Wild Honey: From Great to Good and Beyond

Isn’t it a shame when a fabulous experience fails to live up to its hype after that killer first impression?  This is the case for me and Wild Honey.

Image from Wild Honey website

My first Wild Honey experience was a drop of rain in the Singapore desert of decent cafes with the Ladies Who Brunch.  The menu was excellent (if pricey), the atmosphere was cozy and a little zany, and (crucially) the coffee was great. 

Since then I have been back four times (although only actually made it in the door three of those) and each time Wild Honey has slid the scale of vaguely to excessively disappointing.  It’s incredibly popular and doesn’t take reservations.  If you can’t make it before 10am (preferably 9.30am) don’t bother as you’ll be waiting forever.  We waited for 45 minutes before giving up and heading to Jones the Grocer.  Out of interest for the final waiting time, we didn’t cancel our name on the list.  They called to let us know there was a table for us...a total of 90 minutes later. 

This most recent time was the nail in the coffin though – a birthday lunch at their new Scotts Road premises.  We waited 50 minutes for our lunch to be brought out, only for them to get my order wrong even though they’d repeated it back to me correctly at the time of ordering.  The actual food was delicious (despite the huge slab of brioche under my avocado and eggs) and, unusually for Singapore, our water glasses were continually refilled.  We waited 15 minutes to be brought the bill, and then another 10 for them to come back and tell us they couldn’t split it as we’d asked for so could we please itemise which orders were to be billed to which credit card.

By this stage we were rather late in getting back to work and in a bit of a huff.  I don’t think I’ll be trying for a fifth.