Hoshino Coffee

We decided to try out this coffee/food joint called Hoshino Coffee at the newly opened Plaza Singapura new wing. The coffee joint's first impression? It looks like some crazy popular place with the queue at any time of the day having an average of 7-10 people. 

Me being the skeptic most of the time, my reaction to the place when it first opened (and I first discovered this great snaking queue full of Singaporeans) was just this: 

Not sure if Hoshino Coffee is that good, or Singaporeans just want to be first to try this out
(so that they can tell their friends they were there, FIRST).

Here are the dessert items. There isn't much on the menu if you ask me. Serving size of the pastas and main courses is not bad, judging purely from observation. Main courses run from $15 and above, if I'm not wrong, and the serving size is justified and quite generous. 

Beautiful cups, aren't they? Coffee is pretty so-so. Here's the Hoshino signature hot coffee. Served black, with milk and sugar on the side. If you're a fan of black coffee, this might be the place for you! For me, I didn't like the coffee much. It was way too thick and bitter and after 3 big tea spoons of sugar, the bitterness still didn't let up. Priced at $5.80++, pretty pricey if you ask me.  

See that cute mini cup of milk there, I was constantly reminded how "cute" it is by a middle-aged lady next to my table who kept gushing "So cute!" to her friend every 5 seconds. She just couldn't get her mind around the mini cup. Haha.

After the mini cup of milk, and 3 big teaspoons of sugar. 

Well, after the coffee was served... the nightmare began.

Here's what I posted on Instagram summarizing the great nightmare: Trying out the newly-opened Hoshino Coffee at Plaza Singapura's new wing. Our experience so far, has been disappointing, other than impeccable service from the manager. The pancake order is estimated to take 20 mins. After 20 mins wait, they informed us that their softee machine is down. Now with a change of order, we were told to wait another 15 mins for our new order of Vanilla Souffle.

We ordered the Pancake Souffle Style with Matcha & "Ogura" Bean Paste. You can choose to have whipped cream or softee ice cream on top of your pancake, and each pancake order has a waiting time of 20 minutes. As all eager patrons of a new store are, we patiently waited 20 mins for our pancake order. Here's the timeline.

2:56pm - Ordered pancake souffle & two coffees immediately after getting seated.
3:12pm - Manager shuffles about, telling us the Matcha softee ice cream was unavailable (because the Matcha softee machine had broken down) and whether we wanted to change our order to have the Vanilla softee ice cream or whipped cream atop our pancake. Kind of disappointed, we changed our Matcha softee topping to the Vanilla softee ice cream topping.
3:18pm - Waitress comes about and says that the both the softee machines have broken down and whether we would like to have whipped cream on our pancake. Now we were pretty annoyed, considering how long we had already waited. We asked if we could change our order to a non-softee topping dessert. The waitress says, "Your pancake is already ready." We gawked at her and said, "can we have the vanilla souffle instead".
Waitress says, "Oh, orh, um, the vanilla souffle will take 15 minutes to get ready." 

Disgruntled, we patiently waited for another 15 minutes.

Other than the impeccable service from the Manager who was really quite nice at the start and throughout (although he disappeared after the softee machine broke down), our experience at this new place was really quite disappointing.

The financial damage: SGD$25.14.

There's our Vanilla Souffle which took 15 minutes to arrive. Taste-wise, pretty good, but I would give it a 6.5/10 because it's not really something you'll go back to Hoshino Coffee for. Priced at $9.80, pretty steep for a drink-coaster-sized 'pot'. I'm no cook so I have no idea what that thing it's sitting in is called. Haha.

All in all, Hoshino Coffee's an okay-nice place with pretty decor, and a zen type of feel to it, mixed in with modern design. Service was average, good manager, but the other staff members were generally a bit blur and inflexible. I'm not sure if it's just because everyone was so tense due to the broken-down softee machine, and I think the breakdown could have been managed better. I mean, they shouldn't have waited until the thing was totally gone-case before informing patrons that the machine was down and you can't buy any softee-desserts (which is basically... 80% of the dessert menu there). 

As for me, I doubt I will return to this place again. But if you feel indulgent and want to try this out, go ahead, it really is an okay place, but if you feel rather broke, don't try this place out haha. 

I'd still prefer Starbucks for my coffee fix. It's cheaper and has better ambience (especially the Starbucks at Plaza Singapura's new wing!).

Hoshino Coffee
68 Orchard Road
Plaza Singapura #03-84
Singapore 238839

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