• 4
• Inventive veggie food in a beautiful setting

Hippie Café by day, Caffe Coco by night – this is the same spot, same people, just different names to reflect the (slightly) different emphasis. My feeling is that Caffe Coco is a little on the expensive side but this is offset by the fact that it’s BYOB, and they charge only $5 for wine corkage. Most of the people there for dinner had brought a bottle of wine, or several :-) Service was very attentive and friendly. The patio is very beautiful with its beach of glass pebbles and wide umbrellas – it feels like a very peaceful haven. The menu is small – I had the Tofu spiced with Charmoula (a North African spice blend) which came with rice and a purple potato samosa and banana chutney (which is also available as an appetizer) – $24. The samosa was original and interesting, the tofu was well-cooked but I didn’t find the spice blend alone was enough to make a dish out of it. The two items did complement each other but a vegetable to go with it would have been nice (although they do provide a complimentary green salad to start). My friend had the vegie pasta which came with a thick slice of garlic toast ($24) – the ingredients tasted fresh and overall the dish was quite good. They are not at the level of outstanding vegetarian restaurants like Millennium in the Bay Area, but I recommend trying it for the ambiance and the originality of some of the dishes. In the morning I went back for an acai bowl (see my review of the Hippie Café) and thought it was fantastic. For social and environmental impact I think Caffe Coco deserves 4/5 green stars. It’s focused on vegetarian/vegan cuisine which is the best diet for compatibility with our planet and society. They also serve some chicken, which I believe is local and organic (but I’m not 100% sure about that) and fish. All of their fish dishes are made with locally caught ahi, which are all line-caught in Hawaii and are listed (on www.hawaii-seafood.org and www.seafoodwatch.org) as not being overfished. According to Caffe Coco’s website, they specialize in organic cuisine using local ingredients. It would be nice if they provided more information about this in their menu listings or elsewhere in the restaurant or website.