Sunday, September 20, 2009

Cafe Hacienda - Sucks the Second Time Round!

So I was really happy that I found a nice cafe with affordable and decent food at Dempsey.
I visited it again after 3 weeks, and it was horrible!! Was craving for the eggs Benedict for the longest time, and when I finally had a free weekend, I was sadly disappointed.

The eggs Benedict had a pathetic little drizzle of hollandaise sauce, which barely covered even the poached egg. The worst thing about this was the black forest ham. The blackforest ham that came with the eggs Benedict during my last visit changed completely. But it's totally different (taste, texture and look) from the blackforest ham that came with the eggs Benedict the last time. While the blackforest ham I had last time was thinly shaved, with a delicate flavour, the black forest ham they use now is thick, fried, extremely greasy and salty. It just tastes like the cheapskate overly salted inferior quality hams. The blackforest ham that came with the eggs Benedict during my previous looked exactly the same as the blackforest ham I buy from NTUC - smooth textured with a rind of black skin (and pretty pricey too).
When I asked the manager (found out that he was the manager cos the table next door was being fussy about their orange juice) if this was blackforest ham, he insisted that it was. Ok, Im no ham expert, but their new blackforest ham sucks to the max.

I also had to ask for more hollandaise sauce - that little smidgen of sauce on the egg was waaay too stingy for my liking. (The extra hollandaise sauce he gave me was cold and coagulated). What is eggs benedict without the defining hollandaise sauce?

Another gripe I have is that the poached eggs were overcooked, and instead of having a wonderfully runny yolk, the yolk was 3/4 cooked, and 1/4 runny.

Two thumbs down for this dish!
The buttermilk waffles ($12++) which my friend had was much better, though I'm glad I didn't order it as I don't like citrus in my food. I stole a mouthful anyway - the waffles are fluffy with a zesty citrus taste. Topped with a huge scoop of Kapiti bourbon vanilla ice cream, served with caramelized bananas and fresh strawberries, and warm maple syrup, the waffles can't go wrong.

We also had the peanut butter and jelly milkshake ($11++), which they so kindly split into 2 portions. I think it's not humanly possible to finish the whole milkshake by yourself. I enjoyed the sweetish grape jelly bits in the milkshake.
The service here has deteriorated over such a short time, and the place has gotten much more crowded and noisy too! NOT a nice place to sit and chill. Plus, we were served by a grumpy looking manager (the same one who told me that it was definitely blackforest ham). They topped up our ice water a grand total of 2x during the entire course of our leisurely meal, even though they were empty.

4 comments:

Sistafood said...

It seems pretty bad the 2nd time round! We went 2 weeks ago after reading your review. The egg benedict and desserts were not too bad though. Just that they were understaffed that day. Hope that the quality of the food could be consistent because we still wanted to go back to dempsey.

Justin D. Pereira said...

You sound really disappointed with the Eggs Benedict. Haha, well food standards vary, maybe its the Chef's mood? Not a good one though.

Haha,
Linked!

Justin
www.j2k3blogs.com

audrey said...

how come the eggs benedict from the last time and this time ard look so diff?! haha! mad cook! o.O

m said...

Sistafood: Saw ur post on this - shall try the desserts next time since it's really one of the more affordable places in Dempsey.

Justin: Yup v disappointed indeed cos I was looking fw to having my eggs benedict for a wk!

aud: Bet they changed cook or something. Sadness:(