My bias for Latte is public! I have explicitly confessed my love for Latte over most other forms of coffee on multiple occasions. However, it is little known to most of my readers is, the first time I tried coffee at a coffee shop was a Cappuccino! Why? Because that's the most widely known coffee variant. Not many people with in depth knowledge of coffee may know what a Latte is, or an Americano, Macchiato! But most people will know a "Cappuccino." Given the fact that I started falling in love with this genre of coffee drinks via cappuccino, I never really "disliked" it and every now and then between my latte tasting ventures, I will try out cappuccinos! But I rarely write about it because well...Latte, duh!
But because the number of Cappuccinos I have tried is much lesser than the number of Lattes, it is actually much easier to pick my most favourite.
Because I am not in love with cappuccino, the measure of "the best" for me is the one I am most willing and likely to try again without second thoughts. And that will easily be the cappuccino at "Pinewood."
As for any coffee, the ambiance is the most important thing after the coffee itself for it to rank high on my list. I am very picky when it comes down to this. If there are two very close choices, the ambiance of the coffee shop is what will tip the balance either way. And I believe that is what played in favour of Pinewood's Cappuccino and what makes me wanna go back there and chillax!
Pinewood was spot on with their ambiance and decor. Very vintage, very classy.
I especially loved these wicker lamps used as spotlight which makes for a very pleasant reading atmosphere. Given, the place has no Library - but make no mistake if you carried a book with you for some light reading, Pinewood would serve you really, really well! The waiters were extremely friendly and very well behaved. It’s a calm and quet place, pretty close to my place. So next time I'm feeling fancy while reading a book, I'll think of walking down to pinewood and have a relaxing read! Maybe I'll get on with "1Q84 by Haruki Murakami" that just arrived by the post today! Or maybe I'll continue part of my read of "Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi" while I sip a cup of coffee there!
Maybe you're into some outdoor reading by the nature..?!
Or maybe reading with flowers surrounding the railings is your thing...?! Suit yourselves, choose your poison!
We started off with calamari and cappuccino. The calamari was a big letdown, I'll be honest. I am not big i to seafood, but my wife is. So that day was all about "experimenting" for and was precisely the reason why I went with cappuccino instead of a Latte! But the cappuccino was actually surprisingly enjoyable and more than made up for the sloppy calamari.
At first glance it didn’t look that appealing, but the bitterness of it was just what I needed to wipe off the aftertaste from the calamari. Once that was off after the first couple of sips, the cappuccino was actually surprisingly enjoyable and I wondered why I try it so less. Sure latte has a smoother taste because of the increased proportion of steamed milk than that of cappuccino - but less milk brings out the bitterness pretty nicely and I in fact "tasted" the aroma of the coffee better. Again, as I already said it earlier - I have tried very less cappuccinos, so it's quite easy for me to say this is the best cappuccino I have had so far! The ambiance that can easily elevate a book-reading experience is the cherry on top!