It’s always a challenge to café hop on a Monday because most of the cafes are closed! *Pulls hair* But fortunately, there’s One Man Coffee. A café somewhat close to my place, and is open daily =)

Even though they are relatively new (being less than 6 months old), they sure are busy! During my first attempt at wanting to check them out on a Saturday late morning, my family and I were left waiting (outside) in the heat for 45 minutes. And no, we din our seats after waiting so long. We left for chicken rice cause we were told there was still a long list before us. Hungry people under the blazing sun? Not a good idea. We were grouchy.

I headed back alone on my second attempt. And who would have guessed that I still had to wait for 20 minutes on a weekday, 2pm! I guess everyone’s out enjoying their June holidays.

And from the menu, I ordered:-

1) Baby spinach salad with prosciutto, feta, dried cranberries and toasted pine nuts, $10 (above) – Frankly, I din know spinach leaves tasted so good! A new favourite! And every leaves was generously tossed with the dressing. However, I did feel a bit more effort could have been put into the salad to make me more willing to part with my $10.

2) Gashouse egg, $10 (above) – A.k.a Toad in the House a.k.a Egg-in-the-Bread-with-the-Hole-in-the-Middle with bacon jam. The first bite of the cheese and toast was bliss. I love my cheese! But as I sliced further into the toast, I was taken aback to realise my egg was undercooked. Just look at the picture. The yolk simply rolled out. The whites around the yolk was not cooked. I remember reading a review sharing of One Man Coffee’s inconsistency in getting the egg done. Well, I guess it must be my unlucky day. So dear One Man Coffee, please look into this. It’s a yummy dish, but you really need to think of how to ensure the egg is done nicely for every customer. Egg problem aside, I must say the bacon jam is really good! I took the word ‘jam’ a little too literally and thought it was going to look like strawberry jam. Haha. But the bacon jam is very much candied minced bacon which tasted somewhat like our bak kwa (肉干). Nice.

3) Brioche French toast with homemade berry compote, candied walnuts and fresh cream, $10 (above) – This is what I came for, and it certainly did not disappoint. Crispy on the outside (although edges of brioche was slightly charred), moist and soft on the inside. The chopped nuts contributed an interesting contrast to the textures. And I think they could actually do without the berry compote, which in my opinion, stuck out like a sore thumb. And do eat it fast. I was a little pre-occupied with my phone, and before I knew it, the cream sorta melted in the not-so-strongly air conditioned eatery and almost flowed onto the table.

4) Latte, $4.50 (above)

And I say, do drop by either very early (I learnt that a queue starts to form at 8.50am even before they open at 9am) or be prepared to wait really long like me (^^lll) The place is pretty small with a capacity of housing 25 people at one time. 25 does not include the alfresco seats as I figured the weather has been too hot to be sitting outside. Haha.

And for those who have not heard, One Man Coffee is sharing the space with Crust Pizza. So if you decide to drop by on the weekends, you get to order the pizzas from Crust Pizza too! If not, there’s a small cupboard beside the cashier which carries pastry and cakes. When I was there, I overheard they’re carrying baked goodies from Cake Stand and Butter Studio (unless I eavesdropped wrongly. Haha).

Service wise, I got to say they can improve on handling the crowd. The unseated crowd that is. On my first attempt, my family and I were left standing aimlessly inside the crowded café after entering from the side door. It wasn clear who we should be approaching to be put on a waiting list. On my second attempt, the guys took some time to acknowledge my presence although I was standing at the counter. And when I asked to be put on a waiting list, the guy replied “Oh, I will create a waiting list for you.” Hmm… But hey, I guess we just gotta give them a little more time eh? Cause besides their not-so-good skill in managing unseated people, they are pretty friendly.