Honolulu Coffee at Moana Surfrider — Restaurant in Honolulu

Coffee tastes like flavor water and ordering process is chaotic.

Yesterday my husband and I wanted to give this spot a try and I had to wait over 30mins for my coffee because the person who took my order input my name as “Lauren” when name is Florida! Then the barista is calling out “Lauren” for over 5mins and I told him that’s probably mine as I’ve been waiting for over 30mins and people never hear my name correctly. He told me no, and proceeded to go about his business. After another 10mins the drinks are still sitting there and of course, there’s no Lauren. I asked how long will it take for two iced lattes as I’ve been waiting for 38mins. He asked if i had a receipt, i said no but i can show you my bank account. He then asked when I ordered and I told him at 7:46a. He then asks a lady to go back through their input and there she sees it per the time, I jotted incorrectly as “Lauren”. He apologizes and then give me the two iced lattes that’s been sitting there for 15mins. I said I ordered to Hawaiian Lattes, not regular. So he pours the Hawaiian syrup in the watered down lattes and hand me two coins for “free coffee” for my inconvenience. The drinks were horrible and I had to throw it out. Waste of my time and my money.

I decided to come back today as this is our last day on the island and give it another try since we had two free drinks. This time I ordered the cold brew and my husband ordered a caramel latte and gave them the name “Flo” to prevent the fiasco from the day prior. The cold brew tasted like “flavored water” and the caramel latte tasted slightly better. Again, we had to discard our drinks and decided to walk to Kona’s and wait in their line as they have yet to disappoint.

I guess the other reviews were right about the taste of the coffee, it’s as if they reuse their grounds or something. But we’re major coffee and espresso drinkers and to have our mornings off two days in a row, was not what we were hoping for on our last days on the island.

I highly recommend they do quality checks with the preparation of their drinks because it’s subpar and to have to wait for that is a crime in itself.

I hope no one experience what I experienced as they start off their day on this beautiful...

Appalling Service, Disrespectful treatment to the customer, High Prices. The coffee is good but it doesn’t worth it, there are so many other nicer options nearby. I’m not coming back.

I’ve been a daily customer at Honolulu Café, next to the Moana Surfrider Hotel, since arriving in Waikiki. The matcha and coffee are good but the service can be shockingly rude. It feels like they take customers for granted because of their prime location.

Around 10 a.m. on Friday, June 13, I ordered my usual at the cashier: a soy matcha latte, extra hot and I highlighted it. A moment later, the barista handed it to me, topped with a love heart. But when I took a sip, it was barely warm. I said politely, “Sorry, this is practically cold. I ordered it extra hot.” With bad manners, he just poured in a bit of extra hot soy milk and gave it back to me, but the temperature was still off. I tried again and said: “Sorry, but this still isn’t extra hot.”

That’s when he replied, irritated, sarcastic: “Well, that’s how we do it here. We use a temperature gauge.” His tone was passive-aggressive, and it felt like he was annoyed just because I asked for what I ordered. I responded respectfully, “I’ve been coming here every day since I arrived, and this is the first time the drink hasn’t been right. Until now, I’ve always gotten what I asked for.” He offered in a bad manner to remake my latte and I calmly accepted. After that, he went behind the machine with a young female staff member. They started whispering, and a moment later, she burst into a loud, exaggerated laugh. It was clearly forced, on purpose, and meant to humiliate me. I was right there — it felt like they were mocking me. When I got the remade drink, the presentation was completely different: messy, with no design, like it had been made with spite. It was the opposite of the first version.

I paid $9.22 plus tip ($10.22 in total) for that matcha. I was polite, calm, and respectful — but I felt punished just for asking for what I ordered.

This café might serve good drinks, but the attitude and treatment I received were unacceptable. I won’t be going back. I have plenty of other options nearby and same or even...

We discovered this place with my mom during our last visit in September. (I should, probably, mention here, I drink my tea/coffee only in ceramic cup). Before I always went to Island Vintage Coffee. Mom liked coffee here, so we went here pretty much ever since. Yesterday (Sat, Jan 23rd) was my last night of January vacation with my husband and he likes Island Vintage Coffee more than here ( we came here twice during this visit and cappuccino  was just ok both times, passion fruit mousse was a little too sweet), but last night I dragged him back here to give this place one more shot. At 9:35pm cashier refused to serve me coffee in a cup for here, saying they were closing soon. I said we were gonna leave in 10 minutes, but she still insisted that they had to clean the cups and so on!!! Really?! 55 minutes before your closing time you will give me this BS? Seriously! I was a barista at Ritual Coffee in SF and if I did this to my customer, I would've been fired right on spot. Not sure how much time they need to wash the cups here, but I know for sure I'm not coming back here anymore. We returned to Island Vintage Coffee and I drank my yammi island latte in a cup for here for 30 cents cheaper. Yeah, drinks are a couple cents cheaper here, as well as the honey jars(Big Island Bees),  which is whole $3 dollars more expensive in Honolulu Coffee. Oh yeah and I also tried calling them before coming 3 times and nobody picked up the phone...? P.S. now that I go over my experience, I remember that while we were deciding on a drink, there was a regular customer ( cashier knew he was gonna order tea) before us, who was served his tea in a green ceramic cup. I noticed that, coz it seemed strange they served it without small plate, it was just a cup... and he seemed to be staying there for at least 20-30 minutes with the newspaper... so how is...