Handburger - Only if you possess patience and like eating at off-peak hours

The husband is a huge burger fan, and wanted to try out this place after reading about it in the Sunday Times a few months back. Compared to other joints like Botak Jones and Carl's Junior, both of which we really quite like for the value-for-money factor, the burgers weren't all that cheap.

The place was packed solid. I was really disappointed by the service - we were standing first in line for about 10 mins and didn't even get a nod of acknowledgement. If not for the husband's eagerness to try the place, I w0uld have walked away.
The husband ordered the onion rings ($4.80) as a starter. These were fairly normal - nothing to crow about, and nothing to complain about.
The drinks were pretty good - I enjoyed my lychee mint crush ($3.50), and the husband really liked his root beer float ($3.80) (A&W where have you gone?).

My original Handburger burger ($.13.80). I thought the bun was a bit too sweet and soft. Also, I had ordered a chilled stuffed tomato to come with it as part of the set....but....

...this arrived instead. I asked the waitress what it was and explained that I didn't order this, and she looked blankly at me for a while before telling me they were yam/sweet potato chips (I forget now what they were). I had to explain that I had ordered the tomato with my burger before she gave another blank look and subsequently, after going back to the kitchen to check again, divulged that they had run out of tomatoes. Sigh. Information that should have been volunteered had to be prised out like a dentist extracting teeth without anaesthesia.

The husband's The Works burger ($16.80) with almost everything but the kitchen sink. This was a pretty good burger, I must admit.

The beef patty was tender and not too fatty, and the cheese was nicely melted.

The service was the real problem with the place, and it wasn't just the normal servers as well. At the end of the meal, the manager came up to us for a chat. Well, actually he asked specifically how we found the beef, which we said was really good. But we were really shocked to find out that HE was the manager since he was the waiter that pointedly ignored our presence while we were waiting in line - a cursory "we'll be with you in a minute" or "thank you for waiting" would have sufficed. Based on his bevahiour I thought he was ordinary staff. No wonder the rest of the team seemed to be rather poor in their customer engagement.

The value-for-money factor was a bit lost since the entire meal cost us nearly 50 bucks., despite me thinking that the beef patties were really good. I would have been happier going to Brewerks for a burger that cost a bit more, but with better service and atmosphere. This was just a fast food joint trying to play with the bigger boys.

If you really must, Handburger's at the Raffles City basement.