1 Dallas Rd
Victoria, BC

Hours: Daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
(varies on weekends)
Website: http://cocogrillvictoria.com
Phone: (250) 589-0729

DK: I’ve never seen a group of kitchen staff having more fun than the ladies at Coco. Multiple times during our visit, they were doubled-over in laughter. You’ve gotta be doing something right if your staff is having a riot while smack-dab in the middle of a high-volume tourist trap. But is eating their food as enjoyable as making it seem to be?

ES: That depends on whether everything on the menu is considered authentic to Polynesia. To be specific, I’ve always wanted to try Hawaiian food. It’s not always about eating spam. One look at what Cocos menu offers got half my taste buds salivating. Although ceviche is considered Peruvian, can that region be considered close enough? What say you, Don?

DK: ʻOta ʻika fans would likely blanch at the thought of Ceviche being considered anything close to Polynesian. Poke, Kalua Pork, fried Red Snapper and the abundant use of avocado and coconut throughout their menu is as good as Coco Grill gets to offering authentic or traditional fare. I would be surprised if their Kalua is cooked the traditional way: in an underground oven covered in banana or ti leaves. And there doesn’t seem to be much use of staple Polynesian ingredients like taro plant. 

But Coco does not market itself as masters of authentic Hawaiian eats. They’re “tropical flavour with a seafood Asian fusion.” A theme restaurant in the middle of a tourist attraction. My spice-rubbed salmon bao with mango sauce fit the theme nicely–even if the mango flavour wasn’t very strong.

ES: Looks like we will have to plan a trip to Hawaii for the real deal then. It’s tough to stay true to local cuisine unless you’ve been there and have eaten at operations off the beaten track. As much as I liked my cold fish dish, it was too spicy and not sweet enough. Would I go back? The wharf isn’t exactly in the most convenient of areas to get to. It’s about a 20 min walk away from the Inner Harbour.

Thankfully, there’s enough eateries in this corner of James Bay to find some gold. While I won’t go coocoo for coco, thankfully there are other seafood operations to choose from (and it’s not Barbs)

3½ Blokes out of 5