Forty Hands Coffee

Made a deliberate trip down on a Sunday late afternoon after hearing about its good coffee and part of me wanted to test out if their baristas are really all professionally trained - 'months of intensive training' - as claimed on their website.

The place can be quite hard to find for first time. The directions on their website does not help too much either.

For such a small place, it is terribly packed. A few outdoor tables lining the entrance / exit door and inside, its elbow-tight space and almost communal dining environment. Thanks to the narrowish design of the inside, the walkway is basically blocked once there is someone standing at the counter to order or look at the display shelves. You wedge your way through while trying not to knock over someone's coffee hoping to find some sort of a space inside. There are some more tables at the back of the cafe but any space is basically taken up.

Scookie ($2.50) - This is basically a hybrid between a cookie and a scone, and I quite like this mutant thing! The typically scone is too dry for me and the cookie too hard for me, so this balances out everything. With a flavour like chocolate hazelnut, its quite hard to mess it up. Warming it up makes it even better.

Carrot cake ($5.50) - Not as moist as I would have liked but generous ingredients coupled with a excellent cream cheese frosting made it good, and almost worth its calories.

Latte ($4.50) - Excellent coffee with the foam expertly done. I am stumped by their way of serving it though: a glass cup without any handles which makes having it steaming hot very difficult. Oh well.

The staff were all wearing smiley faces despite the never ending crowd and tables were cleared rather quickly. Expect the nearby condo crowd and people looking for a leisurely afternoon with good coffee, peacefulness not included though. They also have a good selection of sandwiches and brunch items (on weekends) which looked pretty good on paper.

Would return but getting there is a bit of a deterrent.