department of caffeine, duxton.
finally finally managed to eat at department of caffeine- their opening hours are way too short! only until 730 on weekdays, which makes it impossible to go to for dinner. ironic that we didn't actually plan to go there. the original plan was to go to the lokal, but their service was so atrocious that we got angry and left despite managing to get a table. still quite annoyed- i've wanted to try the lokal for so long because i've heard such good things, and now it's ruined for me. service is important.
anyway, after leaving the lokal, we were at a loss as to where to eat at. after wandering around, we realized that we were near department of caffeine, and so, decided to pop by. it was crowded- it was labour day after all, but we managed to get a table within ten minutes. plus, we received our orders pretty quickly, probably in less than fifteen minutes.
this was their menu-
of course we had to have the waffle! chose the apple pie waffle ($17.50) which came with vanilla bean ice cream, baked apples and walnut crumble. it was one of those fluffy waffles. pretty good but not enough to become one of my favourite waffles. still, after hearing so much about it, i'm glad to finally try it. wish they were more generous with the walnut crumble, though.
couldn't decide between the bacon waffle and the beef sandwich at first. after some pondering i finally chose the roast wagyu beef sandwich ($19.50) since we were already sharing the waffle. i promptly got food envy after seeing other tables getting their bacon waffle- it looked fabulous, topped with fluffy sunny scrambled eggs and bacon. and my food envy only intensified after receiving my roast beef sandwich; it looked sad and barely had any beef. it was alright tasting, but i would've much preferred the waffle. should have continued my usual practice of spying on what other people had ordered and following them (i didn't see anyone ordering the sandwich so that should've been a sign). definitely not worth $19.50.
they don't seem to be very good at their savory items. the lobster club ($21.50) was a miss as well, though it looked good (#eggporn!). for the price, i would think they could be slightly more generous with the filling, especially when i compare the sandwich to sarnies'.
after finishing our food, we were still hungry (i blame this on the gym) so went to pick one of the pastries at the glass counter. also because i saw the pastry counter while queuing to place our orders, and it looked promising. (i also sneaked a peek at other tables, where they had a towering slice of cake.)
got the dark chocolate and banana cake ($8).
chocolate cream layered with bananas and a moist dark chocolate cake- it was full of contrasting textures and was delicious. best part was that it wasn't cloyingly sweet, letting the original flavours come through. we finished it easily.
sweet items are much better than savory ones. if i do come back it'll be for the waffles and the pastries, which are quite reasonably priced. the menu items are on the steep side, but at least there's no service charge.
department of caffeine
15 duxton road
