What is Cafe

The Bronx Burger ($9.90) -
Touted as a 'South Bronx original', with a 'signature sauce', entire flavour of this burger was woefully commonplace. The flavour was actually strongly reminiscent of the beef and sauces serves at Pepper Lunch. For a burger place, I would have expected their 'original' to be more, well, original.

The patty was also dry as hell - an unforgivable sin considering this was supposed to be a burger place. The buns were also dry, and had none of that delectable bread scent we all love to smell at bakeries. I was so disappointed, I threw the buns away. The bacon and cheese were like those team mates you add to your soccer team just to make up the numbers - their only merit were in being present. Frankly, a turkey bacon burger from Burger King would have been just as, if not more, satisfying.

Mac and Cheese Fritters w Tomato Relish Dip ($8) -
Now this, this was awesome. Lightly fried so there's none of that greasy film that deep fried foods often leave on the tongue, the exterior falls apart easily to reveal a still moist interior of macaroni, jalapenos and melty cheese.

The fritter itself was pretty good, but what shot this dish to OMG-I'm-Coming-Back-For-This status was the tomato relish dip. It delivered both a sour bite and a spicy kick, and I soon found myself drowning my fritters in the dip.

I'm guessing they use the same batch of jalapeno mac and cheese that they serve with the Mac Daddy and Montana's mac and cheese waffles. Not complaining, it tastes great, but it's something to consider if you're thinking of ordering those other dishes in the same meal.

Look at that ice cream. Look at that sauce drizzle. Now tell me that isn't friggin' gorgeous.

After having tried the Red Velvet Waffle from Montana, I was curious to see how their Black Velvet would compare.

Verdict: Forget about the ordinary Red Velvet and just go for this black beauty!

Instead of the usual charcoal waffle you get from other cafes, Montana serves a black sesame waffle (choose to have it crispy or fluffy), with a scoop of ice cream (choose from black sesame and green tea), drizzled in miso caramel sauce.

This was perfection to me. The sesame scent and taste was well present, the slight salty edge of the miso caramel drizzle gave the sweetness of this dessert greater dimension, and the crunch of the nut flakes (not sure if it was almond??) added texture. Though I went for the fluffy option with my waffle, I was pleased to find that the waffle was fluffy on the inside but slightly crispy on the outside. 外酥内软, that's how every waffle should be!!

Ice cream on waffles are so common these days that it was great to see a place do a less common flavour, and succeed at blending flavours and textures so well. This is a combination that has been created with thought and effort, and it shows. No average ice cream slapped on average waffles here. 5/5! Would love to go back and try it again, with the green tea ice cream!

Wanted to try the Bulgogi Beef Waffles ($16.80++) from Montana for a long while, and it didn't disappoint.

Good portion of fluffy waffles and beef slices served stacked with kimchi slaw and an egg that flowed nicely when cut, drizzled in a sauce reminiscent of the sort you'd find on bibimbap.

Food was good (boyfriend gave it 4.8/5), but I thought it was a little overpriced - bill came up to $19.80 including service charge and gst. I would have been more willing to pay closer to $14 for this.

We ordered the All Time American $16.50 and Roasted Beef Croissant $16.50 as sets (comes with a drink) and topped up to change our drinks to a Cappucino +$1 and Dirty Little Iced Latte +$2.

The croissants were deliciously buttery and flaky, and the portions were decently sized. The roasted beef tasted very similar to Quiznos's roasted beef sandwich.

The cappucino was decent, and came served with a Lotus biscuit, which was a nice touch. The Dirty Little Iced Latte, Coffee Daily's take on the recent trend of milk with espresso cubes, was unfortunately slightly lacking. The flavours didn't seem to go as well together as compared to Bev C's version, perhaps due to choice of brew and milk product.

The Speculoos Waffle $6.50 was rather disappointing - the speculoos flavor in the speculoos sauce wasn't strong enough, and mostly overwhelmed by the taste of the chocolate ice cream scoop that it was served with. However, the waffle texture was pretty good, veering towards crispy more than fluffy.

The Coffee Daily is located in a nice quiet neighbourhood and isn't too crowded, but the furniture (high chairs, incompatible chair and table height, small tables), frequent power outages and lack of decor makes it a place that isn't too comfortable for chilling. It's more of a eat-and-go kind of place, rather than a comfy place to while away the afternoon.

In all, a place with good food, but for the price paid, I had hoped for a better dining environment.