An ex-colleague and fellow foodie rounded up a small party to check out HATCHED at Evans Road (within walking distance from Botanic Gardens)for a light dinner. The rush hour traffic in the evening had my bus crawling at snail's pace in the heart of Orchard so I was running late for dinner. Time was running out, not to mention that the eggs were probably "running out" (pun intended) too at the rate the traffic was going. Last order was 9.30pm and I barely made it to the place by 8pm. The first impression I had of the cafe was that of a cosy eatery perfect for a lazy brunch if you were staying around the area. Furniture was simple but modern. They have quite a good selection of beers to choose from so I reckon that this was more of a watering hole than a cafe just like COLBAR. The menu was lovely with cute illustrations but a bit hard to make sense of the variety that was available. It took me almost 5 minutes to decide what to finally order. Check out their "oh-so-cute" website too http://hatched.sg/#/home (but one gripe about the site it that each webpage loads up too slowly.... by the time it gets to 100%, the eggs would have hatched!)
Before you get down to my following review, I must first commend the owners for coming up with an all day breakfast restaurant. There are just some days where one is craving for a good ol' breakfast meal of eggs and toast at the oddest time of day. So thumbs up for the concept , the cleverly chosen names for your eggy creations and the lovely illustrations.
With this review, I speak for myself. And my comments are based on my personal likes and dislikes so you have to try out the food for yourselves before you arrive at your final verdict. My party of foodies were much more forgiving dishing out comments like " it was nice!", "not bad" and etc.... In my foodie dictionary, these are tantamount to a bad date which you would much rather have not gone on. Much as I hate to dish out any 'plate of complaints', I would say that HATCHED definitely has much more room for improvement. The quaint cafe was cosy and cute but the food fell short of my expectations.
My "PAPILLOTE" dish on the menu read as "smoked salmon folded over srambled eggs with chive cream,with your choice of toast, served with sauteed potatoes and caramelised onions". The order came served on plain white toast with a side of baked potatoes with sauteed onions that looked like a sorry handful of leftovers. For $12, a decent serving could have come with a slice of rustic toast / sourdough and the potatoes could have had more flavor or punch to them. The 2 slices of salmon enveloping the almost non-existent scrambled eggs were dissapointing too. I had to wash down the bland potatoes with tabasco sauce and ketchup. I just realised that the menu said "choice of toast" but the waitress didn't explain what choices were available and just served up the dish 5 minutes later with plain white toast. So maybe the dish could have been better received. For now, this was the most unsatisfying breakfast meal of eggs that I have had in ages even though I was a hungry foodie when I arrived at the restaurant late.
Quoting one of my friend's favourite tagline - HUNGER IS THE BEST SPICE IN THE WORLD, this proved untrue on my visit here. As a shoestring foodie where every dollar & cent counts, I would rather have spent my $12 at Canopy Dining for a more satisfying meal of eggs benedict/eggs florentine with better quality ingredients and better portions.
My fellow friends ordered the PANCAKE PLATTER for dessert. At $10 for a huge 3 slice portion, this made for a hefty serving for one. The pancakes were almost 1cm thick but the fruit toppings were dismal. Maple syrup was nice but i like my pancakes thinner. Another foodie pal ordered the blueberry waffle. This was a regular one slice portion with maple syrup on the side and a pitiful sprinkling of 4-5 blueberries on top of this 4" wide waffle. If I ever want any pancakes, I guess it would have to be CEDELE DEPOT's version to hit the right spot. Thier pancakes are about the same size as HATCHED but with blueberries pressed into the pancake, you can taste a burst of tangy goodness with almost every other bite.
The tap water served was horrid. After drinking bottled mineral water for a couple of years, anything with the faintest hint of chlorine is just undrinkable for me personally. Hot water just makes the chlorine even more apparent. Singapore is proud to be one of the few cities with perfect drinkable tap water but for me this is just not water fit for a meal. Call me finicky but we all have a right to choose what to put into our mouth and our bodies. The only redeeming factor in the menu for me was the freshly squeezed juices apple/orange juice served without ice. At $4 for a regular cup, though much smaller than what you would get at MARCHE, but it tasted good.
There was only one waitress attending to our orders and though it was hard to get her attention even though we were the only big group of 8 seated in the small cafe amongst a couple of other few tables, her warm and friendly personality definitely made up for the constant efforts of having to get any attention for my order to be taken or for additional condiments on the side. From the cafe's blog, I understand that most of them haven't had any F&B experience but this is definitely no excuse for not knowing your menu. I sincerely hope that all service crew taking orders can put in a little more heart into it and not be as laidback as this casual eatery. A relaxed ambience should not equate to tardy standards in service or food quality. Just like minimalistic designer clothing, a simple blouse or skirt may look like its easy to execute but it takes a whole lotta technique and attention to detail to make that garment fall or drape beautifully on your body and make it seem as though it was a breeze to sew it up.
HATCHED might do better if they focused on doing just a fewer versions of the eggs right. A bloody good sunny side up/scrambled/poached egg menu may just attract more 'chicks' than you can handle! GAMBATTEH !!!!
For now, I think I would stick to KITH CAFE , CEDELE DEPOT, CANOPY DINING or JONES THE GROCER for my breakfast fix.
Hardly eggy-litarianly speaking...
