kahawa

kahawa was one among the first few cafes to be frequented by the younger crowd in kochi. it has maintained the same ambience and charm with minimal changes to the decor.

we hitkahawaa quarter past eleven one sunday night. we had an order each of the chicken burger, chicken sandwich, pasta arabbiata, cold coffee and a warm glass of filter coffee. the food failed to impress - it was quite bland and lacked the tlc behind any good dish.

the cold coffee was mind blowing. we had seconds of this creamy caffeinated delight disregarding my three day old sore throat.

if you're somewhere in the vicinity and are hunting for a place past 12am,kahawais a good option. you can grab a book or catch a match on their tv, or simply connect to the free wi-fi while *hopefully* sipping at a glass of cold coffee.

food - 2.5/5
ambiance - 4/5
service - 4/5
cost - 4/5

had a very horrific and nauseating experience here on new years. visited them at around 2am as we were starving andkahawawas the only "decent" eatery open at this time at our proximity. we ordered 5 sandwiches which were served one after the other. to our shock we found a couple of "worms" on the lettuce served along with the sandwich, my cousin was startled by this and reacted in shock, the lady at the counter approched us seeing the commotion. with much exasperation we told her what happened while i removed my phone to get a picture of it, she immediately removed the plate from the table, and shocked us yet again!!! she was really apethetic to the whole fiasco and behaved in a way as if this is a usual situation and even sarcastically proclaimed that worms are high in protein!!! she said she will serve another round of sandwich and returned by serving the same sandwich without any salad. we were in complete disbelief by the level of customer service and reactivity and in the process lost our entire appetite, we cancelled the rest of the orders and ended up paying for the food which we already started eating dispite us quipping and asking if we should pay.

a mixed experience.kahawabarely ticks the right boxes. the service leaves a lot to be improved, and the food could have been better.

the ambiance is the only thing going right for kahawa. i ordered tenderloin beef steak with black pepper sauce and irish coffee, the latter for it was recommended by an acquaintance. the irish coffee was just okay. the beef steak was undercooked and i had a tough time portioning it. the dish tasted very good, but was marred by the undercooked meat.

the waiters are in a world of their own, and i had to make all sort of gestures to grab their attention, finally having to resort to the ultimate attention grabber - a loud “excuse me”. i also had a bit of a tough time conveying the order and suggestion to the waiters. the service just needs to be made more attentive, that’s all.

the seating is well set and spacious, with some cool music playing in the background.

the menu is priced at par with the peers. the menu focuses on continental dishes.

the dessert options are limited.

i would easily passkahawafor someplace else.

heard a lot about this place. just came here to try things and loved it a big time. i ordered from the special section (of the new chef). i ordered akahawaspecial cake and a cookie smoothie. i've never tasted a better pastry. the staff is prompt and the owner, friendly and homely. i personally met the chef to compliment her for the cake. the best thing about this place are its timings (1000-0400; there's probably no cafe in this city which remains open this late). had a great time.

i have been a regular customer atkahawafor long. have been fond of the dishes and drinks served there. but very recently the lady manager behaved in a very rude manner which could have been avoided and be said in a polite manner. only for using the plug point for charging the laptop , the manager was very arrogant in speaking to us and have disappointed me.

a great cafe!
had french toast and mango mocktail both were damn good 😍
service-9
taste-9
ambience-7
i was not quite pleased with the ambience as it ain't delivered any uniqueness.

for the food being great, see you soonkahawa😘

kahawa used to be good. last visit tokahawawas quite disappointing. food was average. the sitting area was full of biting mosquitoes, despite the nearby mosquito repellants as pointed at by the staff. we decided to leave mid way by doing take away of rest of the meal. the take away coffee glass was so soggy within 10 minutes that one didnt want to have the remaining coffee, which was the sole purpose of visiting a coffee shop.

i went tokahawaat 11pm and ordered for a beef sizzler. the ambience was good but you cant sit there peacefully because of the mosquitoes. they even provided a mosquito bat for aid.
the service was quick and i received the sizzler within 15 minutes. hopeless i would say. i have had sizzlers before even yoko and kobe but t this one was absolute disappointment. the meat was very hard and the vegetables were minimal. one small piece broccoli, two carrot slices and three pieces of french fries. only burnt cabbage leaves in it. absolutely waste of money. all the sizzlers of this price will have a portion of rice or noodles. very sad that i had to leave hungry.

we went tokahawaafter celebrating my friends birthday for a late snack. the ambience and over all atmosphere of the place was good as it was 2 a.m.
we ordered 1 hot chocolate, 3 chilled espressos and 1 oreo shake as our drinks. they were all good and surpassed my expectations.
but then came the beef lasagnas that we had ordered. at the very sight of these dreadful objects, we feared the worst. they looked like they had been heated in the oven.
upon removing the upper layer of the lasagna, we expected to see a layer of finely minced or sliced beef. instead we encountered a beef sort of soup. it had beef just floating around in oil.
it was horrible and very few of us managed to eat any of it.
i strongly recommend that people who expect to eat good lasagna think twice before entering this establishment.
i have never had such horrible food.

after a gap of 4 years, i finally visitedkahawaagain to try how it works now. well, i must say, its has gone even better in terms of taste. but in terms of vibrance, crowds and overall ambience, there is a rapid reduction.

i am a hardcore foodie, so not much worried about ambience factor. so coming to taste, it has gone even better than previous innings. i tried chicken steak sizzler (which happens to a favourite meal for me) and belgian chocolate shake.

coming to sizzler, its prefectly cooked, well grilled and topped with prefect flavourful brown  jus well cooked with pepper essence and laced with peppercorns and chilly flakes. it gives a burst of flavours unlike bland pepper sauces which normally comes for such steaks. a bit of some spice hints were in the sauce as it wasn't typical western kind one. but anyways, it was really awesome. the mash was well cooked and perfectly balled. no lumps and so smooth. i loved it. they provided extra pepper sauce which went well with the mash, giving more flavourful taste. the only drawback the bread toast served along with this. it was so amateurish and its only because of that, i reduces 0.5 points.  the bread toast is just ordinary bakery bought sliced bread, with a bit of butter spread on it and slight toasted on pan, as if its for some school children lunch boxes. actually the bread spoiled the beauty of the dish as such. i suggest, either offer one slice of garlic bread or texas toast (thick bread sliced, well toasted to brown) or just a small dinner roll with butter. or avoid this bread as whole itself. 

okay coming to drinks, i had belgian chocolate shake, which was really bliss. never hard so thick shake back in kochi. normally in kerala, we get loose shakes. but this one was really thick, as good as shakes you get in american joints like johnny rockets or shake shack... i loved it. so overall, food was really good and i am really pleased.

now coming to ambience factor. well i am not much into it. but just for others. i felt, the store has gone more darker than previous.... it looked so dimmed, that there is absolutely no vibrance beyond the loud music they play. the main counter looks very dull and there was just 2 cakes in it. it gives a lack feeling. some more lighting is required to give cheerful youthful ambience. it looks more like a scaled down bar than a youthful cafe.kahawahas a reading area with mini library kind of stuff where you can get books and read. but now it looks as some old magazines hub with fwd and other local magazines as old as july 2013. infact every magazine on top was last years one.  ideally replace with some new ones, some books etc. and today the wifi wasn't connecting. so these all make the ambience factor dull for me and there was lack of life in the restaurant. but food was really great.

there aren't many places which stay open really late in cochin, butkahawabucks the tradition. hot chocolate atkahawaon a cold night out really perks you up, added attraction of being able to watch football matches being screened there

not sure if it was high expectation after reading the reviews,kahawadidn't strike a chord with my taste buds.
had roast beef sandwich, beef lasagne and chicken lasagne and to drink - passion fruit italian soda, orange italian soda and belgium chocolate drink.
drinks were high in sugar, so if you like very sweet, flavoured juices, go for this.
lasagne was a disappointment because the dish didn't have its trademark layers. it looked like, all the ingredients were put in a microwave bowl, and baked. was heavy on cheese, so didn't get flavours of the meat. i would have liked this served on a plate, not in a bowl, with the lasagne layered with meat, cheese, pasta, and again a layer of meat and cheese.
sandwich bread is just plan l, soft bread you get in the shops, and i think because the meat was slightly in gravy consistency, the soft bread became saggy, not able to hold the meat well. meat was juicy though and good quantity of meat served. fries served was the ordinary super market fries you get, nothing extraordinary.

ambience - decent with lot of books available.
service - fast
price - pricey for what is served

my overall rating is 3.

stashed away in a rather silent part of the city,kahawaturned into one of our favorites. love how they allow us to zone out into a world of books and don't really bother. yummy steaks and burgers are what takes us both back to kahawa. and of course, they broadcast epl matches !!! woohoo.

a pretty decent coffeejoint with rustic music but some pretty bright lighting to undo the mood. i prefer the dark red tone (any warm color). coffee is absolutely good and food too is interesting . can not be a cut above the rest but anyways does serve the purpose... thankskahawafor the parking space though 😋

kahawa is one of the few hyped up joints that actually didn't disappoint. the food here has been consistently good. yet nothing exceptional. the ambience is laid back and cozy.
what really makes us go back tokahawatime and time again is their arsenal of beverages. the peanut butter shake has to be one of the most mind blowing drinks i've ever had. the native belgian and mint hot chocolate are also exceptional in their own right. i'd highly recommend everyone to give any of these drinks a go :) if you're insistent on having a bite, i'd suggest the beef roast sandwich. it's been legendary more often than not.