Kokomo's Island Cafe - Bloomington - TravBuddy

The whole experience was beyond horrible. For starters, the “island music” piped throughout the restaurant was extremely loud, even making normal table conversation difficult. We have a 5 month old and requested for the hostess to seat us at a table that might be away from a loud speaker. She told us it was the same volume throughout the restaurant and seated us in the “patio” area right inside. My husband then went around the corner near the waterfall and stated that it was quieter there. When Mark (our server) approached our table, he asked if we wanted to move. He followed us to the other section and continued to be our server. I noticed many people requesting different tables than those originally assigned by the hostess during our time in the restaurant. As we got situated at the table, I set a coupon on the table from the MOA coupon book that entitled us to “50% off purchase of ANY entrée, receive one of equal or lesser value for half price.” This coupon was in clear view for Mark to see during our ordering process. He returned to take our order. I ordered the Fish N’ Chips and my husband ordered the Cuban Shredded Sandwich. We received our food (mediocre, at best) and as we finished our entrees, Mark came by to say, “I see you have this coupon here but it is only good on entrees listed on the second page of the menu.” First off, why not tell us this before we ordered, clearly seeing our coupon on the table. Second off, there is nothing on the coupon stating any stipulations to certain menu items. Clearly a bait and switch tactic! I sensed that Mark knew we were irritated by this shenanigan as we asked the hostess to send the manager to our table. The hostess informed me that the manager on duty was on the phone with the owner of the restaurant. We waited 15 minutes when my husband finally informed the hostess that we had waited for the manager long enough, had a fussy 5 month old and this was getting totally unacceptable. Mark returned and said, “I went ahead and had the manager honor that coupon and discount one of the entrees.” He settled our bill with an arrogance and horrible attitude and we left. What an awful experience!

So My friend and I were trying to figure out a place to go for dinner... I left my "best restaurants of the Twin Cities" magazine at work so we had to go somewhere both of us knew and could find our way to and from. We both have always wanted to go to the island restaurant on the Mall of America so we jumped in the car and headed over.

I was always wondering how it was because the Mall of America is the biggest tourist trap in the world. So I figured it could be absolutely wonderful or somewhat over rated! And guess what? It was absolutely wonderful!

For an appetizer we got coconut breaded shrimp... I've had that type of shrimp at Bahama Breeze (owned by the Olive Garden)... and they were delicious there... let me tell you though that the coconut shrimp at Kokomo's is even better... well, there wasn't as much shrimp. But the taste was amazing... you could actually taste the coconut rather than just tasting breading!

For my meal I got the Koko Chicken Salad. Now if a restaurant can perfect a salad then they're doing something right! The one thing I can't stand is a bland salad... one with just iceberg lettus and a splash of flare here and there... I had that once at Max and Erma's restaurant called the Hula Bowl...it was a mixture of romaine and iceberg lettus (which if I wanted iceberg I'd just order water) and it had about 4 strips of chicken, a couple manderine orange slices, a few chunks of pineapple and some carrot strips... but the majority of it was lettus.

But back to the review of Kokomo's... this was no ordinary salad! It had a huge piece of Chicken Breast that was breaded in the yummy coconut breading, romaine lettus, a generous helping of pineapple, strawberry's and mangos with the most delicious salad dressing I've ever had!

Finally, I've found my Salad Restaurant! Yay!