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2011-05-16
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I finally had a chance to try another hot bed for cafes in Hong Kong, Tai Hang area. My initial target, Unar Coffee Company, closed for "special event" last Saturday; however, there was no activity inside. My guess was that they were all at HOFEX to attend the final round of the 2011 HK GBC with almost all other coffee guys in Hong Kong. So, I made my way further into the Tai Hang area for Kindergarten...Kindergarten looked really nice from the outside with its exposed brick wall. The menu w
Kindergarten looked really nice from the outside with its exposed brick wall. The menu was made of wood and looked kinda environmental friendly in a way.
However, looking at the picture on the left hand side, the window was opened and the air conditioner was on, the best of both world or the environmental UNFRIENDLY thing to do? You decide! Inside, it's quite stuffy even with these windows opened, as it's a full house that day the kitchen was really busy... Good for the shop...
I ordered a French toast. The look was quite good and that seemed to be all the good thing I can say about this dish. It was made of softer than soft bread, overwhelmed by cinnamon powder, not quite what I expected. While the shop insisted they used a real maple syrup, it tasted more like honey locals love to put on their deep fried French toast. In all, the overall package tasted more like French toast from local tea house (茶餐廳) with lots of cinnamon… Somewhat strange to me
The cappuccino was ok on the temperature side as I told them more than two times I like to have a 'warm, not hot' drink. However, the texture was quite lagging I had a fragile foam top in my cup which seemed to totally separate from lukewarm liquid under the foam cap. I am not sure whether it’s the barista’s skill or they adopted used a spoon to block the foam while pouring its milk and spoon the foam to top off the cup, destroying the nice texture of the frothed milk in the process. Not only the milk had no texture but it also was not sweet at all. Not the kind of charming cups Indie cafes are known for these days. Or this could be the level of the skill of the barista... On the plus side, the coffee base was a fair trade coffee which was locally roasted. That coffee seemed to save the day for this cup with some nice chocolate milk tone.
Espresso was pulled way too long though the fleshy/body forward sumatra note was quite clear with some exotic kick, likely from African bean. Despite the disappointment in this cup, a good thing is that there's no rancidity in the bean though the cup was seriously lagging.When I approach the counter, I only saw a prosumer Expobar espresso machine in action. The owner seemed to want to get rid of me and don't want to tell me where the grinder was or whether they have it!!! I thought they use pre-ground as the cup was kinda lagging, only to later find out later that the grinder is Eureka Mignon. The owner said at the time that "the shop does not want to show anything to customers!!!"
This kind of attitude of the operators was suitable for the very old style local coffee shop where everything was a secret. Instead of showing how dedicated the shop is for its ingredients and the gears, the staff was not only mum about it but tried very hard to conceal all the great things. I wonder this is the right attitude these days.
Seriously, these gears can produce a much better cup than this as I had quite a few of them in the past so I know its full potential. The attitude and the staff's skill needed to be seriously improved to match what they used and the potential of the things they get into the shop. Also its customers deserved a better attitude and the overall improvement in the quality of the coffee. In fact, I'm thinking of Clover in North Point as the place staff at Kindergarten should go observe on how nice and open they should have been. Mind you both still benefit from training; Kindergarten needed more, much more though on its coffee offerings.
So, for now, go if you like cutesy little coffee shop but prepare to be disappointed by coffee offering!
張貼
