Pavilion Cafe

The Pavilion Café occupies an ideal location within the Meadows area and a lot of people make use of what it has to offer: Sandwiches, Wraps, Chips, Crisps, Soup, Salad, Tea, Coffee, Water.
The entrance is inviting you to come in. You enter a small room with a few tables and chairs neatly decorated with colourful pillows and in general will notice a continental flair to the interior. The kitchen and sandwich area is attached to the dining area and you can watch the staff preparing the food.
I ordered a Moroccan Hummus Sandwich and an Orange juice and paid about £5, which I believe is far too expensive compared to what you get.
This café is perfect for Vegetarians (I think) as you get different variations of vegetarian options. For my taste the Moroccan sandwich was a bit too plain, absolutely no kick to it :-(and I thought I had wasted my money.
Overall, the place has the perfect location and if you need something ad hoc when lingering in the Meadows, then go and get it.

This place is special. I have no idea why except to say it has a really «good vibe» but here, I’ll set the scene for you:
I am pretty sure that one day I will be old. And as an old lady I hope to have a very deep voice, long, crazy hair and wear flowy skirts and ethnic jewelry and I’ll be very zen. I might even be one of those ladies that burns incense and sage all over my house and tells people that they have an old soul.
But before that I will be a hippie mother. I will worry about the quality of the food I am giving to my children. They will eat seeds and organic fruit for snacks and drink soy and never say politically incorrect things (like their mother hahahah). They will play noncompetitive sports, wear hemp and I will have had a water birth with a midwife in my home — with sage burning again for a good vibe.
This may or may not be true for my future.
Still, when I go to Pavilion Café I see my future unfolding like this as I sip on a soy milk latte eating an amazing bowl of veggie minestrone soup with maybe the best bread I’ve had in a LONG time.
It’s just so. so… chill.
The hodge podge of chairs and books and stools outside give me the feeling that if I owned a farm in Western Massachusetts (the posh part) this is how my children would grow up. My children would rifle through all my old records and pull out old gems (they have old records for sale here) and I would know that I had raised my little hippie kids right.
I love it here.

«Let’s meet at Pavilion Café on The Meadows.»
«Ehhhh, where now?»
The complexities of arranging to meet someone in ‘The Meadows’ aside (I’m by the tree! No the other tree! The big one, by the bench! I’m waving! No with my left hand. Someone should develop a real code) I hadn’t heard of The Pavilion Café before only to discover it’s that wee shed-​type thing that I had assumed was storage.
It is in fact far more than a storage shed. It’s closd during colder months, hence why I hadn’t seen it open, but when it’s warm and light and the Meadows are plentiful with people it’s the perfect spot for a good coffee (and I mean good), tea, chai latte, or some super delicious sandwiches.
There’s a few mismatched chairs to be taken outside, room inside, and it has a wonderfully earthy, hippy, laid-​back feel. The food is good, home-​made fresh and with more than the usual tuna&sweetcorn fillings. Quite a few veggie options too.
Now once these crazy thunder and lightning storms let up I’ll be heading back there for a wee sarnie on the park and when I say you can find me at ‘the tree’ it’ll be the one by The Pavilion.

Good food, good people, good music says the sandwich board outside this café. They are right on all three counts and should add a fourth– good location. The main selling point for me is that it is slap bang in the middle of the meadows and while sipping on your coffee and tucking into a cake you can watch the world go by.
I often come here on Saturday or Sunday mornings, if the weather is warm enough it’s good to sit outside and blow the hangover cobwebs away. Watching all the sport that goes on in the meadows at the weekend you can almost convince yourself it looks fun… ‘maybe I’ll go for a run this week’ you’ll tell yourself only to find yourself in the same place next time with a muffin and a coffee and no nearer to kicking a ball or a going for a run. It’s good to dream though!

I love this place! Absolute bliss on a summers day when The Meadows is bustling and you’re in search of some juice or a snack. It has a really laid back vibe and fits in with the park great. This place has the following;
–Relaxed atmosphere
–Great selection of light bites all very healthy and whenever I’ve been I usually go for a crisp, fresh salad.
–Reasonable prices
–Great outdoor seating to enjoy to summer sun.
…and no pressure to hurry up and leave.
The only downside is that it’s so popular, especially on sunny days so you might have to queue for a while.

I’m a firm believer in the theory that watching other people doing sport is pretty much the same as doing it yourself, or at least on weekends when it’s sunny. On such occasions the Meadows is a place for ipod docks, beers and frisbees, with the odd trip to the café slotted in here and there throughout the day for cake or ice cream. Not football or jogging.
Understandably, it’s only open during the summer. But it’s a great place to meet friends for a catch-​up as it makes a refreshing change from all the wannabe upmarket cafés and delis that line the Meadows and charge £3 for a bang-​average cup of coffee. It’s also a great place to perv on the guys playing five-​a-​side.

On a sunny day on the meadows, after you have had a skinfull of alcohol and decided it would be unwise to start a bbq, head here to the Pavilion Café instead.
The food is pretty good (better than undercooked sausages at least), it’s kind of medditerranian come basic café food which is enjoyable and pretty good value for around £5.
I think to be honest, anywhere that serves food on the Meadows is bound to be a hit with those who take advantage of the sun, but the Pavilion has hugely erratic opening times which can get a bit annoying if its closed just when you need food. Also, if its a really great day, be prepared to wait as the other millions of hungry students/​sun worshipers queue in front of you.
Not a bad place for a bite to eat if you dont want to venture away from the meadows.

The Pavilion Café is the only café located squarely in the Meadows. Their seating is mostly outside, where a variety of colourfully clashing chairs and tables are ordered randomly in front of the café, giving it a homely quirky look. If it’s warm out, rest assured that there is no better place to grab a bite when you’re out on a sunny day.
They serve mezze plates that come with a variety of freshly prepared salads, dips and warm pita bread alongside a selection of carefully prepared wraps and paninis, all made from local, organic produce. The staff are always friendly, and alongside their lunch meals, all under a fiver, they have homemade cakes procured from a variety of local bakers, freshly ground Zapatista coffee, an assortment of teas and organic fizzy drinks. If you’re out with family, the café provides a mishmash of children’s toys to play with, so you can lounge and enjoy your food and drink (or join them).
Because of its location, the café is mostly open from spring, through the summer and into mid-​autumn and its opening hours are often subject to the whims of the weather. During summer nights, they’ve been known to show films on makeshift screens, sometimes to the accompaniment of live music.
In other words, the Pavilion is more than just a place to get a bite, but a place to spend the day, the night, or sometimes even the whole summer.