Cafe Koko - East Ayrshire

We stopped by for a coffee, but were disappointed with what was served to us. My father and I ordered cappuccinos, but they tasted more like glorified hot milk. My daughter's latte was so pale it was almost white, lacking any coffee flavor. The drinks did not meet our expectations considering coffee is supposed to be the highlight of the shop. The selection of cakes and sweets was also lacking. I tried a chocolate orange tray bake, which was okay but lacking in flavor.

I popped in here before visiting a client nearby. It was nice to see a varied breakfast menu and very good prices. The banana fritter was a great idea and the cheese scone was lovely. Plenty of on street parking nearby, lots of seating inside and a nice place to have a leisurely breakfast.

I had Lentil soup, a cake and a cup of tea and enjoyed what I had. My parents come in here quite often and say the food is always nice. They had a good range of cakes available. The lady with the dark hair was very pleasant. If I didn't live 200 miles away, I'd be a regular.

After completing a job in Kilmarnock, I was heading back to my vehicle when I noticed Cafe Koko. Might as well pop in for a coffee, I thought. I was greeted warmly by friendly staff who took my order of an americano a slice of pecan cake. Coffee was good the cake was lovely. Spot on.

Having read good reviews on the place for the last few weeks so they 'd be the most recent, I was excited to try somewhere new so I could take my disabled partner out for the day, as he doesn 't get out often due to his health. The staff were pleasant enough when we turned up and we were told we could sit anywhere. Placed our orders, and in retrospect, I 'm glad they were only small for both of us though both my partner and I expected my partner 's to be larger. We were in at around lunchtime, 12.30 or so, and the place was completely empty save for a couple of walk ins collecting coffees. Not quite what you 'd expect for peak lunch time rush hour, but OK. Orders eventually came though my partner was told immediately there was no jalepenos for his nachos (which were on the menu as being chilli nachos, so you would expect chilli, no? . No explanation was given for there being no jalepenos just that there were none. What he got was a handful of tortilla chips from a packet, a handful of bright orange microwaved melted cheddar on top and this all drowned, and I do mean drowned in sweet chilli sauce. They were genuinely swimming in it, and he had to go and wash his hands when he was done eating. He also had to use my napkin since one of them came wrapped around the cutlery, with a big cafe koko sticker on it, rendering it useless since the napkin tore to shreds trying to take it off (I know places these days think that this is a cutesy little touch but stop it guys. You 're just wasting a ton of paper and irritating customers who are mostly too polite to complain about something so minor . There was no promised chilli on the nachos, no explanation given, and he wasn 't even told it wouldn 't be coming with chilli so presumably when they wrote chilli nachos on the menu, THEIR idea of chilli is half a bottle of sweet chilli sauce on a handful of chips and that 's good enough, that 's technically chilli. He ate them because he was extremely hungry, and has a number of health conditions (both of us were clearly displaying our IDs complete with sunflower lanyards, his displaying his main disability, mine detailing I 'm a carer one of which means if he doesn 't eat enough or regularly enough he will feel and be sick, and likely pass out very quickly. He didn 't feel comfortable confronting them about the state of the nachos in store because of aforementioned disability, the staff were also preoccupied with other things and given their conduct over the food up until this point it didn 't seem worth it. He did however mention that his hands were really sticky as he had to pass by them to go to the bathroom to wash his hands since they all had full eyes on him as he went and came back out. All they could give was a half hearted oh, sorry . My own lunch was soup of the day and a Latte. I was given a potato soup, I asked beforehand. What I presumed was going to be handmade soup turned out to be canned and had a strange, sickly sweet taste to it, not like sugar but rather like vegetables that were starting to go off but had been used anyway (in retrospect, this may mean that it was home made, but either several days old, or made that day with extremely old vegetables, neither of which should have happened . I wad given a slice of brown bread with two little pats of butter which to be fair, is quite generous, on the butter side of things as most places will skimp and only give one. My bread was a little stale, was a little tough to eat along the crusts but nothing I couldn 't live with. It still shouldn 't be happening though. Especially not in a place with such a high reputation. The soup turned out to be a broth rather than a soup as well. While I like broths, not really as filling. They could do with updating their menu to state as such, since broths and soups are not made equal. I also ordered a Latte, which was fine and came with a Lotus biscuit, always a nice touch. You can 't really mess up a basic Latte though. It was above lukewarm, but not quite drinking temperature. Considering we were the only ones in, I shouldn 't have had to wait an extra few minutes beyond my soup arriving to receive it. During the eating of lunch, the staff then decided to sit down at a table and proceed to hold a phone call with what appeared to be one of the girls mothers, at full volume, on speakerphone. When that was done, they continued to sit and stream videos on the phone, also at full volume, for the rest of our visit, despite us looking over constantly. No apologies were made for this at all. Poor poor show on their part. This is meant to be a quiet hide away type place, it interrupts customers ability to enjoy the environment in general, neither of us could hear ourselves think, I had to speak louder as well for my partner to hear me, and he was sitting right in front of me. Even this didn 't clue them in so I can only assume they knew and simply didn 't care. It was so disruptive we just got up, paid, and left. Though while waiting for him to finish paying I did notice that the place wasn 't the cleanest for a place serving food to the public. Right by the place where all the food is prepared, there 's a bug space at the window which is just full of clutter, dirt, dust and grime. No excuse for this in a food service place, especially not when we 're still coming out of a pandemic, and especially not when the staff are just stood around gossiping and watching YouTube at full volume because they have nothing else to do. As someone who has worked in a few cafes in my time I would most certainly have been fired for any one of these things. In the event that any of the staff see this (or indeed my partner 's review I will say this. I am not just being negative for the sake of being negative. These were our genuine findings and this is my genuine review from my own viewpoint. Constructive criticism does not equate to unnecessary negativity. For all of my criticism of what little food there was, I do have experience and knowledge to back my words up. I an an experienced cook myself (34 years, in fact and have worked in many kitchens over the years, as well as cooking every single day from scratch at home. Use fresh ingredients, all of the time. If you cannot do that, don 't do it at all. We CAN tell. Teach at least one of you to make a decent, basic chilli. It doesn 't take much work, and can be left sitting warm in a slow cooker or something else the whole day. This will not ruin the chilli, in fact homemade chilli often benefits from this as it allows the spices, seasoning, and other flavourings to mingle. If I can make a good sized batch of chilli at home for less than a fiver that lasts us a couple of days, sometimes three, I don 't see why you cannot. It 's also freezable. You do not have to make your bread from scratch, especially given how long it can take, but it would pay to learn how if only for special promotions. Otherwise, have fresh bread all of the time. Do not scrimp on quality here at all, especially when you 're trying to market yourselves as a couple of steps above a greasy spoon. A cheap slice of white is fine in a greasy spoon and fits in. The same wouldn 't be true in your venue. Packet tortilla chips are fine. Even nuking cheese can be fine, but look to elevating the quality of ingredients if you must do that. Otherwise learn to make proper Mexican queso. The expense may be a little greater in the short term but when customers notice the dramatic difference, you won 't be able to stop them from buying the nachos, they will pay for themselves. Soup is self explanatory, takes 5 minutes to make, fresh ingredients always, veg is incredibly cheap to get. Can leave it sitting warm in a crock pot waiting to be served all day as well and can also be frozen. FYI, supporting an MLM (Arbonne is not a good look either, these schemes are incredibly predatory and leave the sellers and often their loved ones thousands upon thousands out of pocket. They are only allowed to legally operate in this country and in many states in the US by using a legal loophole, calling themselves network marketing instead. This is another reason I cannot continue to give my patronage to this place. We can tell, as customers, when corners are cut. Most won 't speak up in person because 9 times out of ten staff will deny there 's a problem and make a bit of a show of it, embarrassing the customer, hoping they 'll settle for something inferior as a result, or they 'll simply say sorry and give you evils from the kitchen or till for the rest of the visit. Either way, it always results in an uncomfortable atmosphere. So most will vote with their feet and wallet and just not come back. These are not people who are running a cafe because they love food from the bottom of their souls (if they are, they badly need a few cooking lessons . These are people making food for profit.