It's nice to have a coffeeshop that is host to three much raved about hawkers peddling their cuisine under one roof, but dear God the crowds are a massive pain. Anyways, I can see why there's this much hype around The Western Co, since their most expensive dish won't even come close to breaching the $20 mark. But is the food any good?

Well, this Hawaiian Raclette Chicken (one of their signature items), definitely is. And at $14.90, it's relatively reasonable while still being acceptably pleasing to the palate. A standard issue, expertly grilled chicken chop is topped off with chunks of sweet pineapple and a few bits of ham before being smothered by the oozy, melted raclette straight from the wheel. It wouldn't be inaccurate to describe this as a Hawaiian pizza sans the dough base.

Granted, there was a slight bit of disappointment at the amount of cheese, but that may have been me being spoiled by all those raclette cheese porn videos coming out of Europe. The cheese is something special, as it has a texture and springiness much like melted mozzarella, but it has a stronger taste that's slightly reminiscent of a mature gruyere cheese.

It's a delight to devour, no doubt, but a prudent man will definitely wait till the craze dies down as we waited a full hour for our food. Or better yet, get your own raclette cheese, get yourself a nice shop space and be the competition.