The 3 most important things in real estate are location, location, location and Daylight Mind Coffee Company has all of these. The setting is beyond wonderful as we are sitting for lunch on their lanai listening to the water crashing on the rocks a short 20 feet away. Looking into Kona Bay we see a local boy gathering his fishing nets with his fresh catch of the day. You know he’s eating good today. Looking out to the paddle boarders, kayakers, bobbing sail boats, submarine, and people parasailing an overwhelming sense of peace and calm comes over you as you realize this is going to be a great experience.

The menu does not disappoint with selections like local grass fed beef burgers with aged cheddar, coffee BBQ sauce, on a brioche bun and hale smoked chicken sandwich with prosciutto, bocconcini, macademia nut pesto, ranch dressing on a brioche bun. Wow!!! We must come back and try more.

Today, I start with the Iced Coffee-Cherry Tisane which is a tea with coffee-cherry (the outer cover of the coffee bean), mamaki, ginger, and mint. It is light and delicious and the flavors are articulated in a dance on your tongue. Leise ordered the cappuccino which has arrived and is beautiful. However, we have now been over 20 minutes for the waitress to return to ask if they have raw sugar. Leise’s cappuccino is now cold. She’s upset. Service shouldn’t take this long. Eventually the waitress returned and they don’t have organic raw sugar. How can you have organically grown coffees without organic sugar? The waitress was nice enough to bring some rock sweetener which Leise said tasted like sweetener. The waitress then brought a fresh hot cappuccino without drama. Her demeanor was quite friendly and helpful.

Leise ordered Steak Tartine which is a local filet with aged cheddar, chimichurri sauce, heirloom tomatoes, and sweet Maui onions served open faced on wheat bread. She finished it saying “This is so good.” She just upgraded that comment to, “It was Phenomenal. I wish you could have tried it.” Too improve it she said she would have put the sauce under the steak medallions instead of on top of it. The sauce just smothered the beautiful meat. The second thing she said she would do is use sourdough rolls, open faced, instead of sliced sourdough bread. The flavor of the bread was fantastic, but sliced bread just isn’t very attractive or even very visually appetizing.

I ordered the Loco Moco. It is delicious. It has an unusually strong pepper flavor which I find uniquely inviting. The beef patty is cooked evenly and the flavor is good and it has great texture. The gravy is balanced and tasty. Even the egg on top has wonderful flavor. The pepper has become a theme in my mouth throughout this meal. I like it. This is a wonderful spin on the local favorite Loco Moco.

And the surf drones on in the background relaxing all who are here.

The weather today is too breezy for the paper napkins they use. They should’ve gone with linen. Later, relaxing to the beautiful view and all that Kona, Hawai’i has to offer we discuss how soon we will come back for more good food. For ambience I give Daylight Mind Coffee Company 5 out of 5 surfboards. For food quality I give 4 out of 5 surfboards. For service I give 3.5 out of 5 surfboards. Overall I give it a 4.5 surfboards.

Aloha,    James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

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