Location: Chatan, Sunabe area. Turn off the 58 at the American Pie joint and pass Hamagawa fishing port then turn right. Follow this road, after a couple blocks on the left hand side is the Istanbul Kebab House and Coffee Casa.
Hours: lunch 11a-3p, open 7a-6p, not sure which day closed. English menu, English-speaking waitstaff
Coffee Casa is the neighborhood cafe to the gaijin ghetto. The place was packed at lunch with DODDS teachers, military members in uniform, dependent wives and their children, etc. The scene is surreal - US citizens driving up in their enormous cars, filling up both this place and the kebab house. Sitting outside on the deck, you watch people doing their errands, parking their Y plates in their "US family housing" condo driveways. The sheer concentration of americans in this small part of Chatan is remarkable, and a bit disturbing. Meanwhile, fighter jets fly overhead making a tremendous noise.
The food here is basically pasta or chili with crunchy tortilla. For 400Y extra (on top of 800-1000Y pasta dishes) you add a soup, coffee, and dessert, making a lunch set. The coffee is quite good, and the full cream latte did not require any sugar to smooth out the flavour. The daily soup was a minuscule cup of broth with cabbage. The chili is a tomato-heavy meat and red bean dish, tasty but could have used a bit more spice and complexity. The anchovy-tomato-chili penne dish came with garlic bread and was satisfying, not sweet. Dessert of the day was a petite portion of mango cheesecake, which didn't really taste of mango, but was light in texture. Coffee Casa delivers with above-average coffee and good food, but is a bit substandard when it comes to value for money (compared to other coffee shops doing similar food.) How one feels about the atmosphere and clientele depends on one's perspective on the military presence on Okinawa.
