Island Vintage Coffee — Restaurant in Oʻahu

The coffee is DELICIOUS. It’s so so yummy, I got the Lava Mocha and it’s a perfect blend of coffee, dark chocolate, and a slight nuttiness without being too sweet. I love it.

It saves this place from the experience I had with the staff. They were training a new staff member at the cashier, which isn’t the problem. I was not greeted as I approached the cashier. Ok. They’re busy training, I can let it slide. The person training was telling the new staff member what was what, and as I ordered and went to pay the person training said that they don’t take cash…but since he hadn’t once addressed me, and was talking in the same tone as how he was talking to the trainee, I had no idea that he was talking to me. He repeated it, and at this point I was really irked because I get zero customer service AND it’s card-only?! I only had cash on me so I had to go to the car to get my card.

When I got back in they had served the person behind me, and made no hurry to serve me again. I approached the cashier and again got no greeting or even any eye contact from the staff. I paid and waited.

As I looked around, there is no sign or indication that this place is card-only. That’s misleading and frustrating to me. Also, yes, train your staff, but also model and train good customer service. The guy training the new staff had the time to ask this new trainee what school she went to and to share that he graduated six years ago or whatever but didn’t have the time to give me a simple greeting.

This shop is in a high-tourist area, so I am sure that they can get away with having a lack of courtesy for customer service, but I wanted to make sure that at least one review reflects that.

TL;DR - Great coffee and terrible...

I was super excited to try out the Island Vintage Coffee in Haleiwa. It’s right on the main strip near Matsumoto shave ice. There is plentiful parking behind the coffee shop, though it fills up quickly on the weekends. It’s a cute little shop with a limited menu for coffee which I was surprised to see since it is a coffee shop. The coffee I had today was a Lava Mocha Latte. Although it was delicious, it tasted more like a sugary beverage than coffee so I definitely wouldn’t order it again unless I was in the mood for that. I was, however, disappointed in the service today as it was pretty slow (20 minutes for a hot coffee) and it wasn’t at all busy. I may try them again in a different location but would love to see a more generous menu...

IVC food and coffee really tastes good, and as locals we dont mind driving all the way to Northshore to get a taste of food, but I must say that this store’s quality of food and service (except for the staff at the counter) has been inconsistent and getting bad. Went today and decided to just do ‘take out’ due to long line and there was no area to stay, only to find my breakfast plate, to have this super burnt walnut bread. Spoke with Kim, Manager of store, over the phone to just let them know, but she sounded like she doesnt care, even justified that the bread should really be ‘toasted’, this way? Not coming back again...