Waimea Coffee Company — Restaurant in Hawaii

Waimea Coffee co has fantastic coffee and great food. We got the Lox Bagel, the Breakfast melt, a kale smoothie and a doppio cappuccino with coconut milk here.

The cappuccino's foam was too frothy but the flavor profile of the espresso with the coconut milk was just perfect—I finished mine in 5 minutes. The Kale smoothie was pretty good too.

The breakfast melt was essentially a breakfast burrito. Nothing to write home about, but pretty good none the less. The lox bagel was packed in a build-it-yourself fashion, which is not a bad idea for takeout. Good job Waimea Coffee co!

Then why the 3 stars? We just did not feel welcome here. The cashier dude, the baristas (except one) and the person who finally got our food orders out, all seemed to be annoyed at having us there. When we walked up the line to order, the cashier was just sharing blankly at us, and we had to initiate the conversation and start the order. No one used any courtesy words either — "Please", "Thank you", "Enjoy your food" etc.

But here's the thing though, I totally understand why someone or why an entire coffee shop staff can have an off day. We've all had those days at work. But the folks at this shop were extremely friendly to most people, just not to us with a different skin tone. And I noticed the same lack of warmth was conferred upon other people who looked of Asian descent as well.

I'm just surprised that this happened in Hawaii of all places. Waimea Coffee co, your food was great, but I won't be back again.

I hope this review helps someone who works at Waimea be conscious of the way they treat some people, and hopefully...

I write this review with some trepidation. The cashier who rang us up was beyond awesome. Not being a local and not knowing the menu...she was super accommodating in answering every question. We ordered 2 melts, 2 bagels with cream cheese, 2 large lattes, 2 blue hawaiin smoothies. All in we were north of $90. They completely forgot our lattes, the barrista was apologetic but we didn't get them until we were close to being finished. My wife asked for a little more milk in her latte and received an unapologetic no. The Barristas response was "use the half and half or purchase a cup of frothed milk. We pre measure all ingredients". It's a good thing I didn't hear this conversation and only learned about it after we left. Are you kidding me? You screw up our order and completely forget to make our 2 lattes and you can't even give an extra pour of milk? I understand the need for inventory management but refusing this simple request was a poor customer service decision. Using half and half in a lattes is a dumb suggestion and we werent asking for a cup of milk maybe an oz. Before hearing about this I had planned on stopping by there the following day as we traveled to Hilo, but I would not spend another penny in...

I normally visit the 2 other local Waimea coffee shops but after passing this place by many times I gave this one a try. I did a mobile order and arrived just before checkin time. I was totally unaware that I needed to "checkin" upon arrival so I just went to the pickup area unknowing and after about 10 minutes of standing there and not being acknowledged I asked one of the baristas if my mobile order was ready and they told me that I needed to checkin. I then did so and proceeded to wait again. This really defeats the purpose of a mobile order when you need to wait in a potentially existing long line in order to checkin. Also, if I had been acknowledged while standing there (I did try to get the attention of one of the baristas after about 5 minutes but was ignored) it would have saved a lot of time. Also, my drink was made incorrectly. I ordered a coconut flavored latte and there was no coconut syrup in this latte. Thus my first impression of this place was negative and I'll stick to the friendliness of Country Grounds or Arvo...