Croute By Hummerstons

Due to its location right opposite to where I live and the recent closing of all the good cafés nearby due to renovation, I have to return to eat at this café again for a quick bite before heading off for work. Same as before when it was first opened, the food quality varies depending on who is in charge of the food on that day. For the past few recent visits, about one to two hours after eating here, i inevitably have to prepare for an explosive visit to the bathroom. Not sure about others, but to me, this place is a biohazard, everytime. Physically, I don’t think I can afford to visit again.

Not realizing croûte was an offshoot of hummerstons until I had already ordered and sat down, I had my reservations. They use the tag line, ‘It’s a loaf affair’ which alludes to the baking they do onsite. But I would not call this place a bakery because the menu is firmly entrenched in café fare. Then it’s a bakery café! They have an excessively large menu and I’m a bit wary as they offer panini, sandwiches, salads, to all day breakfasts and mains. The beverage selection is similarly large. There are lots of varieties of breads available on the menu but if they are making loaves I can’t tell.
The dining area is large and spacious with a lot of whimsical, rustic touches like using old, metal and manual sewing machine as the bottoms of tables. Orders and payment are all done at once so I don’t have much to comment about the service. Food arrived promptly. We ordered for a mid afternoon break:
Veg crudités
The vegetables are served with homemade dips and these are very good.
The star of the show for me were the truffle fries.
They are home cut potatoes. The portions were average size but they were very generous with their shaved Parmesan. These fries were very good.
I also order an OCT for a drink.
It was orange, carrot, tomato, which i thought would complement the fries quite well. Alas I will need to wait until next time as they ran out of tomatoes and served me an OC
Overall, a pleasant surprise and I would try this café again. They have big open spaces and it would be a welcoming place for a meal or just a coffee.

Cute little café with a nice assortment of sandwiches and salads. I was intrigued by the eggs benny with pastrami instead of Canadian bacon, but I was trying to be healthy and went for the pineapple shiso chicken wrap instead. It was surprisingly satisfying for something so light.

This is a 4 for the freshly baked breads, quiet atmosphere, cute little toy cat on a chair and the location. a stroll from my home. But a 3 on the coffee which is too expensive and doesn’t have the flavour, roundness and richness of the slew of very good coffee places which charge less for that cup of joe.
The eggs benedict is an affordable $ 10plus. The hollandaise is a bit too thick and bland though but a comfort order on good bread.
I like the Spanish pulled pork sandwich and the baba ghanoush salad very much. The latter being a really unexpected surprise, a bit of everything that went very well together in harmony, about 10bucks.
They have some small baskets of bread samples out on weekends.
For breads, I favour the Viennoise ($ 2.50 a mini loaf) and the sourdough ($ 7.80 a loaf). The ciabatta is flavourful but a bit chewy for my slightly afflicted jaw.
Note: the mobile phone reception is spotty inside.
They have quite a variety of pastries that they bake inhouse they told me. I haven’t tried the cream puff, eclairs or cakes but I must say the pastry of the cream puff does look attractive with a cracky crisp texture like Tampopo’s.
You order and pay at the counter. When the food is ready they place it on the long counter and call out so keep an eye out for it. Help yourself to water and cutlery from the corner near the end of the food counter.
This place seems to mainly attract people who live nearby and they told me it was opened partly so they could have a proper baking kitchen as they supply bread to their main restaurant and have a baking chef and a pastry chef onsite.