Perfect Afternoon "Tea"

 

Henry Congressional is a really interesting place. Stripped bare minimalist, eclectic, yet filled with personal touches that encourages one to sit back and relax - be at home. On approaching the cafe, the glass facade (as seen above), shrouded by a white semi-transparent sheet, gives an impression of an American diner.

Mky was lured to this cafe by the coffee, pandan cake and the flourless chocolate cake. Our friends also recommended trying their American imported beer from Hair of the Dog brewing company. What? Beer in a coffee, cake and tea place? Rare yes, and it turns out that this actually makes for a really great combo for an afternoon tea for Mky and me. What with her coffee and pandan cake, and me with my beer and chocolate cake. =D

All confections found in this little cafe are home-baked by a tattooed guy. Turns out he used to be a sea-faring sailor, and he has some skills at cake-making! Flourless chocolate cakes are perfect for chocolate lovers like me who don't care much for cake. THIS is the kind of cake I love. Thick, no airy-fairy cakey bits getting in the way of the good stuff. And they serve them on those old-school metal plates too. See eclectic above.

Mky thought the pandan cake was divine. Pfft.. Pandan cake? People who love flourless choco cakes don't understand how exquisite a simple pandan cake can be. I'll let her add her comments later. *rolls eyes* hehe

Is that a fixie by the wall? Yea, along with the vacuum tube audio amplifier, the decor of Henry Congressional lures in the cool cats, and the hip-without-trying-to-be crowd. Me and Mky? We're just there to eat and drink. =) And by drink, check out the Westvleteren beer crate! How many places can boast of having a Westvleteren beer crate?? We're talking about Belgium monks churning out one of the best rated beers in the world here.

One thing to note, in the cafe, there are only 2 large tables and 1 smaller one against the wall. That's it. So it's pretty much a communal sitting kinda thing. Don't bring a large group there, you'll have problems with seating. The staff had to request for the customers to bunch up a little to create space for us.

Oh yes, then there's coffee. Mmm coffee. I'll let Mky comment on the coffee.

I chose to go for a cheap $9 St Bernardus 'wit' beer (actually, that was the most expensive thing we had there!), to cool me off from the warm afternoon heat. Nice and mellow. There's lots of craft beer choices, as mentioned, Hair of the Dog as well. Oh, the Westvleteren crate is just a show-off thing, I don't think they sell those. I wouldn't hand-cart those all the way from Belgium just to sell it either.

So since Mky skipped lunch, and I had mine pretty early on in the day, we decided to share one of their sandwiches. The rosemary chicken & watercress sandwich was pretty good. There's a huge chunk of grilled chicken in there, it was warm and it tasted great on the bed of watercress. I love the smell of the cheese, and the ciabatta that enveloped it was a perfectly crisp outer layer.

Seen on the wall of the cafe - "Henry Congressional: of or pertaining to the meeting of common folks for the appreciation of specialty coffee, tea & craft beer." This sort of spells out the intention of the place. Unfortunately, they'll only be around till Feb 2013, so head on over and check 'em out soon!

Henry Congressional

44 Holland Grove Road

9107 7547

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays,
Open till midnight on Fridays & Saturdays.