04/09/2026
☕ WHAT DOES £8.50 ACTUALLY PAY FOR? ☕
Following a little feedback we received today, we thought it might be worth sharing something from the other side of the counter…
When you sit down in a warm, comfortable independent café and order a meal for £8.50, you’re not simply paying for the food you can see on the plate.
You’re paying for quality ingredients from proper suppliers. You’re paying for the friendly member of staff who welcomes you, takes your order, makes your drink, brings your food over and clears up afterwards.
You’re paying for the chef who prepares and cooks it. The person who washes the dishes. The table and chair you’re sitting at. The heating keeping you warm. The electricity keeping the lights on so you can actually see those 10 chips! 😂
Then there’s rent, business rates, electricity, gas, water, wages, National Insurance, insurance, card fees, cleaning products, waste collection, equipment, repairs, servicing, licences… and the seemingly endless list of costs involved in keeping a small independent café open.
And, of course, the cost of the actual ingredients — which, like everything else, certainly aren’t getting any cheaper.
£8.50 doesn’t go very far once everyone who needs a slice of it has taken theirs.
We could buy cheaper ingredients. We could reduce the quality of the meat we use. We could cut corners. But that’s not the kind of café we want to be.
We’re a small, independent business. We use a proper butcher/meat supplier, we choose quality ingredients, we employ lovely local people and we work incredibly hard to keep our prices as reasonable as we possibly can.
We completely understand that everyone has a different idea of value for money, and we’ll always listen when somebody feels we could do better.
But we’re afraid £8.50 won’t get you an all-you-can-eat carvery at Rendezvous Café… because, well, we’re not an all-you-can-eat carvery! 😉
What it will get you is freshly prepared food made with quality ingredients, served by friendly people in a clean, warm and welcoming café — with a table to sit at, heating to keep you cosy and, yes, even the lights switched on. ❤️
Thank you to everyone who continues to support small independent businesses. Every coffee, breakfast, lunch and slice of cake really does make a difference. ☕🍰
P.S. We are currently reviewing our official chip-counting policy!! 🥔😂
