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2012-12-29
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The Place: We remember Han's Cafe as a place for a quick, local F&B fix on the cheap. This Han's outlet looked almost spartan and somewhat out of place in the recently renovated, bright & shiny Marina Square's F&B corridor lined with family. restaurants and chi chi cafes. It looked like a dormitory dining room with its neatly arranged tables and stools and several uncushioned booth seats. Obviously a 'eat and be gone' kind of place to cater to fast customer turnover. It was 20% occupied late on
The Place: We remember Han's Cafe as a place for a quick, local F&B fix on the cheap. This Han's outlet looked almost spartan and somewhat out of place in the recently renovated, bright & shiny Marina Square's F&B corridor lined with family. restaurants and chi chi cafes. It looked like a dormitory dining room with its neatly arranged tables and stools and several uncushioned booth seats. Obviously a 'eat and be gone' kind of place to cater to fast customer turnover. It was 20% occupied late on Friday afternoon and the place reeked faintly with the sanitized smell of detergent as a guy was taking his time mopping the back of the restaurant including the booth seating area.The Service: None i.e. Self service as menu prices are nett/GST-inclusive and no service charge. In school tuckshop style, both of us took a tray each at the cake&pie display area, placed our order and paid the grouchy, curt obasan at the cashier's and waited while our items were being put together, dutifully carting our filled trays to one of the many vacant tables near the front of the restaurant.
The Prices: Inflation has caught up at Han's so we no longer expect coffee shop prices in aircon comfort anymore. Prices are reasonable - kopi at $1.40, butter kaya toast at $1.80, kaya cake at $1.80 & peach melba sundae at $4.50.
The Food: Local style kopi was consistently aromatic with strong dose of caffeine. Kaya cake was nice with the lower half of the slice being sponge cake & upper half being kaya curd - the way two of us like it. However those who prefer more cake and less kaya curd may not like Han's version. The toast was burnt as it was rock hard rather than crispy or crunchy. The person who made the toast obviously did a slipshod job, with kaya spread thinly on only 1/2 the slice & just a smear (not a piece) of butter. It was dry and tasteless so the only way to eat it was to dip it in the kopi or use it as a wafer for the ice cream. The biggest shock was the peach melba sundae. I remember it as a childhood treat - vanilla ice cream with half a cling peach topped with a cherry & served in a glass. I did not expect the sundae to be served in a flimsy 350ml plastic cup obviously meant as a receptacle for soda fountain drinks. There was three small scoops - two being standard vanilla ice cream and one being a big gooey dollop of whipped cream (see photo) with only two forlorn looking slices of peach overwhelmed by the whipped cream.Han's version of Eton Mess? Something similar at McDonalds will cost only 1/3 of the $4.50 we paid at Han's.
The Rating: Standards at Han's have dropped tremendously, perhaps due partly to costlier ingredients & manpower and partly to rapid expansion at the expense of quality control. 2 hits (kopi & cake) and 2 misses (toast & sundae). If not for Han's reasonable prices it will not earn an OK score.
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