Growing up, how many of us were told by our mothers or grandmothers that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?

Yet, we chose to sleep in until the last second, skipped countless breakfasts to catch the school bus and later at school ended up buying a chocolate bar in the hallway.

That was me. Fast-forward through college and a decade living a “mature” adult life and suddenly I found myself missing the delicious breakfast that for years I took for granted.

Located in Onna Village, a popular resort area of Okinawa, Kaiholo Cafe welcomes hungry customers with the amazing smell of buttery pancakes and a fresh cup of coffee. Top the promising aroma from the kitchen with a greeting from a dachshund in a cute hula skirt and a lei, and you know you’ve come to the right cafe.

The interior is decorated with surfboards, hula girl decorations, hibiscus, pineapples and flower leis giving an instantly relaxing, laid-back Hawaiian vibe. Kaiholo Cafe was opened in 2013 by Mizuki Kusa; she also owns a hula studio downstairs.

If learning to hula dance has been on your bucket list, this is your chance to enjoy a delicious breakfast and learn the hula. There is a keiki, or kids, hula class for little ones.

I was once torn between ordering eggs Benedict (900 yen or about $8) and the Belgian-style waffle (600 yen or $5.50) because legit Belgian-style waffles and eggs Benedict can be hard to find on Okinawa.

I found a clever solution by ordering both and sharing the waffle with my companion or simply bringing the leftovers home for the next morning. For an additional 200 yen, Hawaiian iced coffee is available to order, as well as tea, orange juice, sodas and hot coffee Americano.

For a change, I decided to try the bacon-egg-chili muffin (900 yen) and plain waffle. My companion ordered the eggs Benedict, as usual.

In the past, I had ordered the acai bowl (800 yen); special breakfast plate (800 yen), which comes with egg, potato, meat, drink and a choice of pancake or toast or waffle (additional 200 yen); or cheese omelet plate (800 yen) with waffle. But I always came back to the eggs Benedict and the waffle.

Eggs Benedict is a popular breakfast dish in the States that is usually served over halves of an English muffin, topped with crispy bacon or ham, a poached egg and smothered with Hollandaise sauce. There are many variations out there. I would say Kaiholo Cafe is leaning toward the traditional style.

My companion and I were ready when Ms. Mizuki brought our orders to the table. I hadn’t tried her homemade chili before, so I was a tad nervous about ordering this dish but to my surprise, it was delightful. The chili-bacon-fried egg was a perfect combination. I would definitely order this dish again.

My companion offered one of her eggs Benedict pieces, so we each swapped one and tasted both. The eggs Benedict was delicious as usual. The sausage patty gives just the right saltiness to the dish.

As we were finishing our first plates of food, our waffle arrived, golden and crispy. Kaiholo offers the Belgian-style waffle with the deeper pockets that you can fill with butter, syrup or whipped cream, and it’s crispy outside and chewy inside.

We finished the waffle in no time and washed it down with iced coffee. Hana, the hula dachshund, visited us a few times, but she did not beg for food. She has serious food allergies, so please don’t feed her.

Not a morning person? No worries; they serve breakfast throughout the day, so even if you sleep in, you can still have waffles for brunch.

ichihashi.aya@stripes.com

Location: 6978-1 Onna, Onna Village Kunigami-Gun, Okinawa 904-0411

Hours: Open daily, except for Fridays, 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (last order at 4 p.m.)

Dress: Casual

Prices: Most items cost less than 1,000 yen.

Information: 098-955-259; www.kaiholocafe.com; www.facebook.com/ KaiholoCafea

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