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- 1Koko Head Cafe
Koko Head Cafe opened in Honolulu's Kaimuki neighborhood in March 2014, led by chef and partner Lee Anne Wong, a "Top Chef" alumna, and it built its reputation around gourmet twists on classic brunch fare rather than a straightforward diner-style breakfast menu. The restaurant's signature Cornflake French Toast, along with dishes like kimchi bacon cheddar scones and a Breakfast Bibimbap, reflect the kitchen's specific approach of running island-style, locally sourced ingredients through familiar American brunch formats. Koko Head Cafe has reportedly served well over a million guests since opening and consistently ranks among the highest-rated restaurants in Honolulu on major review platforms, and the restaurant has since expanded its hours to include a dedicated dinner service on weekends. Koko Head Cafe's combination of Lee Anne Wong's "Top Chef" pedigree and its inventive, ingredient-driven approach to brunch has made it one of the most consistently celebrated restaurants in Honolulu.
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0 - 2Koko's Bavarian
Koko's Bavarian opened in Austin's Govalle neighborhood in 2021, and its name comes directly from its founder's own nickname: Konstantin Prinz von Bayern, a real prince of the historic Bavarian royal house, who goes by "Koko." The concept blends traditional German biergarten culture with Texas hospitality, built around specialty sausages, giant soft pretzels, Belgian-style fries, and rotating craft beer, aiming to recreate an authentic Bavarian beer hall atmosphere in Central Texas. After its original East Fifth Street location closed for renovations in 2023 and didn't reopen, Koko's Bavarian returned with a new South Lamar Boulevard beer hall and also expanded into a stadium-concessions concept, operating inside Austin's Moody Center arena on the University of Texas campus. Koko's Bavarian's combination of its literal founding by a real Bavarian prince nicknamed Koko and its expansion from a single beer garden into arena concessions has made it one of the most distinctive restaurants named Koko in the country.
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0 - 3KOKO
KOKO opened in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood as the newest concept from Grupo Bakan, a restaurant group that's operated in the Grove for nearly two decades alongside its other concepts, including Bakan in Wynwood and Talavera Cocina Mexicana in Coral Gables. The roughly 6,000-square-foot indoor-and-outdoor space seats around 170 guests and includes an open-view kitchen where diners can watch handmade tortillas being pressed to order, along with a cacti garden and an outdoor bar and terrace built into the neighborhood's natural tree canopy. KOKO's back bar reportedly displays more than 400 different mezcals and tequilas, reflecting the restaurant's emphasis on Mexican spirits alongside its casual-dining Mexican menu, positioning it as both a restaurant and a dedicated agave-spirits destination. KOKO's combination of Grupo Bakan's established Coconut Grove restaurant pedigree and its extensive 400-plus-bottle mezcal and tequila collection has made it one of the more distinctive restaurants named Koko in the country.
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0 - 4Koko Wings
Koko Wings operates on Manhattan's Upper West Side, at 248 W 106th Street, specializing in Korean-style fried chicken wings that are double-fried and hand-battered, a technique aimed at keeping the chicken crispy and juicy while staying comparatively light on oil. The restaurant's signature preparations include a half-and-half order splitting wings between soy garlic and spicy sauce, letting diners sample both of the restaurant's core flavor profiles in a single order rather than committing to just one. Beyond its wings, Koko Wings serves a broader menu of Korean bar-food staples, including seasoned and sweet potato fries, rice cakes, a bulgogi bowl with egg, and truffle fries, positioning the restaurant as a fuller Korean comfort-food destination rather than a wings-only specialist. Koko Wings's combination of its double-fried, hand-battered Korean fried chicken technique and its broader Korean bar-food menu has made it a well-reviewed neighborhood destination on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
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0 - 5Koko's Mediterranean Grille
Koko's Mediterranean Grille was opened in Chicago's West Town neighborhood by brothers George and Ted Kokoris, with the restaurant's name drawn directly from the family surname rather than being an invented brand name. The menu spans Mediterranean, Mexican, and American diner fare side by side, including gyros with meat sliced on site, falafel and shawarma sandwiches, spanakopita, hamburgers, and breakfast omelettes, reflecting the restaurant's positioning as an affordable, wide-ranging neighborhood grill rather than a single-cuisine specialist. Coverage of the restaurant has specifically highlighted that no menu item is priced over $10, positioning Koko's Mediterranean Grille as a deliberately budget-friendly option in a West Town neighborhood that has otherwise seen significant upscale development in recent years. Koko's Mediterranean Grille's combination of its Kokoris family ownership and name origin and its deliberately affordable, wide-ranging Mediterranean-meets-diner menu has made it a distinctive neighborhood fixture in West Town.
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0 - 6Koko's Restaurant & Tequila Bar
Koko's Restaurant & Tequila Bar was founded by partners Gibran Moreno Ventura and Alexi Torres, who opened the original Koko's Lounge on Fourth Avenue East in Olympia, Washington in 2020, building the menu around a fusion of Moreno's Mexican and Torres's Salvadoran culinary backgrounds. The restaurant is explicitly LGBTQ-owned, and its menu blends modern Latin American, Mexican, and Salvadoran dishes, including burritos, tostadas, steak tacos, poblano-cashew enchiladas, and fried plantains, alongside a cocktail program built around mojitos and a wide range of margaritas. Koko's expanded beyond its original Olympia location into the Pacific City and Seabrook vacation-town area and Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, and during the COVID-19 pandemic the restaurant pledged to donate thousands of burritos to local food-assistance programs in partnership with the Seabrook Community Foundation. Koko's Restaurant & Tequila Bar's combination of its LGBTQ ownership and its distinctive Mexican-Salvadoran fusion menu has made it one of the most community-connected restaurants named Koko in the country.
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0 - 7Koko's Middle Eastern Restaurant
Koko's Middle Eastern Restaurant operates in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles, owned and run by Chef Elie Janesian alongside his wife Talin, serving traditional Middle Eastern dishes including kebabs and hummus made in-house. The restaurant has built a devoted local following in the San Fernando Valley for its scratch-made approach to Middle Eastern comfort food, with coverage of the restaurant specifically noting the care and precision Janesian brings to dishes often treated as fast-casual elsewhere. Koko's has operated as a genuine neighborhood institution in Van Nuys, relying on sustained word-of-mouth and repeat local customers rather than the kind of citywide destination-dining attention some other Los Angeles restaurants pursue. Koko's Middle Eastern Restaurant's combination of its husband-and-wife ownership and its scratch-made approach to Middle Eastern staples has made it a beloved neighborhood fixture in the San Fernando Valley.
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0 - 8KoKo Coffee
KoKo Coffee was founded by Daud Kyarizov, an immigrant from Turkmenistan, who opened the first location in Boston in 2022 after noticing during the pandemic that coffee ordered through delivery apps rarely matched the quality of a drink made fresh in front of a customer at a real café counter. The company built a menu drawing on Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian influences, distinguishing it from typical American coffee shop fare, and it has grown into a small multi-location Boston chain alongside a mobile coffee cart division and corporate café service offerings. KoKo Coffee's expansion into Boston's North Station area, adding to existing locations along the waterfront and in South Boston, reflected the company's steady growth from a single pandemic-era café concept into a recognized local specialty coffee brand. KoKo Coffee's combination of Kyarizov's immigrant founding story and its distinctive Central Asian and Mediterranean-influenced menu has made it one of the more distinctive coffee brands named Koko in the country.
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0 - 9Sushi Koko (KōKō)
Sushi Koko, styled KōKō, opened in downtown Monroe, Louisiana in January 2026, the latest venture from Monroe native chef Cory Bahr, who was named Food & Wine's "People's Best New Chef" in America in 2015 and already operated Parish Restaurant & Bar directly across the street. Bahr developed the restaurant's menu in partnership with head sushi chef Shuji Hirose, a veteran chef from Kyoto, Japan, and the space was deliberately designed to evoke Tokyo's Ginza district, a neighborhood widely regarded as a global center of serious sushi craftsmanship. The restaurant favors an elevated, chef-led omakase-style approach over typical Americanized sushi rolls, featuring live-fire yakitori alongside fresh Gulf and imported Japanese ingredients, a notably ambitious concept for a mid-sized Louisiana city not typically associated with high-end sushi. Sushi Koko's combination of Cory Bahr's acclaimed local culinary reputation and head chef Shuji Hirose's authentic Kyoto sushi training has made it one of the most distinctive and recently opened restaurants named Koko in the country.
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0 - 10Mama Koko's
Mama Koko's opened in Baltimore's Better Waverly neighborhood, co-founded by veteran restaurateurs Ayo Hogans and Angola Selassie, who named the café after his own mother, Dr. Kokahvah Zauditu-Selassie, affectionately known to him as "Mama Koko." The Black-owned café operates inside the historic James E. Hooper House, functioning as a coffee shop by day and a cocktail lounge by night, with a menu of tapas and small plates drawing on Caribbean and African culinary influences inspired directly by Selassie's mother's own cooking and hospitality. The concept drew significant local media attention for its distinctive day-to-night dual identity and its deliberate grounding in family history and Black-owned business ownership, becoming a recognized community gathering spot in Baltimore. Mama Koko's combination of its deeply personal namesake origin story and its day-to-night coffee-shop-to-cocktail-lounge concept has made it one of the most community-rooted restaurants named Koko in the country.
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