With its friendly staff, excellent coffee and tranquil atmosphere, Kairos Café is a great place to relax and recharge
Tucked away in Jawalakhel, Kairos Café is a quaint, colourful restaurant with a great coffee selection and a mix of American and British cuisine. While the inside of the café is considerably smaller than the outside patio, it has a long L-shaped couch and several comfy armchairs lined with soft cushions, providing the perfect place to read, study, work or simply lounge around.
On a hot day, we were eager to visit Kairos Café for a sandwich and a tall glass of their famous cold brew coffee. Iced coffee aficionados may agree that it is often difficult to find iced coffee that not only quenches your thirst but is also flavourful, full-bodied and aromatic. You can call of your search. Kairos’ iced coffee is the perfect pick me up. You don’t even need to add any milk or sugar. We were told by someone at the café that the secret is in steeping the grounded coffee beans in cold water for a prolonged period of time. This process gets rid of the acidity and leaves you with a naturally sweet, smooth, refreshing cup of iced coffee, which at Rs 250, may seem pricey but is definitely worth it.
The menu offers traditional British pub food, like fish and chips (Rs 600) and bangers and mash (Rs 400) as well as a varied selection of salads and sandwiches. Opting for a lighter lunch, we settled for an order of the tuna salad sandwich (Rs 300 for a 6-inch sub and Rs 450 for a 12-inch) and the beetroot and goat cheese salad (Rs 450).
Both dishes were exquisite. Oftentimes, tuna salad is either too dry or dripping in mayonnaise but, thankfully, this sandwich was somewhere in the middle. The tomatoes were also fresh and juicy and the red onion complemented the tuna perfectly. The salad was crisp and crunchy and the beetroots and goat cheese went very well together.
All of the baked goods at Kairos are fresh, made in-house every day. So naturally, we couldn’t leave without splitting a scone or a muffin. We opted for a scone that came with a choice of either strawberry or blackberry jam and a side of fresh cream and cost only Rs 200. Aside from the coffee, this was definitely the best part of the meal. The scone was light and fluffy, baked to perfection, and the jam (we opted for blackberry) added some zest to the pastry dish.
With its friendly staff, excellent coffee and tranquil atmosphere, Kairos Café is a great place to relax and recharge.
Madeline Zutt
How to get there: From the Jawalakhel roundabout, go west towards the Zoo. When the road comes to a ‘T’ make a right and go about 10 meters. Kairo’s Café is the third house on the left with a big yellow sign.