Cafe Renaissance

I recommend this place highly. Delicious food and friendly service.

Looks like they’re going away like many downtown PA establishments. Id passed many times not knowing they did Iranian food. God a koobideh plate and it was decent but not comparable to places like Chelokababi. Service was disjointed and the place is in an odd spot. However I guess they’ve had their run and something else will be taking over soon

I think this is a very good place. I gave it 5 stars because it is one of the best places around university avenue in terms of taste, healthiness and price.
Their rices are very good, as expected from a persian restaurant. The daily specials are served with salad and rice. Especially the thursday special Ghormeh Sabzi Khoresh is amazing. It has a strong lemony and sour flavor.
The owner is korean and she said she learned the recipes from the previous owner. Anyways she does her job really well and she is very friendly.

I’ve tried quite a few items off their menu. Tho everything was pretty good, the dish that is the staple of my order is the eggplant dip. Don’t go for the side order, get the large order because the side will not be enough to satisfy that craving.
I don’t know how it’s made, but it’s a perfect blend of eggplant, oil, and delicious spices. So many other wonderful dishes to choose from (their kebobs are delicious, get the lamb) but i can make my entire meal out of just the eggplant dip and flatbread. also, you can’t beat the prices, very reasonable for palo alto :)
can’t wait for my next trip to palo alto and stop by café renaissance.

What a cute place! It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but once inside, you are transported to a charming bistro/​café. With little demi-​booth banquette seating lining the walls, Café Renaissance offers much more in ambience than you bargained for and delicious food to match.
I’ve been here a few times and each time I’ve brought a different friend along. I always recommend the kubideh (mostly because, to be honest, I liked it so much the first time I didn’t want to deviate). I usually up my order to two kubideh kabobs, because who can say no to all of that deliciousness? Next on my list to try is the ghormeh sabzi (a yummy herb and lamb stew — my favorite Persian dish), but it’s only served on certain days, which never seem to coincide with when I’m there.
One of my best friends is Persian, and her mom makes some of the best food I have ever eaten in my life. Clearly, I have pretty high expectations when it comes to Persian cuisine, and I find I am repeatedly impressed by the delicious food at Café Renaissance and by the sweet woman who runs the place.

This place is quite welcoming. It’s obvious that the owner (who is not Persian, by the way), has put a lot of effort into the décor and feel of the restaurant. It has a true café feel, from the bench seating to the small tables. The owner and the staff are warm and pleasant. One day, my friend and I brought a coupon in, and she got very excited and thanked us.
I really like the kubideh. It’s a bit salty, but has such good flavor. The huge amount of rice you get, and the grilled tomato on the platter, are delicious. I’m not a huge fan of the lavash bread (it’s a bit dry), but everything else is so tasty, it really doesn’t matter.
I also love the fact that this restaurant isn’t on University. It’s tucked a bit out of the way, and while every time I’ve been there for lunch it’s been busy, it’s never so packed that I can’t find a table or feel crowded or cramped.

Guess what? A sweet Korean lady in the middle of Palo Alto just served me some of the best Ghormeh Sabzi I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a LOT of the stuff. She even had tadig. So much respect.

One block off the bustle of University Avenue is this sleepy, psuedo-​Persian spot with a French name and an Asian owner. Unlike most Persian places in the area, it is not entirely full-​serve: You first order at the counter and they bring you your food.
The interior is not what you’d call upscale, but it is a quiet, soothing and pleasant place to hang at lunchtime, especially considering the lack of crowds.
Menu items consist of sandwiches, salads and Persian dishes, with a featured special of the day. Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
– Kubideh kabob plate: ($ 6.25). Included kabob, lavash, grilled tomato, rice or salad. Appropriate price considering I didn’t get both rice and salad; nor hummus. 3 stars.
– Falafel side plate: ($ 2.50). Three freshly-​made falafel balls coated in tahini. A little dry but had a nice toasty flavor with a slight whiff of savory spice. ⁶⁄₁₀ on the falafel scale.
– Gormeh sabzi (Thursdays only): ($ 8.45). Beef stew in spinach, red beans and lime. Pretty good price but I found this version to be merely so-​so. The beef chunks were either too fatty or slightly dry, with few in that «sweet spot» in between. Portion was good. 3 stars.
Unfortunately Café Renaissance only has my favorite Persian dish, fesenjan, at dinnertime. I hope to sample it someday, but until then, 3 stars is all I can muster.

Wednesday is my favorite day to visit this café — it is when they have the Eggplant Khoresh (platter of the day).
Great comfort food, wonderful warm people, and Choi (the Korean woman at the counter) is the best!

This little Persian restaurant is owned by a Korean woman. I’ve heard that she bought the restaurant originally owned by a Persian family and has ever since cooked the same menus and recipes from the previous owners. Whatever she’s doing, it’s working out great!
I tried the pomegranate chicken with the rice and it was quite tasty! I’ve never really had any type of this kind of combination before… I mean, pomegranate and chicken? Who woulda thought! Despite this unfamiliar mix, I found the entrée had big flavor, with a bit of tangy and tart accompanied.
My friends had the wraps and they were HUGE. They had to to go half. I’ll be sure to try these the next time because I love leftovers! :)
I noticed that a lot of older Iranian/​Persian men came in here (they were speaking Farsi) while we were there. Also, the Korean owner pointed out a lady who comes and has the same meal for lunch, everyday. Both these facts assured me that I was indeed eating some good authentic Persian food!
Must revisit soon!

I don’t understand… a Persian place runned by non Persians? I mean I know it’s not the most outrageous thing, but Persian food is a dish best served by Persians.
I went here for lunch because it’s close and I was in the mood to try a new wrap place. The place was eerily deserted at 12pm, and it took a little while for the lady to realize I was at the counter, ready to order. I ordered the falafel wrap, which was around 6 bucks (good price). The décor and ambiance of the place is refreshing since most other places on/​near University around lunch time is hectic, and here it was really quiet. I sat down and while I was waiting I heard a huge burp from the kitchen. At first I snickered (it was a huge belch), then I realized that whoever made that disgusting sound is probably making my food. It didn’t bother me that much but I thought it was a worthy tidbit to throw in. :)
My wrap came out in about 7 – 10 min and it looked like a huge burrito. It was massive. Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it much. It took me way too many bites to get to the falafel, with lettuce and lavash in the way. I barely tasted any tahini sauce, and the hummus didn’t enter the picture until half way through. I was starving so I was clearly going to finish the wrap no matter what. The only thing good about the wrap was the falafel, but I just wish there was more of it.
Since this is the only dish I tried I can’t really back up my first statement without trying the kabob platters. But I’m pretty confident that I’m right. If you want a good wrap I’d go to Mediterranean Wraps instead.

I just realized that I paid 10 bucks for a lunch plate that consisted of meat, rice and pita bread. The true price should be 7.95 at tops for this quality and quanity.
The problem was not only this outrageous price but the fact that it wasn’t very good. I guess you can set up shop in Palo Alto and serve mediocre food and slap a premium price tag on it and call it a day. Dont be fooled by the image on the home screen, it looks better than it tastes.
The chicken kabob had an overly citrus taste, pita bread was cheap store bought that seemed like it was pulled right out of the bag and not even placed on the grill? The rice was uhh… Well you cant mess up rice, unless you try really hard.
Note to owners:
Slap some new prices on your lunch menu after dropping the prices by a couple of bucks and and ease up on the lemon juice.
Will I go back?
Hell Naw.

I think this Persian restaurant is excellent! Choi is an extremely pleasant hostess. Her kebabs and saffron rice are amazing. The Persian soup and the Shirazi salad are excellent too!

Delicious. The adorable Korean owner is extremely hospitable and the woman can cook, wow. My husband is an extremely picky eater; he likes his food and it has to be good for him to want to come back. After gobbling up his Café Curry (tender fried chicken pieces in a delicious curry and mushroom sauce w/​basmati rice, sauteed veggies and salad), he blurts out, «we gotta make this a regular stop.» He’s right tho’. I’ve been here 4 times and every time my platter was excellent, not just good, EXCELLENT. The simmered eggplant platter is delicious, and I’ve tried the specials of the day, whether it be chicken and artichoke or some kind of stewed veggie dish, and everything has always been top notch.
Please frequent this place so it stays in business. Being on a side street in downtown Palo Alto (and I don’t think she does much marketing), ppl pass by this place w/​o a glance. Spread the word, delicious AND extremely affordable.
Oh yeah, and my company had her cater a special event once w/​deli sandwiches, etc. and the sandwiches were bursting w/​meat and cheese. Everyone enjoyed their food. This place doesn’t skimp out on portions.
Go! We’re going again next week, and the next, and the next…

So I just recently visited Café Renaissance again the other day and had something utterly wonderful. The adorable owner lady told me to try the Kabob «Koobideh» Sandwich after I couldn’t make up my mind on what to order. Oh what a great suggestion! I didn’t even know that they had a Koobideh Sandwich! If you don’t already know. Koobideh is the persian ground beef skewers that they normally put over rice. Its not a burger… it has a completely different flavor and is the #1 persian favorite entrée. So what better than to stick one in between some tasty toasty bread!?? The Koobideh here tastes like Koobideh. what in my opinion makes it better… is that a KOREAN lady makes it taste just as good my family can including some of the best persian restaurants.
OMG! It was sooooo good. I don’t know what was wrong with me that day or if it was that nothing was wrong with me but just so right with the food. I devoured the sandwich and it stayed on my mind all day long. Really it wasn’t like it was a complicated dish… but the sauce and the delicious bread and the tasty koobideh skewers… WOW! They worked so well together and I have yet to find a place with a better one. I was in heaven for like 5 min. She put TWO skewers of koobideh and toasted it in between that bread to perfection. I wish I had ordered a yogurt drink with it! I’ll be back for that. :D
Also I’d like to note that she now has blended mocha drinks! I didn’t see anything on the menu but I just happened to ask and it was my lucky day. I guess she is adding this as a new item but you wont know unless you ask for it… at least for now. Its the Big Train brand which is actually my favorite. so everything is going in my favor so far at this place.
I also tried her little Jalapenio Hummus dip thing which I have NEVER seen or heard of before. That was pretty good as well and I really liked the Jalapenio twist. Worked out pretty well. Good job Café Renaissance! Great friendly service every time and I have yet to be disappointed in the food. You really need to add the words «Café» to your sign outside so more people know about you. I am sure most people look at the sign, «Renaissance» and don’t think of anything Café or food.

I liked everything that we ordered here. The pomegranate chicken was the stand out. The lady at the counter was super sweet and friendly and even gave us some free samplers. I was skeptical when I walked in and walked out a convert.

Check out the baked mochi (see my photo). It’s a mochi version of bread pudding. It has a really addictive chewyness. Only available on Tuesdays. $ 1.25/ea. Sometimes you have to ask for it: they don’t always put it out on display.

Yikes. I’m shocked that this place is in business. I went here for dinner with a friend last night, and the place was completely deserted. I don’t like dining in the middle of a huge crowd, but my god, it’s a little suspect when there is NO ONE in the entire restaurant at 6:45 on a Thursday night. The food was nothing to write home about. I ordered the chicken kabob which comes with rice, a salad, and a quarter of a roasted tomato. The chicken portion wasn’t that big in proportion to the huge amount of rice they give you. I tried a bite of my friend’s falafels and. .. gag. It was so dry that I almost started choking. Not good. The pita that was brought out with the salads was so thin and flimsy — it almost looked like an uncooked wonton wrapper.
The only redeeming quality of the restaurant was that the woman working there was really nice, but I think she was doing everything — cooking and taking orders so even though we were the only ones in the restaurant, it took awhile for her to come out with the food.
It seems like this place might be better for lunch, but I won’t be returning.

Continuing my conquest to find a few good quick wrap eateries in Palo Alto, I stopped by Café Renaissance for lunch.
Here’s another Wrap and American eatery with a nice atmosphere in Palo Alto along Hamilton parallel to University. It was 2pm on Thursday and I was looking for something quick and easy. After looking this restaurant up on Unilocal over 24 reviews, there was something intriguing about it that I had to check it out and give my own personal review.
I went inside and saw a dimly lit café with an open skylight, nicely decorated furnishings, and a full menu of items. There was calm music playing in the background and business people taking a break for lunch. I even saw a guy snoozing in his chair facing the entrance. I went up to the cashier booth and the lady in the back said she will be there in a bit which gave me time to make my final decision from the chalkboard menu hung above on the left hand wall. When the cashier/​food preparer was ready, I ordered a Lamb Wrap without onions. The wrap was $ 6.25 and total with tax came to $ 6.83
I took a seat and observed the area around me. The table I sat in looked like green marble held up by wrought iron with wooden backed chairs. There were some tables with benches covered in pink pillows and khaki colored cushions. The skylight had a cute little painting on the ceiling incorporated inside. A small bamboo fountain created a feeling of serenity as I heard the water dribbling out. And again, music was upbeat and playing some good classics. It only took about 5 minutes until my plate came out. [see pics]
My first impression of the presentation was that it looked simple. A foil covered wrap with a side of sliced carrot and pickle. When I opened the foil and took a bite, the immediate taste of lettuce and cucumbers was delicious. The ingredients were fresh and plentiful. There were diced tomatoes inside as well. I could clearly taste the tender well-​cooked lamb. These weren’t thinly sliced slivers of lamb like other wrap cafes, but good sized pieces of folded lamb creating a meaty and flavorful delight. There was about 4 long pieces of lamb infused in different areas of the wrap. The wrap wasn’t long and grilled like the other Gyro and Mediterranean restaurants, but it was fat and stumpy like a burrito. Not bad at all! [see pics]
Overall, this was a great wrap experience. If you took your time to eat the wrap like I did, you will find yourself with a lot of juice at the bottom of the foil making it soggy, but I still ate it all. I made sure I grabbed a spoon and a lot of napkins at the condiment bar. Water is complimentary too. Café Renaissance is definitely a place I would recommend you to try at least once. Prices are very reasonable and food is delicious. I’ll be going back again very soon!

We tried this place on Wed 7÷11÷07 for dinner. It was empty at 5:30pm, and we were the only ones for a while. It’s a casual, Persian place. Place your order at the register, food brought out to u, you can pay before the food or after.
It’s a small place, about 18 tables and an Asian woman helped us. We checked out the website before coming here and printed out a coupon that was for the Kubideh special. $ 6.45 + tax at lunch, $ 8.45 + tax for dinner.
I ordered more food cuz we wanted to try more things:
eggplant & yogurt appetizer $ 3.5 — delicious
2 orders of domas (3 per order) $ 2.5×2 = $ 5 — not good
feta, olives & walnut appetizer $ 2.5 — just ok
Kubideh special — comes w/​salad & rice, 2 beef kabab & some bread, onions. We thought it was ok, kabab a bit salty but good w/​the rice. Tiny cup of yogurt too, I love yogurt. I must get more w/​my meal! Get a shaker of sumac to add to your rice — that stuff is hella good.
Pat H & hubby got wine. Don’t remember the cost.
One unisex bathroom in the back. Credit cards taken.