Location: north Yomitan, on the 6 (after the Cape Zanpa turnoff, but before the 6 rejoins the 58 at Maribu) in the area where the west side of the street is lined with purple bougainvillea
Hours: 10-21, closed Thursday, English menu
http://www.honda.co.jp/dog/travel/kyushu-okinawa/okinawa-hontou/leaf.html
The cafe has a cute green and orange sign out front, with two chairs under a white umbrella outside. Inside, there are concrete walls, an interesting mishmosh of seating options, and an artsy vibe. Unfortunately, the owner's dog is also inside the restaurant (at least she was during our visit) and is not well trained. This rather large animal barked loudly and growled every time any customer went to the bathroom, or a new person arrived in the store. Strange. Doesn't seem like the wisest business strategy.
There are a couple options for the lunch set, which runs 950Y and includes salad, main, dessert, and drink. The salad is a tiny but tasty coleslaw, with nicely understated acidity and sweetness. The gnocchi with tomato/bacon sauce had a few flaws: the gnocchi were a bit sticky, the tomato sauce needed salt and something else, be it more ham flavour, more chili, something to add complexity. It was accompanied by 4 slices of nice wheat bread. The panini was good but not great: while the bread was well chosen and toasted, and the fillings of ham, egg, and tomato were fresh, but again it was lacking something we can't quite place. The dessert was sponge cake with vanilla gelato drizzled in a yummy not-too-sweet chocolate sauce. This was quite good, and paired well with the Illy espresso drinks on offer. We also sampled a shikawasa lassi, which was refreshing but tasted no better than thin lemon-flavoured yogurt over ice.
So, a cute cafe with a simple and decently executed menu, but one we can't be quite as excited about as other cafes in the area.
