward
Absolutely perfect. Small. Not fussy just great quality.
Avacado and smoked salmon on toast (but next level) with a black coffee (rocket fuel) and a glass of orange juice (freshly squeezed).
The owners/managers obviously care what they produce is of a high standard.
Peter Kaela
A cafe with a very reasonably priced, flavourful menu & excellent customer service, very welcoming & accommodating. (Request for tap water met with a smile and a call over the shoulder for 'some tap water for our guests please'.)
The menu has Filled baguettes, Focaccias & Paninis in a large variety of flavours, with salads as a lighter option aswell as some croissants, muffins, cookies, sweet panini's etc. (be warned croissants sell out quick! When I came for lunch they had sold out of these)
Roger
Love this place!! Coffee is great and food superb. The staff become like family after coming regularly. They know exactly what you want to eat and have great recommendations. A tribute to neighbourhood café like in the old days. Also, their music is spot on! Great tunes...🎼<br/>
Akanksha
<br/>Raison d’Etre on 28/08/18<br/><br/>What a great find! Raison d’Etre is located on the very-French Bute Street in South Kensington. This café is a short walk from the V&A, where we found ourselves peckish and in desperate need of caffeine. Thanks to a very good rating and numerous positive reviews on Trip Advisor, we landed here and were thoroughly pleased! <br/>Raison d’Etre is a cozy café with a warm and welcoming atmosphere, we felt very much at home. Matt, the owner, is a personable and charismatic guy. He and his staff provide top-notch customer service in a laid-back and relaxed atmosphere. They do a great job taking care of their customers and have tons of regulars as a result. The coffee is, hands down, the best we had in London. The sandwiches and pastries we had were great as well. Our favorites were the Raison d’Etre baguette and the Pain aux Chocolat…totally crave-inducing! We are definitely missing it now that we are back in the States! Everything we had was great, our only regret was that we were not able to have lunch here as much as we would have liked. Finding this place added to the enjoyment of our vacation in a big way!<br/><br/>
Beverly
They're closed for several weeks for summer vacation. Call ahead. Too bad. I was looking forward to trying it. I ate at the tiramisu shop across the street instead. I didn't want to rate them down for being closed but obviously I have no idea what rating I would really have given them.
Rajesh
This restaurant-cafe is excellent in every aspect. The menu includes options for various diets and the food is delicious. The staff is efficient and friendly, led by the very charismatic cafe owner. The atmosphere is uniquely welcoming and pleasant!<br/><br/>Definitely worth checking out!!<br/><br/>P.S. The background music was also especially enjoyable…
Aashta Moudgil
The food was good and served efficiently and promptly. My only complaint, which I am pretty sure is not allowed by card company policies now, is that they have a minimum spend of £10 for card payments. This would negate the reasonably priced menu if you are dining alone and don’t have cash.
Sudhindra N R
It's a small place but the quality of food is just amazing. We had the best panini's of our life here. Staff are courteous and polite. Dont miss this place at any cost
Fizz Of Life Blog
My friend P is an interesting man. He is an aesthete, a bon vivant and an author of well researched books on European cultural history. He’s also a snappy dresser, favouring a top quality vintage look, which he describes as ‘Dandy Fatigué. Never is he seen without a well cut designer suit or tweed jacket and flannels in 50s or 60s style, always with a crisp white shirt, often with a tie too, and he is proud of his collection of Trilbys. Denims and a t-shirt are quite unthinkable to him. His hair is short and neatly Brylcreemed back, his quite fabulous cheek bones give him the air of a matinee idol, and he might have just stepped straight out of an Edward Hopper painting or some film noir.
Madina Almat
It's a small cosy place , friendly staff. However we ordered focaccia and it took a long time ! The focaccia was not made well, weve seen other places with much better food quality and serving time.dislike
Quiet Eating
There is a reason why this place is constantly busy! Full of kids from the nearby French school, it shows that kids these days do know good food from an early age. Reasonable priced for sandwiches that are much better than pret and only a little dearer.
Harry Jordan
I went to this café with my girlfriend yesterday. It was really nice little cafe with a friendly atmosphere. Fast food with various sandwiches and salads and prepared in front of you with fresh ingredients. The waiters are really nice and if you do not speak English very well do not worry about that because they speak French perfectly. You definitely will enjoy the food and the atmosphere.
Odo
I read this review about a nice sandwich in South Kensington and decided to give it a go. Raison d'Etre , a small student cafe, taken care by its owner Mathieu, a lawyer that got bored of the corporate environment and left everything behind to follow his passion the food. Fresh ingredients, fresh baked bread, nice simple straight forward flavours
Leon Bates
You cannot skip going to this place! There's soft soothing lounge music playing. The coffee is perhaps the best I've had in ages! I had a capuccino which had a thick layer of creamy foam on top and was sprinkled with coffee powder. The fresh baguette was wonderful and had a heavenly aroma. The owner of the restraunt was very friendly and kept interacting with customers and recommended the best dishes. Loved the experience!
Andrew Norris
This one is a welcome break from the ordinary sandwiches that are served in most of the big chain restaurants. This one offers a good quality meal at pretty decent prices. The service is pretty efficient as well with the staff being quite warm and friendly. The ambience is quite nice with recently improved decor. All in all it is a wonderful place to be in.
Mahima Bahl
I recently visited this place for a sandwich outing and was pretty impressed with it. The sandwich as well as coffee was quite good. The service was pretty efficient with the staff being quite warm and friendly. I felt it was a little expensive for what the food was worth but anyhow, the overall experience was fine and would love to come back again.
Rohit Chopra
The place is a French cafe that serves delectable sandwiches, hams, pastramis, freshly cut meats, etc. There is an extensive variety of sandwiches to choose from the elaborate display. The place is usually packed with French people. The food and coffee here is a bit expensive though, but totally worth the price. I would definitely recommend this place.
Benjamin Watts
This popular place has a very french feel, the way it’s interiors have been done. Their menu consists of a wide range of coffee and teas, salads, panini's, filled baguettes and pastries. Coffee here was good, neither too milky nor very strong. We followed this up with a fresh garden salad and a panini. Visit this place for a quick bite serving good quality food at a reasonable price.
Evan Gould
The cafe defies my sense of a chilled out coffee culture. The little french cafe doesn't live up to its name and i'd much rather hop in at another cafe in the neighborhood given the surprisingly high decibel at which the music is played here.<br/>The cafe is generally full of french college students at lunch time and the owner is a little imposing with his endless debates.<br/>The food is quite good especially hot chocolate, cappuccino and cookies. But the prices slightly overpriced.<br/>Tip: Carry earplugs, you never know when they might come in handy.
Priya Ahuja
I do not think you will feel too much bothered by the large crowds and the long queues outside this place as this is really reputed and famous joint and the menu is extremely inviting. <br/>The food they serves is very very yummy and i recommend trying the grilled pannini which was extremely flavorsome.The value for money is also very high ,which very reasonable charges.<br/>The only issue for me would be the hygiene, which could have been maintained more properly had the gloves for money and been used to prepare the food too!
Layla Howell
The place is a quaint cafe, with pleasant interiors and quotes of writers and thinkers on the walls. The sandwiches and salads here are of impeccable quality and not too expensive. I had the Ceaser salad here, which was an absolute delight. The staff is hospitable and the owner is very friendly. Definitely worth a try.
Daisy Clarke
An overrated coffee shop that has stopped paying attention to either the food or the service completely. The coffee was too hot, The croissants were right out of the plastic factory made bags. The food was bad and the service was worse. it takes forever for the food to arrive.
Amelia Smith
While being on a trip, I decided to have stop at this place for breakfast. I liked the quality of food so much that I even had my lunch there. The ingredients used in the preparation of the meals were amazingly fresh and the staff ensured that I was comfortable in having my meals. The staff was very obliging and attentive all the time. The quality of food was top notch and I must recommend you to order chicken pesto salad whenever you visit this restaurant.
Vibhor Dhaliwal
I went here last year and had Goats cheese salad , but I was not at all impressed by that. <br/>However I went to this place again couple of days back and i was so surprised by my food , it was absolutely delicious. <br/>I had crayfish and salads and those were so yum. <br/>Had a great time because of you guys. Thanks:)
Anna Adams
We visited this place with our students so that they can practice using French that they have learnt in class. The owner was very friendly and easily took out the hesitation of our students in seconds. Students really loved their milkshakes and the salads ordered were delectable with fresh ingredients.
Aidan Coles
To begin with, amazingly helpful, welcoming and amicable owner. This place has all the right ingredients for a local french delicacy. Coming to the interesting and extensive menu of sandwiches, baguettes and panini's! This place offers varied flavoured sandwiches. do visit for a quick bite. The place hardly ever disappoints!
Holly Moore
I had gone here with the intention of relishing their ever famous breakfast however, much to my disappointment I had arrived late. The owner of the place was humble enough to guide me then through the lunch menu and even helped me decide what to order.<br/>He sure knew how to engage customers in a definitive second visit as he was extremely appealing. <br/>You will not regret this place, trust me!
Tom Sheppard
I am a regular here at the restaurant and can speak confidently of the impeccable service that one receives at the restaurant.<br/>The owner is a cool guy who takes care of his customers personally. Everything on the menu stands out for me.<br/>The ambiance is relaxed and chilled out. A must visit!
Patrick Franklin
This is the perfect place for people with sweet tooth or for the craving of small snacks and such.<br/>The place offers the best croissants in London.<br/>We also had the pleasure of trying the sandwiches which were also very well done.<br/>The staff is efficient and the service is prompt.
Mia Johnson
Amazing place to go to for some coffee and sandwiches. there is a good variety in everything too. All the food is freshly prepared, and tastes wonderful. I would suggest you try the Joseph baguettes, It was divine. Would recommend this place to all.
Emily Williams
This place offers a really good menu for breakfast, and at really amazing prices. They accent their lively and peaceful atmosphere with a great staff and impeccable service. Everything about this place is one-of-a-kind. We came to this place twice during our trip, in spite of having free breakfast at the hotel.
Jessica Davies
It was a pretty good choice to visit this restaurant. The sandwiches that we tried were of impeccable quality and I must say that the prices were also reasonable considering the portions serve. I would definitely return to this place and would recommend you to do the same. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.
Hugo Cooke
After assessing the reviews, I personally expected something really good and decent out of this place but that turned out against us. I am very disappointed by their service, cooperation and their preparation. I ordered egg and bread which turned out be like chewing a hard rubber. I would definitely not recommend this place.
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