Cococabana

If you read their website, you’d be forgiven in thinking that Cococabana was the greatest French restaurant in the entire universe, such is their ability to self promote. Well, let me be the first to set you straight. I was really looking forward to some great food and service, and the ambience of a wonderful location, but unfortunately only one of these lived up to my expectations. Thank you HK for the great weather and views.
So, Cococabana is a French style restaurant, set in the superb location of Shek O Beach. Once you get over the location on the beach, that’s pretty much it.
Service was friendly but lacking. I found myself asking repeatedly for the most simple things — food and drink! Even getting the attention of the staff was a task unto itself, to the point you have to literally get on the table and holler? When we did finally get service, the waiter had this wonderful habit of taking two orders and then randomly disappearing for 10 minutes. There were ten of us, so this took a while.
As for the food, I get that French food can be a bit poncey, but this was taking the biscuit. The portion sizes are tiny for the price. For around HKD250 plus service, yes they added service (!), you can have a chicken and chips, but lower your expectations, the adults portion of chicken and chips (HKD238 for two pieces — about a quarter of a whole chicken) is exactly half the size of the kids meal portion, which at HKD150 had four pieces, around a half chicken. I thought this was just a mistake, until all the adult portions came out with only two pieces.
Frankly, you are stuck with this one venue if you want to eat at Shek O Beach, and these guys know it. Definitely come for the view and the enjoyment of the beach, but do just that and stay on the public beach. If you are hungry, bring a sandwich.