Did I just get 'clubbed' at Coffee Club, Holland?

Coffee Club, a chain coffee cafe along with TCC and Starbucks, are all competing with each other in the small Singapore.

I happened to pop into the branch at Holland Village after my class at about 4.30pm. The whole cafe is almost empty at that time. The manager greeted me and lead me to a place at the 2nd storey. Wonderful view i must say, as the cafe is located at a corner of Holland V and i am seated at a table next to the glass panel where i can see the people that are walking outside.

Since i was the only few patrons in the cafe, ordering was easy and serving was quick. I had ordered a Choc Delice and a pot of Earl Grey.

Food

This post will come without any photos as my lens broke down when i am photographing the dessert.

Choc Delice (S$7.00)

Presentation

This dessert is all about chocolate. It is just like lava cake except that the centre contains dark bittersweet choc mousse. The top portion is covered with dark choc syrup. Overall presentation of the dessert is superb, decorated with raspberries and blueberries and a scope of vanilla ice-cream on top of the rice crispies.

Taste

This dessert has a very rich and thick chocolate. It can be said that the mousse in the centre of the cake is slightly hard and if you were to blind fold me and put a scope of the mousse and outer layer of cake together into my mouth, there wouldn't be much of a difference in the texture. The mousse and cake becomes a whole. I believe that if the mousse is fitted into the centre, then the mousse should be the creamy texture layer that would have a twist to the monotonous cake layer.

The mousse is warmer and becomes creamier and softer towards the bottom of the cake. The mousse melts in the mouth and coats the cake with the creamy choc taste. Wonderful at that.

However the dark choc syrup outside, and together with the bittersweet choc mousse inside, overpowers everything, inclusive of the blueberries and raspberries. It also doesn't go well with the crispies.

The vanilla ice-cream gives a refreshing taste to the palate, especially since the cake is so chocolaty. The crispies is sweet and if tasted together with the ice-cream gives a cold, refresh sensation to the palate and they blend really well together.

Not Recommended (if you are not really a fan of Choc)

Coffee Club Service Attitude

The waiter was totally gone after the dessert and tea was served. The entire 2nd storey has no waiter around and during my duration of the stay, i only saw a waiter twice. Once when the waiter comes up to their 'room' to change and another time when a new waitress takes over the shift. This is possibly due to the off-peak period that i arrive at the cafe, but this is still no excuse to have all the waiter/waitress hidden away.

During bill payment, the waiter is outright non-courteous. After i have signed on the credit card receipt, the waiter simply says thank you, sir, and just stands there, while my card and the bill are still stuck in the pocket of the signing pad. He does not even have the courtesy to take the card and the customer copy receipt out to hand it over to me. I even give him some time to see if he will take the card and return it to me, but NO. That was never done. So much for the 10% service charge, where i wasnt even served. :(

Anyway its a good bye for me.

Coffee Club Cleanliness

Overall cleanliness is good.

Ratings

Food Presentation: 4/5

Food Taste: 2.5/5
Service Attitude: 1/5
Cleanliness: 3.5/5
Value for Money: 1.5/5

The dessert isn't that fantastic, and the service level of the waiter definitely puts me off. This is the 1st time that i had to take the card out from the pocket myself , so much for any service. I think the service at this join needs to be revamped, having no waiter around while there are still customers in the cafe is UNACCEPTABLE. Given that there are other such coffee joints around, i doubt i would ever step into Coffee Club at Holland Village again. Such service is simply not worth promoting.

NOT RECOMMENDED