RETRO COFFEE BAR — Restaurant in Kochkor

This is basically the one place in Kochkor were all the tourists (and no locals) go for drinks and food. As such it is a nice place to socialize with fellow backpackers which is a good thing by itself. The terrace is nice, right on main street but traffic or touts are not an annoyance here. The dinning rooms inside are not very tastefully decorated but it's OK. The staff speaks reasonably good English but they are not very welcoming. Grab an (English) menu, make your choice and order directly at the bar. If the place is crowded expect to wait for your food a bit. What I ate was good, "Japanese style meet" which I wouldn't expect to find in Japan, but nonetheless tasty and savoury. Some of the guest were startled that their orders did not quite match what they were expecting but you certainly can put that on the cultural clash. Prices are slightly higher than the country mean but nonetheless very reasonable for a place aiming at tourists. All in all a...

Update - Owner started sending me personal messages via my social media telling me to remove the 4/5 review I left?? - with a 2nd even ruder 'remove the review' message. Therefore I am reducing it to 1 star. Picture attached. Bad place!*

This coffee establishment is located right in the centre. It would appear this is the go-too for most tourists given where it is situated, as-well-as it's more westernised style. The coffee was good and the food too, though the portions are very small for Kyrgyzstan standards. The staff were friendly and there is a back garden with lots of tables, as well as a front patio.

The prices were reasonable, and though I didn't try the beer - it would appear two draft/tap options were available.

The one very big downside, however, were the toilets...which strangely (given the relatively modern interior) were outside holes in the ground and very...

Oh man, this could be a nice spot but it just feels really mediocre and has no soul.

Let's start with the atmosphere: The place feels cold, not cozy, and does not invite you to spend some time there.

Service: Unfortunately very slow. We had to wait for quite some time before getting our drinks. Also, sometimes there just wasn't any employee in the room.

Menu: This place offers a decent amount of food and drinks, but has no milk alternatives (you could expect if it's got "coffee" in its name and tries to get tourist's money). Can't talk about the food, as we only had drinks there, which were ok.

They clearly try to cater to the tourists, but after spending some time in Kochkor I would just recommend going...