Island Vintage Coffee — Restaurant in Hawaii

DAY 4 of Vacation - Second coffee cup of the day! Found this spot while walking around Kings' Shops. My mission in Hawaii was to visit as many local Kona coffee shops as I can.

Parking: Large parking lot. Finding a spot is easy. Free parking.

Ambiance/Environment: This is a cute coffee shop. It was decorated for Halloween when we visited. Love the open space inside. They have merch in the center of the shop with indoor seating around. They also have outdoor seating.

Service: Shout out to Kenyarae! She took our order and was patient, efficient, and knowledgable about the menu. We asked her a few questions about the menu, and she was able to answer them all and even gave us good recommendations.

What we ordered:

1. Hawaiian Honey Latte - This was recommended to me. It contained 100% Hawaiian honey w/ cinnamon. This wasn't overly sweet; you could still taste the coffee. The honey & cinnamon flavors went well together. I really enjoyed my drink!

2. Ginger Chai Latte - My BIL ordered this. This is only offered as a hot drink with almond milk. I'm not a chai person, but I still took a sip of his drink. There is a light ginger taste, but you can taste the chai more.

3. Frozen Matcha Green Tea - This is as it sounds .. a blended matcha drink. My FIL ordered this. He mentioned it tasted as expected. The matcha flavor came through and it didn't melt as fast.

4. Tropical Sensation - My MIL ordered this. This drink contains guava nectar, ginger-peach tea, & fresh berries. She really liked her drink! She mentioned it was very refreshing, especially after walking around in the heat.

5. Waialua Moana Bowl - Of course my bf ordered this. He loooves acai bowls. This bowl contains acai topped with Wailua dark chocolate, Big Island cacao nibs, house made coconut peanut butter, bananas, strawberries, berries, granola, & Big Island organic raw white honey. There was a generous amount of granola. He preferred more acai than toppings. Despite that, he liked the fresh fruits and...

They don’t deserve one star. Let me break down the experience.

1. Despite there being 5 employees behind the counter, it was required that I order and pay with a kiosk. I was having a hard time finding the cold brew options on the touch screen. I looked over at the closest employee to ask for help. Looking very annoyed he said “cold brew isn’t ready until 7:30 am”. It was 7:22am. No apologies.
2. I ordered a hot 16 ounce Americano with an extra espresso shot. I was able to order this through the kiosk and pay for it (since the actual human employee ls paid me no mind). After waiting 15 minutes the lady barista plopped an iced drink down on the counter. I had to ask if it was for me and she very annoyed said yes. I said that I thought I ordered it hot and she VERY RUDELY said “we don’t serve hot espresso drinks with extra shots in 16 ounces”. She offered to make me one me in 12 ounces. I said no that’s ok I ordered (and paid for) 16. Again she very rudely said she’d make it hot in 12 ounces. I said no that’s ok and left.
3. My husband’s espresso shot was awful.

I wonder who owns this establishment and if they have any idea how much their employees (at least the two I encountered) actually don’t like people.

The irony is that I am the kind of person who always tips generously, understands shorts staffing, and am patient to a fault. I encountered several other places while visiting the island where they actually WERE understaffed yet still were friendly, and apologetic if anything was wrong. I have empathy and a lot of respect for those who show up and still serve well despite being shorthanded. This place, however, had 5 employees for one small shop and still managed to be terribly rude. Seriously, the words “I’m sorry about that” goes a long, long way. But no, it’s like the employees there were hell bent to be unfriendly and downright insulting. Go somewhere else and pay for better service and...

When you enter this shop, even way outside peak breakfast hours, you are met with a queue. "Why?" you may ask yourself. Well this place does things a little differently compared to your normal coffee shop. They have a self ordering terminal instead of one of the employees taking your order. However, not all names and categories on the tablet match those on the menu above the counter, it's not exactly intuitive to use. It also is not in sync with what is or isn't actually left in the pastry box. So people will take about 5 times as long to get their order done compared to just dictating it to someone. And there is only one of those terminals, of course. It makes you go through a tip-screen. For what? There is zero interaction, zero service. Someone just veeeery slowly prepares your drink and slams it on the counter when its done. Behind the counter, there are four people. You could describe the way they do their work as running around like headless chicken, but in this case "headless snails" would be more accurate. With proper organisation, this shop could probably double their hourly customers served. But they don't need to, because the prices are beyond outrageous. They charge about 3 times as much for a tasteless croissant than even the most shameless tourist trap in the center of Paris. The coffee was ok but not more. Guess you can run a shop like that in the middle of a...