Café Little Mermaid

What could possibly be better than enjoying a relaxing sunny Saturday afternoon by the beach? Well, what about that, plus finger foods! Café Little Mermaid (not to be confused with Mermaid Café in Chatan) is a beach side café where you can enjoy delicious food on a picnic table right at the back of the restaurant. They do have indoor seating but honestly why waste such a spectacular view of the ocean? The sound of the waves as you enjoy your lunch is both calming and relaxing that you can just slip away all your daily stress. Heck, I feel like when you eat there, you’re paying for the view and the food is free.

The restaurant serves most of the Okinawa local favourites such as taco rice, Okinawa soba, and Yasai Itame (stir fried veggies), but what makes them special is that they also have some uncommon dishes like the Argentinian chicken and the ever so delicious, LUMPIA! Lumpia – a common spring roll dish especially popular in Indonesia and the Philippines and oddly enough, can be seen at almost every single potluck that you will ever get invited to here in Okinawa. Lumpia can be prepared in many different ways but at Café Little Mermaid, they serve it thin almost like the diameter of a marker pen. It was delicious.

As was the tacos and the taco rice. They also give you your own bottle of salsa for your taco and taco rice which is a plus because usually, I feel like other restaurants have a global salsa shortage and each person must ration his allotted amount of salsa. Impressively, they have quite a robust menu for such a small restaurant. They also have curry rice, spam and egg rice meals, hamburgers, fried chicken baskets, and many desserts such as snow cones, Zenzai (ice shavings with mochi and red beans), and assorted flavours of smoothies and ice creams. The cost is not high at all but it is proportionate to the size of the Café. As a bonus, they also provide outdoor grilling BBQ by reservation. Perfect for summer.

All and all, it’s a pretty good restaurant for the weekend. For site seeing in the area, they have a white statue mermaid on the water and a flea market at the parking lot which I believe is held every other Sunday. The restaurant is located inside the Nakagusuku mall which you can find along route 329. Best way to find it is keep going straight out of Camp Foster legion gate and keep going until you hit the Toguchi intersection and then turn right. Nakagusuku mall is the big building on the left with a whale painting on it. Café Little Mermaid will be inside around the back.

$ or Creditcards: Yen only