Photos & Review of Lanai Café, Okinawa

Admit it; If you are anything like me, you pretty much just order pancakes as an excuse to eat whipped cream, am I right? At Lanai Café, they embrace your guilt without judgement! While their pancakes can be paired with fruits, nuts, and even bacon, it’s their whipped cream that makes Lanai a good twist on your otherwise boring Sunday morning brunch.

Lanai café is a Hawaiian surfer themed restaurant with a hint of cabana style café interior. The whole atmosphere meshes beautifully with the strong Kona aroma with calm smooth morning jazz music playing constantly. The food – as you would guess – is Hawaiian themed with their pancakes as the star. Their recommended heavy hitter (or rather, heavy whipper) is the iconic pancakes with a big chunk of whipped cream on the side. Sometimes there are other stuff that goes with it like nuts, fruits, meats, or even a salad (Why? I assume it’s probably for those health conscious superstar snowflakes), but honestly with all that whip cream, who cares! It all gets swallowed up into that delicious creamy goodness just the same. Personally, I prefer the plain pancakes with just a hint of whipped cream as I like to keep it simple. They also have other Hawaiian dishes such as the loco moco and asai bowl which is all sublime as you would expect.

Pricewise, the pancake dishes will run you about 1300+ depending on your toppings while the other Hawaiian dishes is a little short of 1000 yen. Foodie tip: the Kona blend coffee can be ordered as a set which offers a huge discount versus its regular price. Might want to consider ordering something and having it as a set rather than ordering just the coffee itself.

All and all, Lanai’s is a beautiful place to spend your weekend morning with family, friends, or even after a jogging date with that special someone. To get there, simply head to the Aeon Rycom mall and go to the most southwestern side of the mall. When you reach the exit door, it’ll be right across at a separate building. Make sure to get there rather early as it can easily get packed on the weekends.