The much awaited for Honolulu Cafe opened in Singapore in May in the Centrepoint shopping centre on Orchard Road but as the queues had been stretching all the way past several of it’s neighbouring restaurants, I thought it would be a safe bet to wait for a couple of months before trying their famous egg tarts. The egg tarts which is what this Hong Kong cha chaan teng (tea restaurant) is famous for were apparently selling out within hours of opening every day so they even started limiting their availability to dine-in customers only.
Two months later and after several bad reviews, the crowds have died down and their egg tarts are now available for takeaway again. I went there a couple of weeks ago for a mid-week dinner to try some of their Hong Kong-style western comfort food where they have a small menu of noodles, rice dishes, snacks, baked goods and desserts available.
We got a pork cutlet with salad ($6) and fried curry flavour rice vermicelli noodles ($6) to share between two of us, just a light meal since we were going to head to the gym straight after. I got a red bean milk tea which is one of my favourite drinks in Hong Kong and my friend got a lemon water. They have a promotion where if you get a main course then certain drinks on their menu are only $1.50 which is a pretty good deal.
The food came out very quickly and the pork cutlet was hot, crispy and not too oily. It was served with mayonnaise and a small potato, sweetcorn and fruit salad on the side which was quite nice.
The fried curry flavour rice vermicelli noodles was nothing special, it had a mild curry flavour from curry powder with small pieces of char siu (barbecued pork) and prawns in it. It was mostly noodles and onions though and is something that you probably would have cooked better yourself at home.
The red bean milk tea was nice, just like the ones in Hong Kong but my friend wasn’t so lucky as her lemon water was extremely sweet even though the waitress that was serving us had told her it had no sugar in it.
Unfortunately for us they had sold out of egg tarts just before we arrived so we didn’t get to have any that day but as Centrepoint is quite near my flat I managed to go there the other day to get some for takeaway. You can’t buy them individually as they only sell them in boxes of 6 for $10.70 but that’s no problem because those 6 egg tarts were gone within hours! 🙂 They were probably some of the best egg tarts I’ve had so far in Singapore, the egg custard was sweet with a good consistency but what makes these egg tarts so great is the flaky, buttery pastry.
The service at Honolulu Cafe is ok, a bit slow at times and the servers don’t seem to be that knowledgeable about the menu but at least they’re quite friendly. The food is very average, it’s cheap but I don’t think the place would survive if it wasn’t for their egg tarts which is the only thing I’ll be going back there for and maybe to try some of their other baked goods.
Honolulu Cafe
Address: #01-33, The Centrepoint, 176 Orchard Road, Singapore 238843
Tel: 6734 6609
Opening Hours: Daily 11am – 10pm
Hope you’ve enjoyed my Honolulu Cafe restaurant review, please feel free to leave a comment below with your own review of the restaurant or if you have any questions!
