Daylight Mind Coffee Company

This place has been recommended by a friend of mine, so here I was with my boyfriend enjoying a late lunch. You can find an underground parking ($ 3) or public parking nearby (free).
It was well after 2pm, so we were seated right away. Our server was super friendly and had the warmest smiles. She told us that they’d serve breakfast all day, which is a plus! I was not too hungry, so I opted for a lighter fare (papaya bowl) and macadamia nut and white chocolate chip cookie! My boyfriend got a coffee braised beef sandwich with an egg and an iced latte.
I have been searching for the perfect mac nut and white chocolate chip cookie for awhile. (Everyone has stopped baking them these days…) Daylight’s version is not too bad; its texture was similar to an oatmeal cookie. It was a little crumbly with tiny tiny chunks of mac nuts and bigger chunks of white chocolate chips. It was good, but it was not my dream cookie. I enjoyed my fresh papaya bowl. It was light and refreshing!
My boyfriend’s sandwich was quite massive and delicious. I am not a huge meat eater, but I enjoyed the bread and super tender meat. The side salad was generously portioned and fresh.
The view from our table was absolutely stunning. A few kids were boogie-​boarding and put on quite a show.

Fabulous atmosphere! Great employees and customer service is right on! The coffee, cannot be beat! These folks really knowwhat they’re doing. They serve THE best coffee in Kona! Hands down. Thumbs up!

WOW!
This restaurant has the coolest set up. The upstairs has a gorgeous view of the ocean. There’s always some social activity such as the dance classes, yoga, office meeting and other classes on the top floor so I would recommend checking here for activities and learning opportunities.
The café is phenomenal! Unique coffees, knowledgeable baristas and decadent pastries you can watch being made through see-​through glass window between the dining space and the bakery.
Top of the line food, coffee, drinks, specialty items, service and ambiance.
A must go!

This was our first and last stop on the island. We stumbled upon it and fell in love. Incredible setting right on the water, great food with friendly staff. They even have yoga classes and dance lessons upstairs. Wednesday is ladies night woot woot. Definitely better than other popular places nearby that are much more crowded without the same ambiance. Check it out!

The drinks here are fabulous, and usually very well crafted. The food I’ve had here is also quite good. Since they make all their baked goods here, they are always fresh.
And you’ve got the view and sounds of the ocean right in front of you. Wonderful.
The reason I give 3 stars is for a) difficulty in parking here, and b) they have a strange policy if you are NOT ordering from the café menu, you are restricted to a narrow section of seating, even though you may have spent $ 13 on mocha and Americano. I do NOT care for this «policy», and I’ll be sure others know about it if I do recommend this place.
Until they change this policy, my rating will stay at 3 stars.

Really delicious coffee and food. They don@5 have white chocolate, but the iced Mac nut lattes are delish. Reason for 4 stars? The espresso taste can be hit and miss each time you go — sometimes strong, sometimes weak.

Overpriced and under impressed with this place. The food was wayyyyy too salty, and I traditionally don’t mind a little extra salt.

Love the openness of this place! Great to hear the crash of ocean waves while enjoying a delicious meal and some tasty coffee. Get the guava and macadamia nut bread loaf! And the loco moco is the best I’ve had on any of the Hawaiian islands.

I always come here whenever I come back from Colorado! It’s my favorite place to go for brunch and their bread is amazing. I would come with some close friends and enjoy the view while having some freshly baked sourdough bread and roasted local coffee.

This was one of the highlights on our 11-​day trip.
Great service, exceptional coffee, and a delightful menu! The beach view is beautiful. It is open and airy. The live music was great, perfect volume and started at 9am on Sunday.
The food… Some great offerings more unique than most. The eggs in hell was delicious. Fresh sourdough made there (although if you are a California native like we are it’s not fermented sour like we know.) Great baked goods. And… The short rib sandwich with egg was off the hook delicious.
Can’t beat the view, the music, the service, and the food is wonderfully prepared. If you are coffee drinker, you will be in heaven for that fact alone!

I’m the Duke of this joint, so I guess it’s time for me to review! This is our go-​to brunch spot, and special occasion dinner restaurant. There is no finer restaurant lanai in Kona – the seaside setting and view are sublime. The food is always very good, albeit inconsistent. Sometimes the eggs Benedict are properly runny, other times overcooked. I’ve learned to be very specific with the server about how I’d like things prepared and that generally helps. They bake their own bread and other goods, and I’ve had a few tastes of bread despite my preference to shy from gluten. Excellent baking. They always have superb coffee and delicious lilikoi iced tea. I also occasionally enjoy a flight of kombucha. Yum.
For dinner, my fave item is the short ribs. Filling and delicious. The servers are always friendly and do a nice job.

This place seems often over looked. It’s a little hard to find and out of the way, I guess. But, do yourself a favor and come here for breakfast or sunset drinks (we didn’t make it for dinner but had intended to). They are at the back of the shops next to bubba gump’s shrimp.
The deck is something to write home about. So peaceful and they had a lovely ukele player the morning we were there. We saw turtles swim by and watched fish in the waves. It was AWESOME.
We are coffee snobs (from seattle, can’t really help it) and had great coffee here. We enjoyed the pour-​over but at 4.50/cup we switched to the regular brewed coffee after, which was also delish. Food was yummy.
The bar (upstairs) had a great view for sunset and not as crazy as some of the other places on the strip.

We had breakfast here on the veranda overlooking the waves. Gorgeous spot for breakfast. I ordered the mushroom sandwich with avocado, tomato & blue cheese. It came with a side salad and a half lilikoi which was a real treat. Lovely.
The BF ordered eggs in hell: baked eggs in a cast iron skillet with Portuguese sausage and peppers. He loved it.
My mom ordered the papaya boat which had yogurt, granola and lots of interesting tropical fruit.
We all really enjoyed our food & coffee. Excellent.

Unbelievable views, lovely venue, great service, good food, awesome coffee, and wonderful relaxing outdoor live music.
Heading over for brunch was the best decision we ever made. Had to go over at least 3 times for brunch that week because we loved it! Highly recommend.

I don’t know what happened but boy we did not like our meal here. We were able to get outdoor seating that so was a great plus, they pay for parking so that was even a bigger plus but the food was just so-​so.
We ordered the following:
Roasted Local Beets Salad ($ 14): the only best thing we ordered. The beets were delicious and the mushrooms were earthy and sweet.
Scampi with Fresh Cappellini ($ 29): The menu says prawns, lemon butter sauce, heirloom tomatoes basil and garlic. I got a completely different dish. My prawns were over noodles with a light brown sauce (see picture) served cold. I didn’t noticed it till I finished my plate.
Sesame Ahi ($ 33): The ahi was still frozen in the middle. We just ate the vegetables and mashed potatoes around it.
We’re planning on going back to the big island early January 2017 so we’ll try Daylight Mind one more time.

I really like this place.
Coffee, food, an epic view in Hawai’i…seems legit. But then you walk into the place and wish it were your apartment. Then you go upstairs and see the caliber. Then you smell the roasted coffee beans and then you taste their bath water… And then you get a seat outside next to the oceans edge. Pretty plates of breaky brunchy beautiful food come out fresh and we are way past legit.
It doesn’t blow me out of the water personally, but it does make me want to get in it.
The main food is trendy, somewhat healthy, creative and tasty. Benedicts and other hip eggs in the am. Not my place for bennies, they’re just fine here when I believe bennies should always be amazing. If you love eggs, try something else. The Banana Bread French toast is really good, but I’ve always loved both of those flavors. The shakshuka is alright, just not the way I like it. Too much chili and smokiness when I like it sweeter. But that’s just me. Any of the fish for dinner does the trick for us. I’m a sucker for scallops and prawns and they are good here. Salads are the best.
They also have a nice bakery and yummy scones if you want to grab something to go with your coffee. Best part: freshly baked bread. Heaven. Other than that the chef’s creative salads are my favorite and what I come back for.
Full bar for alcoholic beverages. Teas available as well as locally brewed kombucha + Booch cocktails. Yay.
Tourist prices, so it will be expensive for many locals. But FYI they do Kamaaina pricing!
Best Pro: Live music! Amazing happy hour experience. I always suggest going then.
Only con: I’ve noticed that their beverages and baked goods are more consistent than their food.
If you are a coffee aficionado or café dweller, or someone who searches for the cutest places and atmosphere to unwind over some brew and decent food, maybe over a book, go during the day. If you want the sunset view and quintessential Hawai’i experience, go for dinner. Also, I find it a great place for a casual business meeting.
Service has always been fine. If you check in with Unilocal,you get one ten percent discount.
I will say that time and salt water have really worn this place out. It’s not yacht status anymore, but I still like it. Adds to the charm. Some folks may not appreciate it, especially those wanting to use it as a venue space.

Really great find. In the middle of Kona, it has a great view at sunset. The menu is much more creative than most here. The prices are $ 20 – 36 a plate. Much better value for the dollar.
I went with the tenderloin and prawn. A little more than rare but plenty of flavor. A good demi-​glaze coffee sauce. Perfectly cooked asparagus with hollandaise. Even the garlic mashed taters were awesome!
The scallops were perfectly cooked. Nice and juicy with a little crispy like they were seared.
The drinks were to notch as well. Make sure to try the whole grain sour dough bread. Everything is well thought out here!

The good:
* Tasty, creative food
* Nice, casual atmosphere
* Great views
* Wonderful service
* Open laters than most others
The bad:
* Super tight, pricey parking
After a day of adventures, we got back into Kona a little late-​ish for dinner… well, by neighbor island standards. One of the few places still open in Kona was Daylight Mind Coffee Company, so we decided to give them a try. We liked the restaurant so much that we went back again on our final day of the trip for breakfast!
It looked like a slow night, so we had no issue getting a table without reservations. Better yet, we were sat at a table with a great ocean view, which meant you could still hear the soothing sounds of the ocean even if you couldn’t see it. We did get a very similar table again, however, during our breakfast visit with spectacular views of Kona town.
Service on both visits were good. The hosts weren’t exactly the friendliest, but our server, whom we ironically got both visits, was extremely friendly and personable. And of course the food was good. mostly.
For dinner we ordered:
— Roasted Local Beets with Hamakua mushrooms, Puna goat cheese, watercress, macadamia
— Seared wild scallops with coffee smoked pork belly, corn purée, succotash, micro greens
— Pan Seared Monchong with carrot ginger sauce, local asparagus, rooted potatoes
— Lilikoi Opera Gâteau
Breakfast orders were:
— 12 hour cold brewed coffee and green tea
— Tropical Fruit Salad
— Banana Bread French Toast with orange mascarpone
— Kona Kine Benedict (kalua pig) with roasted potatoes
All of the dinner dishes were great! Everything was perfectly cooked with tender fish, perfectly seared scallops and melty pork belly. They ran out of goat cheese, but the parmesan crips they subbed in were great. The cake was dense, flavorful and not too sweet. Dinner was also served with house made garlic whole wheat sourdough bread.
Breakfast ended up being a little hit or miss. The wife ordered the coffee, which she said was delicious and so mild in acidity that it didn’t need sugar. The fruit salad was simply a plate of fresh local fruit, which was all perfectly ripe. The banana bread french toast was amazing, even though the orange mascarpone looked a little «interesting.» The Kona Kine Benedict was very underwhelming. The kalua pig was bland and tough. Wouldn’t order that again.
Despite the slight hiccups, Daylight Mind is a restaurant I wouldn’t hesitate to return to. In fact, it’s my go-​to in Kona.

Best venue for brunch/​lunch for their view. They have a great brunch menu, service is good, food is average to above average good. What they lose one star on is their inconsistency with their food. I tend to order the same thing all the time and it’s different every time.
Dinner is on the pricey side but worth it, service is excellent and if you do go for dinner plan an early dinner so you can have time to watch the sunset during your meal or dessert. This is a pretty special place to dine and we take every out of towner friend, family, guest or client here. Quite the hidden gem in a not so hidden area.

3.5 stars.
I thought they are up and running at 7am. We arrived around 7:45 on a Friday only to find out their kitchen doesn’t open till 8am. What? At any rate, we ordered some coffee and sat until we got a table.
One of the sauce on the table resembles a «Sriracha» but no where tasting like the real deal.
Cold brew: not my favorite because it wasn’t bold enough in flavor, comes with 1 free refill. The SO ordered the 100% Kona pour over, a better choice but still on a milder note than I prefer.
Moroccan eggs and The Sam:
3 eggs in a cast iron skillet with veggies and a tomato sauce, sides: a strawberry, slice of pineapple, ½ a rambutan, and a toast decorated with a flower. Very pretty plate. It’s a very balanced meal of fruits and veggies with protein.
The Sam is a Kalua pork with a sweet bbq-​like sauce on a waffle. The waffle isn’t quite crispy enough, but the pork was juicy and flavorful.
Service was courteous.