I am a home barista, coffee is a passion hobby, I usually make my espresso based drink at home in the morning, save for when I'm in a hurry like today.
Today was a 33 degrees afternoon, just finished lunch with my wife across the road. Saw LHC with a huge sign reading "Specialty Coffee", it got my attention instantly, as I approach the shop, I was intrigued by the lever espresso machine, so I ordered a cappuccino at the takeaway window, after my order I slowly walked into the shop to get some air conditioning, but I was stopped immediately by the barista, she was quite rude and was yelling at my wife that there's a minimum charge for dining in, we politely told her we're just going to wait inside since it's hot outside and the sun was shinning directly at the store front.
Nevertheless, the wait was short since there were only a table of 2 in the store and I was the only takeaway customer. I didn't drink the coffee straight away because it was piping hot and I enjoy my coffee a little bit cooler so I can better taste the flavor of the coffee itself, as heat will mask a lot of the flavors. Anyway, started sipping on the coffee when I got back to the office around 5 minutes later, and the coffee was terrible, the shot was over-extracted to the point it tasted like one of those really bitter Chinese herbal teas, usually with an over-extracted shot you can still taste the flavor profile of the coffee beans, but this one had none, it was bitter, the body was thin like diner's coffee, no clarity of any underlying flavors, after taste was disgusting. I cannot believe that a cafe with a sign "Specialty Coffee" can serve something as bad as this.
Third wave coffee is a very competitive scene in Hong Kong, with such service and drink quality, LHC may have a hard time surviving in the long run.