{"id":48893,"date":"2026-10-30T07:43:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/48893\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T07:43:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:43:40","slug":"where-real-chinese-eat-chinese-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/48893\/","title":{"rendered":"Where real Chinese eat Chinese food"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_7679\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to confess: This roundup has been three years in the making. Chinese people can be a pain in the ass when you\u2019re trying to get an opinion on Chinese food.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no loyalty with the chefs, so they\u2019re often\u00a0leaving for the restaurant that offers the most money, thus changing the food quality.
\nPeople like Ryan Hew will say \u201cThere\u2019s no good Chinese food in Hawaii!\u201d
\nRestaurants like Panda Cuisine keep changing their concept, confusing Hawaii eaters.
\nDespite being highly opinionated, the Chinese people in my life are usually too busy to be answering something that I should already know.
\nAs you will see in the variety\u00a0of answers below, Chinese people make their own format.<\/p>\n

In addition, you can\u2019t just ask Chinese people where their favorite Chinese restaurant is, because you will always get the reply, \u201cWhat kind? Dim sum or family style?\u201d So here, in time for Chinese New Year, is a round up from the most cooperative people in the secret Hawaii Chinese Dinner Society (HICDS).<\/p>\n

\"Lee<\/p>\n

Lee Anne Wong and Fook Lam\u2019s turnip cake.<\/p>\n

Chef Lee Anne Wong (@LeeAnneWong) grew up in New York, but quickly became a part of Hawaii\u2019s Chinese food scene. Her favorite spot for dim sum is Fook Lam, since the prices are good, the items are fresh, the place is clean and the service is courteous. Her go-to dishes are the xiao long bao (XLB) Shanghai dumplings, turnip cake, and bean curd roll.\u00a0Fook Lam, 100 N. Beretania St., 808-523-9168<\/p>\n

For family style eating, she likes Hunan Cuisine for its spicy fare and recommends the Szechuan lamb and kung pao chicken. \u201cPanda Cuisine also has fresh, live shrimp, crab and seafood,\u201d she added.\u00a0Hunan Cuisine, 53 N. Beretania St., 808-599-8838;\u00a0Panda Cuisine, 641 Keeaumoku St., 808-947-1688<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

Will Chen and Ming\u2019s xiao long bao (XLB).<\/p>\n

Our Chef Will Chen (@WillChen79) is one of the few people in the HICDS who can actually speak the language. His top three dim sum favorites are, in order: Fook Lam for a balance of variety and price; Kirin, which has less variety but has friendly staff and fresh items made to order; and Jade Dynasty, which has a lot of different items that the other restaurants don\u2019t have \u2014 although, it can be pricey. At Fook Lam, Will likes the curry tendon and the turnip cake.\u00a0Kirin Restaurant, 2518 S. Beretania St., 808-942-1888; Jade Dynasty, 1450 Ala Moana Blvd, 808-947-8818<\/p>\n

His top family style restaurant is Moon Garden. \u201cFantastic Staff, delicious food, you can bring your own seafood (lobsters, crabs) and they will cook it for you for a small fee.\u201d (Really? I had no idea you could bring your own food.) He added that Kirin is a favorite for polished service with attentive staff and interesting food items \u2014 a nice mix of northern and southern cuisines.\u00a0Moon Garden Restaurant, 578 N. Vineyard Blvd., 808-843-1868<\/p>\n

His honorable mentions include Ming\u2019s for XLB, Lam\u2019s Kitchen for the home made funn, and Sweet Home Cafe for hot pot.<\/p>\n

\"Tracy<\/p>\n

Tracy Chan and dim sum from Mei Sum.<\/p>\n

Photographer Tracy Chan (@Chant808) said, \u201cSince my Chinese dad is too cheap to go to any restaurant where the main course is over $9, I\u2019m going to also have to draw on other experiences with the HICDS.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad\u2019s a big fan of Chinese buffets. His current favorite, and mine, is the family-run Ho Ho\u2019s in Kapolei. They have crab legs, amazing steamed fish, a wide variety of more \u2018mainstream\u2019 Chinese dishes like broccoli beef, and some local twists like li hing spare ribs. The food is good, the proprietors are friendly and there\u2019s no challenge to parking if you\u2019re willing to make the drive.\u201d\u00a0Ho Ho Chinese Cuisine, 590 Farrington Hwy., 808-692-9880<\/p>\n

For dim sum, Tracy favors\u00a0Mei Sum in Chinatown. \u201cIt fits my requirements for \u2018value,\u2019 a complex equation that factors in price, quality and convenience, meaning the food is good, cheap enough for my conservative budget and the location is along my regular route of travel. Sure, the proprietors can be rude, and if you take too long ordering (or don\u2019t flag down the carts fast enough) they\u2019ll get impatient with you, but that\u2019s to be expected in any authentic Chinese-run dim sum establishment. It\u2019s part of the experience. Get in, sit down, know what you want, tip well and they\u2019ll love you. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019re holding up the flow of business, which is pretty much a sin in Chinese culture.\u201d\u00a0Mei Sum, 1170 Nuuanu Ave., 808-531-3268<\/p>\n

Dew Drop Inn in Makiki gets Tracy\u2019s vote for comfort food. \u201cIt\u2019s small, cozy, casual but well-kept, with one of the best, if not THE best, Northern Chinese menu on the island. I discovered Northern Chinese food relatively late in life (my dad\u2019s side of the family is from Hong Kong\/Southern China) but this little place just down the street from where I live quickly became a favorite. Everything tastes homemade and fresh. The prices aren\u2019t the cheapest, but it\u2019s where I go when I want to treat myself with REAL Chinese food and not, you know, the stuff from Panda Express. Some of my favorites are the ground pork & tofu with sesame bread pockets, the dumplings, and if I\u2019m feeling under the weather, the hot & sour soup or the hot black sesame mochi balls, which take me back to being a kid at Chinese weddings.\u201d (Note: There is also Taiwanese-style food on the menu.)\u00a0Dew Drop Inn, 1088 S. Beretania St., 808-526-9522<\/p>\n

\"Olena<\/p>\n

Olena Heu and Royal Garden\u2019s char siu bao.<\/p>\n

Blogger Olena Heu (@OlenaHeu) likes Royal Garden in the Ala Moana Hotel for dim sum: mochi rice in lotus leaves, shrimp siu mai, char siu bao, fried shrimp har gau, and the shrimp and chive dumpling. For family style, she recommends\u00a0Golden City in Kalihi for their cake noodle, rice cake, and orange chicken. Runner up: Little Village. \u00a0Royal Garden, 410 Atkinson Dr., 808-942-7788; Golden City,\u00a01418 N. School St., 808-841-0287<\/p>\n

\"Capsun<\/p>\n

Capsun Poe and Fook Yuen\u2019s cold platter.<\/p>\n

Capsun Poe\u00a0(@Capsun)\u00a0is the secretary of the Board of Trustees at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.\u00a0He only has two top dim sum spots in Hawaii:<\/p>\n

1. Legend Seafood Restaurant. \u201cI order chicken feet all over town, but Legend\u2019s delivers a consistently good serving. It has just the right amount of skin to make it worth cleaning the bones, which I do every time. Warning: It\u2019s very popular. So if you\u2019re going to yum cha on a Sunday, be sure to go before 11:30 a.m.\u201d\u00a0Legend Seafood Restaurant, 100 N Beretania St., 808-532-1868<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Tai Pan. \u201cLooking for a place with good food and authentic Chinese hospitality? Well, that\u2019s Taipan. The waitresses can be a little pushy, but your patience will be rewarded with good dim sum.\u00a0Warning: If they\u2019re busy and you have a small party (two to three people), they will usually make you share your table with another small party.\u201d\u00a0Tai Pan Dim Sum, 100 N. Beretania St., 808-599-8899<\/p>\n

Capsun\u2019s family style favorites are:<\/p>\n

1. Little Village. \u201cI remind people that I\u2019ve been going to this place since before they got popular. That\u2019s before the restaurant expansion several years ago. In fact, I used to be able to walk in with a group of six and not have to wait at all for a table. This place is often characterized as being Americanized Chinese, but that is something I like about it; even a non-adventurous eater can find something to eat.\u00a0Favorite dish: Most people swear by the Honey Walnut Shrimp; it\u2019s good, but my must-order for years has been the string beans with pork \u2014 it comes perfectly flash-fried, there\u2019s a little char and glisten on every piece, and it\u2019s spicy.\u201d\u00a0Little Village Noodle House, 1113 Smith St., 808-545-3008<\/p>\n

2. Fook Yuen. \u201cFavorite dish: Cold Platter, which comes with jellyfish, pig\u2019s feet, chicken, cuttlefish, and char siu. I like everything on the platter, but the real standouts here are the jellyfish, which is crunchy and salty, and the pig\u2019s feet, which is tender and vinegary. I order this every time I go to Fook Yuen and have never been disappointed.\u00a0Bonus: They\u2019re open really late, until 3 a.m. \u2014\u00a0making it easy for you to satisfy any late night Chinese cravings.\u201d\u00a0Fook Yuen Seafood Restaurant, 1960 Kapiolani Blvd., 808-973-0168<\/p>\n

3. Ming\u2019s. \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of XLB. It\u2019s hard to find something that can rival San Francisco\u2019s Yank Sing, but Ming\u2019s has some of the best in Honolulu.\u201d\u00a0Ming\u2019s Chinese Restaurant, 1414 Dillingham Blvd., 808-841-8889<\/p>\n

\"Linda<\/p>\n

Linda Low and Garry Yee with Mini Garden\u2019s harm yee gai nup chow faan.<\/p>\n

Garry Yee (@FunHiGuy) is a financial advisor with Crown Capital Securities but deferred to his girlfriend for the food recommendation: \u201cLinda Low likes to order harm yee gai nup chow faan (fried rice with bits of chicken and dried salted fish) at Mini Garden on Beretania. The plan is to order an entree, so we can get the special price on lobster, in this case the lobster with ginger and onion.\u201d\u00a0Mini Garden Orient Cuisine, 2065 S Beretania St., 808-946-3828<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An assortment of dim sum at Royal Garden.<\/p>\n

As for me? My favorite dim sum is at Royal Garden in the Ala Moana Hotel. The items are high quality and the service is always quick and friendly. Their chicken feet, in fact, are soft, plump, and spicy. Fook Lam is a very close second, especially because their jin dui is wonderfully light for a restaurant. Here, the service is uncharacteristically friendly for a Chinese restaurant, and every item you order is acknowledged with a \u201cGood choice!\u201d\u00a0Mei Sum is my third choice \u2014 the dim sum is reasonably priced and good. For me, there\u2019s a little bit of a personal attachment, as I used to take my Popo there on Saturdays and they were always very kind to her.<\/p>\n

My favorite family style restaurant is probably Ming\u2019s, although I don\u2019t go very often since they are a little out of the way for me. Their XLB is one of the best in town, and their\u00a0\u6885\u83dc\u5343\u5c42\u8089 (braised pork belly with preserved cabbage) is a must-have unique dish. Bonus: they are BYOB. Second choice is Fook Yuen, since they are convenient and have a nicely-priced late-night menu\u00a0after 10 p.m. Interestingly enough, I really like their jook, and my nieces and I order extra pi dan (1000-year-old egg) on the side. I actually like Royal Garden for family style dining, too, as my clan has had quite a few events there. I even bought my new year jai from them yesterday! My runner up would be Moon Garden, since they make winter melon soup in the melon, and no one does that anymore.<\/p>\n

Are you Chinee like me? Where do you find your favorite Chinese dishes? Let us know in the comments below! And gong xi fa cai!<\/p>\n

Also, if you missed it, check out the rest of our \u201cnative people\u201d food series \u2014 Where real Vietnamese eat Vietnamese food, Where real Thais eat Thai food, Where real Koreans eat Korean food and Where Japanese nationals eat Japanese food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m going to confess: This roundup has been three years in the making. Chinese people can be a pain in the ass when you\u2019re trying to get an opinion on Chinese food. There\u2019s no loyalty with the chefs, so they\u2019re often\u00a0leaving for the restaurant that offers the most money, thus changing the food quality. People<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[85,86],"class_list":["post-48893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chinese-restaurants","tag-chinese-restaurant","tag-chinese-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}