Cafe Review: Espuma

I've always enjoyed going to cafes for lunch or tea to catch up with my friends, especially because I'm not in Hong Kong for most of the year, there is a lot to talk about with my friends.

This new cafe in Tsim Sha Tsui called Espuma caught my friend's eyes, so we went there for a very late lunch. We had to wait for about 20 mins, but it was not too bad.

I'll say this first: the food is good, the service is horrible.

First we ordered the truffle fries. This is a small dish of fries with minced meat, mushroom, and cheese on top. The truffle scent and taste is pretty strong, and I don't have much complaints on this dish.

This is the Earl Grey Crême Brulée. This is probably my favorite dish out of all the things we ordered. The creme brulee itself is not too heavy, earl grey tea taste is strong. The sugar glaze on top is crispy and is just the perfect combination with the melt-in-your-mouth creme brulee.

We had to try one of their waffles. You can order half, whole, or half & half. They also have daily specials depending on the day of the week. We had "Devil Eats Brownie" and "Piña" half & half just to try. I don't really like this waffle. I like really thick, soft, and chewy waffles, but this Espuma one is thin and crispy. If you like thin and crispy waffles, this place will be the place to go. If you're like me, you'll be disappointed.

I ordered an Earl Grey Macchiato. They had so many drinks to choose from it was hard for me to make a choice. But I really liked this drink. If you can't already tell I quite like Earl Grey flavored things. The layer of foam on top is really cream, so it gives the drink a heavy milk/cream taste, totally my cup of tea!

Now, the service. We ordered the food before the drinks. The food somehow came fine, but the drink we all messed up. I don't know if they didn't take our drink order properly or what, but all the food came before the drinks. Aren't drinks supposed to come first? That's not too big of a deal though. However, they had no idea what we ordered and kept bringing the wrong thing to us. The waiter and waitress did not even understand us when we said the drinks' English name. We had to point it to them on the menu. By that time we had finished our food and were just waiting on the drinks.

When they finally brought the right order, they completely neglected that we needed straws. It took us so long to flag a waiter down and ask for straws, yet he just forgets the next second! I expected more from this nice Spanish cafe, but the service was really a turn down.

I'm not sure if I'm just unlucky with the service, but they really should up the standard. It's the only thing that is keeping me from going back, because the food and drinks are pretty good. They even have a bar area for social events and activities.