After our not-too-satisfying lunch, we went back to Honolulu Cafe, only to discover that not only had the queue not moved much, it had also grew longer! Resigned to our fate, we began our 1-hour queue. Luckily, JY and AN were coming to join us 🙂
Because of ‘overwhelming response’, each person was allowed to ordered a maximum of 3 egg tarts. Everything else under Section A of the menu (Polo Buns, Durian Pastry, BBQ Pork Bun, Curry Fish Balls etc.) was sold out, so we just got ourselves 12 Honolulu Egg Tarts ($1.70++ each), Chicken Wings in Swiss Sauce ($6++), Peanut Butter Toast ($2++), Pork Chop Bun with Salad ($5++), 2 Honolulu Coffees ($3++), a Milk Tea ($3++), and a Yuan Yang ($3.30++). We were also strongly encouraged to order the only remaining dessert, Mango Pomelo Sago.
AN was late, and somehow, the staff knew what her drink was, and served only 3 drinks, in succession. We noticed that the staff tend to serve one drink at a time, instead of using a tray to carry all the drinks at one go. Not too efficient.
- The first cup of coffee was very acidic, while my cup of very milky tea was slightly acidic, with some dark layer floating on top, those usually seen after the tea had been lying around for awhile. Not too impressed already. The yuan yang was not bad.
- We were shocked when the peanut butter toast arrived. The very thin layer of peanut butter did not even cover the surface completely, and the bread hardened rather quickly. AN ate 30% of it. We also got our second cup of coffee, which was much less acidic, and very milky.
- The pork chop bun came next, with a very thin pork chop, and JY commented that the bun was quite nice.
- Next came the dessert, which was probably one of the best item on the table. The mango flavour was quite distinctive.
- The tender chicken wings were not bad when eaten hot, as the sauce was quite salty and the meat became a bit hard.
We then twiddled our fingers and chit chatted while we waited and waited and waited for our egg tarts. The polo bun that was not available had become available during our wait. There was some confusion then, as the staff taking orders for another table was still saying that polo buns were sold out, while we watched some being served…
The egg tarts were baked in very small batches! We were also the unfortunate ones who got some from the previous batch, but the staff did not want to serve them to us first, and we only got our egg tarts after the next batch was done. In our mix of freshly baked and less freshly baked, our verdict was that while the egg tarts were not bad, it was really not worth the queue and the wait. It was more crumbly than flakey; the egg custard was quite smooth, but somehow, it was missing the wow factor. Quite unlike the egg tart that we had in Penang.
We did not finish the egg tarts, and JY kindly packed the remaining back to distribute to her friends… Oh, takeaway boxes cost $0.50 each, and could pack up to 6. Some boxes had the Honolulu logo, while others were just plain boxes. They all cost the same though.
Being a fairly new cafe, we guessed the workflow really needed some tweaking. Food running out at 3+ in the afternoon was really not a good sign (we actually didn’t know exactly when it started to run out but we knew that it had ran out at 3pm). Service could be improved. Despite having so many staff, it was difficult to catch their attention.
Our advice? Wait for the hype to die down, then go tabao the egg tarts when there is no queue and enjoy! The rest, can skip… 😛
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Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 