My coffee order took them 15 minutes when there was no one else waiting for take away coffee! The servers are always just talking to one another, and therefore slow at serving. for its size, the coffee is expensive. At least the coffee itself is good.

I worry about hygiene since the toilets always smell even when I am waiting in line to buy coffee or a snack.

We went there at around 10:45pm and could only order cake and drinks.
I had a 7-layer caremal cake with a grapetizer.

The cake tastes great with different layers of chocolate and caremal flvaour. The texture of the cake is soft and smooth. The flavour is just alright which is not too strong or too light. The size is a merit, it's a little bigger than other cake shop, you will find it's just right for 1 person to finish one. For the price, though we are nearly self-served (we buy the food at the counter), they still charged 10% service charge.

Greetings to everyone! This is our first post in Openrice (yay!) and we hope to bring you our most genuine thoughts and minds on each restaurant and give you a sufficient and good food reviews for browsing! So we'll stop the talking and here we go! ---

Date/TIme: 24/6 Friday night 7pm

Reason for going: There was this sudden urge that we wanted to try out some nice pasta in town, as well as a nice atmosphere for catching up. Epoch seems to be a good choice and been long in my to-go list. Atmosphere: It was a nice setting in Wing Fung Street, an area been developed for a while just like the new SOHO settled in a quiet hill. Epoch was accessible as it situated just outside the MTR station and next to YOMAMA. However, we found that, perhaps due to dinner time, though inside the restaurant was created to be a 'homey' cafe - at around 7pm on a friday night was simply too busy and crowded. It totally lacked of the cosiness Despite that, the inner decoration of the cafe was really great - nice design of shelves, sofa and the wallpaper.

Service: The service was good. Waiters were extremly polite, probably knowing that they only gave us an hour for dining as later there were a group who booked half of the cafe. One of the waiters even helped us to store the cake we had with us and knew how to tell joke. That was a bonus. However, the waiting time was a bit too long for the food - we waited for half an hour, which left us only half an hour to eat!

Food: We ordered 2 pasta dishes and gave the mark, according to how we felt: Chef's Linguine Carbonara (7/10) and Chicken Mushroom Renne in Cream (6/10) along with a cold drink of Greco Originale (4/10). So before we paid this visit, we read from Openrice that Chef's Linguine Carbonara was a signature dish. The selling point of this dish was that it had a fresh egg yolk placed just on top of the carbonara while it was still hot, so that one could stir it and blend its moisture into the carbonara to keep it cool and wet. And it worked! The egg yolk melted and it achieved the blending effect! The special thing about epoch's carbonara was that it wasn't too fatty nor creamy. Usually the carbonara has a thick sauce so you get full very quickly when you aren't even in half way. Thank god epoch kept me going. However, I didn't like how linguine was chose, I much preferred spaghetti as it is less thick and easier to digest. The texture didn't match with the sauce. Linguine was more suitable with thicker sauce! Overall, the dish seemed to be better looked at than eaten. We didn't like it. According to Clau, the chicken was overcooked and the cream sauce was light and watery, the ham was well-cooked and the texture of the pasta was just right. As a result, altogether they just simply not matching at all. The ingredients weren't able to unlock the smell and flavour to tempt the eaters. Too bad! We also ordered a cold drink to go along with the pasta. After a few glances of the menu, I decided to try my luck (as the drinks seemed too similiar to each other) and tried out Greco Originale. However, to our disappointment, it was so small (a tiny little cocktail cup) that it didn't worth the money at all.

However nice the setting might seemed, getting kicked out of the restaurant for only being able to stay for 1 hour(we originally wanted to have our cake there), too crowded and the pasta was a so-so, we don't think we would return - even though we havn't tried the 7-layer cake.

yvonne--

Epoch has been on my to-go list for a long time. But the place is not really convenient for me and on a couple of occasions when I passed by, it was all fully filled.
It's a Wednesday, 2 days before returning to work. I decided to go early and give it a try again. We went there at 6:00 pm and there were still plenty of seats available. We took the central sofa seat, which overlooks the large window facing the street. By 6:15 pm, the place was filled. The place has very high ceiling, large floor to ceiling windows, and very spacious seats. We ordered 3 pasta sets:My linguini carbonara is al dente and creamy, but perhaps too creamy which makes the generous serving very heavy. On any other day when my stomach is less full, I would have rated the dish a lot higher.
For drinks, except for the distorted latte art, my latte is very satisfying, with a thick layer of dense foam on top and a well balanced milky sweet and the aroma of the illy coffee filtering through.Any visit to Epoch will not be complete without trying their desserts. The cake counter is just tempting.We ordered the famous 7 layer valrhona chocolate cake. The cake tasted so good that I forgot to register what the 7 layers are. Can only remember the crispy top layer of chocolate, the moist and spongy mousse, the thick and rich brownie and the crunchy chocolate base. Simply super, a must try.
One minor point, I would suggest that perhaps the shop can consider waiving the service charge to make it more casual. I think counter service would be already sufficient. Table service with a 10% tag is perhaps redundant.
Overall the experience has been wonderful. I would give the highest rating to the cosy/relaxing environment, followed by dessert, coffee, pasta (still rated at a 8 out of 10 for the pasta), and last the service (not that it is not good, but I don't think table service is necessary).
Will defintely return for more.

Have always wanted to try this coffee shopfor their cakes. But always had other choice.

had two hours before the film, went pass the Epoch Coffeee shop so decided to give it a try. was served immediately for a sofa seat. You don't get that in coffee shop. Presented us with the menu and drinks menu too. waiter was very well mannered. atmosphere was nice, not too crowdy like Starbucks.There were groups of ppl, and I saw single ppl reading too. i like that, as you cannot do that in starbucks, always so crowdy. decided to walk to counter to see the cakes. the waitress there quickly told us we can order at the seat. But i explained wanted see what cakes are available. the marble cheese cake looked quite good and then i couldnt decide on 7 layer cake or opera. In the end, chose the opera, as opera can never go wrong.
we sat back at our sofa, the Iced coffee came and the two cakes. Very nice presented with drizzle of jam maybe at the bottom. Tried the marble cheesecake first. It was nice but have tasted better. It was Oreo biscuit base. i could only taste the sweetness, couldnt taste much cheese,and not as creamy as it can be. The Opera was awful. tasted like medicine. we had one spoon and left it.
The coffee was not that good either. Ice more than liquid.
Costed 120 more, Not worth i think.
But next time i would like to try out the 7 layer cake

ONE MORE THING. you dont pay as u order like other Coffee shops, it is more liek a resturant. you request for the bill. I guess because they serve food like pasta, sandwiches. Next time I could give it a try1

Marike: Apple and coriander jelly with passion fruit, in a dome of white coconut mousse
Piemontios: Hazelnut mousse cake with almond, white chocolate cream and caramelised apples

Came here especially for the Marike, before trying it, I wasn’t aware of its ingredients, however I couldn’t taste the coriander in it, but it didn’t taste as nice as I imagined it to be.

Marike:
The outer coconut mousse was creamier than I would have liked it, its texture was more like whipped cream.
The filling was slightly sour.

Piemontois:
This was actually the best, it was coconuttier than the Marike, but not in a creamy way, the outside of the cake was dusted with coconut.
Inside were layers of cake and cream, and pieces of stewed cinnamon apple that were not stewed too soft.
Although the cake description says caramel apples, it tasted more like cinnamon apples.
As well as the apples there were pieces of almonds giving it a slight crunch.

Etienne was formerly the Consultant Pastry Chef for EPOCH, but nowadays he has returned permanently and been upgraded to the post of Head Pastry Chef, as well as being a partial Owner! What good news!

I was here to try mainly one thing - Chef Etienne's AWARD WINNING cake that won a 1st prize in France. Its called the MARIKE. As anyone who has eaten true Parisien -pastry desserts will know, a lot of the offerings there border on being heavy and quite very sweet, definitely not something I envisaged before trying them! Paul's Lafayet and La Maison du Chocolat are prime examples of this! However, the Marike defers from the norm as it is super-light, spongy and most of all incorporates many layers of complex flavours beneath. No wonder it won the golden prize then! Apparently the Marike is made with a mixture of flavours including Coconut, Passionfruit as well as some Greenish Herb (Cilantro I believe), the latter seemingly a trend in French desserts nowadays. This was very enjoyable. The MOUSHOU cake in comparison was much simpler, it being more of a sponge wrap topped with some Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries. The sponge seemed a bit over-refrigerated hard in my opinion. Other cakes I've tried in both Epoch's are hit and misses, some are excellent whilst some can still be improved just slightly! ; )

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Coffee seems to have improved a fair bit in both Epochs compared to a few years ago too, albeit still inconsistent enough to be detectable in the palate!! My Espresso was mildly satisfying but it seemed like it had passed its prime drinking state, I think its more to do with freshness than the blending? Classifying everything 'imported' as being unfresh like some people love to is a bit of a blanket statement though, especially when you're assuming rather than trusting your own tasting sense. Afterall, people like Dane's fly in their freshly roasted coffee from Sydney ASAP from the roasting warehouse barely 1-2 days after roasting (don't forget, they're brothers), then, when it has landed in HK it is rested for 2-3 weeks to develop their full flavours and body before being sold or made into drinks. After that prime state, Dane's will not hesitate to throw away all of their passed Prime-State beans, even though they're still drinkable and some of them end up being used in Training courses usage. That's why Dane's is very ethical - and they also roast better than anyone else locally for the time being, plus Dane's actually have multiple blends so again, its a blanket statement to write off someone's efforts by referring to them as a whole rather than to the blend. To suggest anything otherwise is undermining that importer's ultra high ethical standards as well as roasting capability, no matter which camp of Coffee taste you're into. Unfortunately however, ILLY are great roasters too but their beans go stale way too soon (this part I agree with!) and local ILLY distributors don't seem to notice or realise the prime dates for their Coffee Cans before they should be discarded. Sometimes, if Epoch thinks about it deeply, how many people have really written positive things about your ILLY coffees? Nearly none. TO ME, EPOCH AS I MENTIONED BEFORE, HAS ON AVERAGE ONE OF THE BEST AND MORE TRUSTWORTHY TEAMS OF BARISTAS, AND I THINK THEIR SKILLS ARE BEING LET DOWN BY ILLY'S INCONSISTENT PERFORMANCES! ;-)

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*As a side note, some coffee loving friend of mine once told me that some Runner-up Barista works for Epoch and I trusted him completely! But it seems like we were wrong after I found out more about it.... That's why you can never trust anyone else, including yourself! I wonder if their latest Calm or Crazy Pudding's name has anything to do with my mistake ! * Its funny though!!

We arrived at around 9pm for a sugar-fix, and decided to order cakes instead of ordering from the dessert menu as they looked really nice (albeit deceptive) and they were relatively small in portion - we had literally just eaten dinner so didn't have enough stomach-space!

We picked:
Moushou
I THINK this was the name... I think its a new product as its not on their website menu... I must say I did choose it because I love berries and the pink cake looked enticing. I asked one of the waiters what was inside, and he told me it was a yogurt mousse. I thought "sounds good" and said I'd take one.

First bite was just berries and cake so it was fine, nothing special. The pink is just from food colouring because it tasted like plain sponge cake. Then i got to the center, the sweetness was right...but something was wrong. I looked at the 'mousse' it had green bits...like herbs?! Then i tasted it again and this time i was sure it had herbs in it. I mean, it wasn't awful that I had to spit it out...it was edible but it was just very wrong. From the concept to the execution how did the pastry chef think herbs in a dessert would be good? And they were italian herbs - ones you would find in (savoury) foccacia or pasta.
The good points are that the berries were very fresh. I removed the 'mousse' and proceeded to finish the cake easily.

Berry Crumble Tart ($25?)
The tart was tiny. Like....comparable to the size of an egg tart but shorter/flatter. This was fine I guess seeing that they redeemed themselves by making them look appealing. However, on taste this was also quite a disappointment. Overall the taste itself was fine - sweet crumble, sour berry filling and a buttery crust but it fell on the texture. The crumble was not crumbly but a soft mess, easily dissolved in the mouth. The filling was fine except it just felt like a soft layer of tart jam. The bottom crust was the worst, as it was soft - the result of the filling being to 'wet' and since it was night it must've been sitting for hours and the liquid would've seeped through to the pastry base. They need to learn a little from Paul Lafayet because PL's version was the exact opposite!

All in all, a disappointing dessert experience. The place itself has a good concept and is very chill but they need to fix some of their cakes! I'm sure cheesecakes are good because they naturally hold well and taste better after hours of refrigeration but crumbles should be made fresh to order and their pastry base for their tarts were just bad.... Plus the finding of the herbs in the yogurt mousse is just wrong. I would come back for their dessert menu and perhaps savoury food, but no more weird cakes please!

We arrived at around 10am on Sat morning when it was still relatively quiet, so plenty of tables available. We had a big breakfast and eggs benedict with salmon - both were tasty. The breakfast did not come with coffee and we had to order separately. They serve illy coffee but I am not a big fan. It was an enjoyable breakfast although when the place gets busy it can be quite noisy. I wish they would consider including a coffee in their breakfast to make it better value for money.

I sometimes eat lunch here on weekdays, but this is the first time I am here on the weekend. Didn't expect it to be so busy.

As a result, the toilets were very busy. I waited for at least 15 minutes before it was finally my turn.

Back to the food. The coffee is always very nice. The brownie is a bit too loosened. It breaks off easily.