The House Coffee & Sanctuary definitely has character. With a host of events posted on their wall (like open mic nights on Thursdays), I prefer this spot to other coffee houses in Kensington because they're attempting to be more than a coffee house.
The three star rating is because of my lunch experience there yesterday. A colleague and I stopped in while in the neighborhood on our lunch break. It was a mediocre experience at best. We had ordered paninis to go, and it was a solid 20 minutes from the time we walked in the door until we had our sandwiches in hand to head back out. For getting something 'to-go', that was a bit too long. (I might add that there were only 2 other people ahead of us in the lineup and it wasn't busy).
The paninis themselves were ok. I had the Mediterranean panini, but they forgot to include the tomatoes in my colleague's tuna melt. The reason for the delay, it seemed, was that the paninis were being made from scratch (including the maker referencing an ingredients list to know what was supposed to go into the panini). Having some paninis prepared ahead of time that they can just stick right onto the grill could have helped.
Perhaps it was just an off day for The House Coffee & Sanctuary, they certainly still have my business for coffee with friends and I'll be back to check out some of their events, but I think I'll steer clear on a weekday during prime time lunch hour.