Mirage Art & Coffee — Restaurant in Honolulu

DO NOT HIRE FOR A PAINT PARTY!!!

Iʻve lived in Honolulu for eight years, before that I lived in NYC, LA, and Seattle. Working in marketing and having a large family, I have thrown countless events in my life.

I can unequivocally and without any hesitation say that my experience with Jasmin was the worst experience I have ever had with any business owner.

Below, I mention the numerous reasons why my experience with Jasmin was so terrible, but to summarize... Jasmin is unprofessional, unorganized, aggressive, and unbelievably rude. DO NOT schedule an event with her if you wish your guests to have a pleasant time!

My Story:

I wanted to do something nice for my mother-in-lawʻs 76th birthday and I thought that a paint party with her closest friends would be a great idea.

I contacted Jasmin and we began to discuss the details of the party. Her demeanor was pushy and condescending on the phone, but I very much wanted to do the paint party, so I ignored my instincts about her and proceeded with planning the event (big mistake).

Jasmin demanded that she be paid weeks in advance of the event, even though I told her repeatedly that I did not yet have the number of attendees finalized. She charged me $50 a head and then asked me if I wanted to tip her 15%, 18%, or 20% over the phone. I have never heard of tipping someone before they perform their service for you, but I obliged and gave her a 20% tip. Something I strongly wish I had not done and will never do again given my experience with Jasmin.

I found out later that one of my guests was not going to be able to make it. When I told Jasmin of the change, she didnʻt offer me any sort of refund. She seemed to choose to ignore the fact that I was now being overcharged. I let it go, and just thought of the money I lost as an extra tip for Jasmin.

During one of our phone conversations Jasmin told me I could bring my own wine and dessert if I wished, or I could purchase dessert from her. Honestly, when I looked at the photos of her pastries, they did not look at all appetizing, so I opted to bring my own cake. I informed her via text that I would be bringing my own cake and that we would purchase drinks from her. She texted me back that that would be fine and I thought that was the end of it.

During the party, while Jasmin made the drinks, I asked where we could gather to cut my MILʻs cake, she rudely told me we could gather outside the cafe to do it. As we were exiting the cafe, Jasmin had the audacity to yell at me in FRONT OF ALL OF MY GUESTS, telling me that she makes her money by selling her food and that I shouldnʻt have brought my own cake, as I was stealing business from her.

I was completely shocked, not only had I been given permission both verbally and over text to bring my own cake, but bringing my own cake hadnʻt even been my own idea, she had suggested it to me. Now she was literally yelling at me and attempting to shame me in front of my guests.

We started the paint party. The whole time we were painting, we only got two instructions from Jasmin, “make sure your paint brush is wet” and “draw an ʻSʻ to get the correct shape for the seahorse”. Otherwise no instructions were provided. Jasmin obviously does not have the training needed to teach an art class.

Repeatedly, Jasmin came over to my MIL and yanked her paint brush out of her hand. My MIL is not a visual artist, and Jasmin continually berated her for her painting not looking like the example. She made my MIL feel singled-out and extremely uncomfortable.

Once the party was over and my MIL and I had said goodbye to our guests, we tossed our paintings into the nearest dumpster. We both agreed that Jasmin was one of the most unpleasant humans we had ever encountered and we didnʻt want to have anything to remind us of the event.

If Jasmin was an employee of a larger company, I would have demanded my money back....

Rude, unprofessional, uncomfortable, and racist. The 1 star reviews are from usernames that are Japanese/Asian. I believe the owner is racist towards anyone who looks Japanese or asian as we were given the same rude attitude and treatment. It was our first time coming here and I had high hopes. The owner was eating and looked up at us like she was disgusted. When she got done eating, she went behind the counter and asked us, “Do you have any questions?” It was our first time there so we were still looking at the menu. My fiancé said, “We’re still just looking over the menu.” She responded, “That’s the drink menu. The food menu is there.” She pointed to the standing sign. “And pictures of the food are on the window outside.” We only came there because we wanted coffee drinks so it was already rude for her to point out which menu was which; like we were dumb and didn’t know the difference. I realized she was trying to push us to order food because that’s where she makes her money. She read off the drink menu like we couldn’t read and then went on to explain what a frappuccino was; again, like we were stupid and didn’t know. She asked what flavor we wanted but there was no list of flavors and she didn’t verbally list any. I saw a picture of a frappuccino with whip cream so my fiancé ordered that. When we got the drink, it looked nothing like the photo and no whip cream or chocolate drizzle. After we ordered the drink, she asked us if we wanted food. We said no and she looked over at me and asked, “What about you?” I politely said that I was just sharing the drink with my fiancé. Then she asked again, “What about food?” We declined for the 3rd time. She also half-heartedly promoted her paint parties and social media with no enthusiasm whatsoever. We finally paid and she was looking to see what we would tip so we tipped. She said, “You can go sit somewhere and wait because I have to make your drink for you.” She sounded annoyed like it was a huge burden for her. Throughout the whole ordeal she didn’t smile at all either. She could’ve just said, “Thank you! I’ll have that ready for you shortly!” But no, she couldn’t be bothered to make any attempt at customer service. I have worked in customer service as a hostess and cashier. This experience was by far the worst. The drink was equally disappointing and expensive. Save your money, time, and energy. A McDonald’s frappe tastes way better and not overpriced. We also unfortunately overheard the owner talking to a customer complaining about how people treat her without any Aloha and accused the customer of experiencing Aloha because she assumed the customer was a local and was born in Hawaii. The customer replied saying she wasn’t born in Hawaii. The owner responded, “Born, raised, whatever same thing! It’s because you LOOK like you fit in so everyone treats you like a local.” The owner is racist to people who look asian/Japanese because she feels inferior for not “looking like a local”. She doesn’t feel like she fits in or is viewed by others as a local. She is being just as judgmental as the others who judge her. Maybe you would receive Aloha if...

Terrible workers…. The worst experience I have ever had in Hawaii.

Added INFO: I am reviewing Mirage Art & Coffee located in 1425 10th Ave, Honolulu, HI 96816, United States. And one of worker was Jasmine and another one is the young girl(her daughter or just employees?) . Both were really discriminational.

When I went this store, it was June 2023 (I know the date since I have the photos).

The owner and the young girl were racists.

The owner first asked me “Do you understand English?” although I was talking to her in English. I doubted what I just heard of.

The young girl working for evening event declined to serve us although many white ladies were already ordering and having seats at the same time I tried to order. She said “It’s not ready yet” although she took orders white ladies before and after me. My friend said how rude it was of her.

They obviously do discrimination at this store.

The owner had a night event so she wanted to close the store when I went to the store around noon although the store was supposed to open according to google open hours. When the owner said she was about to close the store and push me to order in a second because of her preparation of the night event, I told her that “I will not order anything today. I will come back another day. I’d like to enjoy the atmosphere of the store by having seats. The owner didn’t listen to me at all. She repeated “What do you want? She was ridiculously pushy! If you are a nice person, she traps you. Although I didn’t want to order and wanted to take time to decide the menu, the owner pushed me. She sounded like she was going to give me free pastry so I ordered with iced latte. But she charged me pasty as she didn’t act anything weird and she gave me hot latte…..and she poured it over lots of ice. Most disgusting thing was that she was touching coffee beans by her hands…I wanted to run away and say I don’t want it….but I had to pay everything. The owner said to come back to the night event. I forgot something at the store so I had to go back there at night event but they were very rude again so my friend got angry and wants to leave there.

The price was so expensive and nothing special. These workers were very disrespectful. They were not...