HK CAFE — Restaurant in Honolulu

I'm from Hong Kong and the food + atmosphere here was pretty authentic. The waitress spoke fluent Cantonese and Mandarin and there was a TV playing the TVB channel from Hong Kong. They seemed understaffed though and had to turn away some other customers while we were eating.

Iced Hong Kong milk tea was good, not too sweet. I got omelette rice with satay sauce, shrimp and char siu. The satay sauce had lots of peanuts in it and went well with the ingredients. The shrimp tasted better than the char siu but both are good. My husband got chicken with green onions, 2 sunny-side-up eggs and fried rice. Green onions with their scallion oil is always a great combination with chicken and rice. They also had lots of porridge and noodle options on their menu, and after 11am they have baked rice as well, which is difficult to get from other Chinese restaurants.

We then shared the ovaltine French toast for dessert, which is a unique product from them and the highlight of the meal. The toast was covered in ovaltine powder (chocolate-like in flavor), and the inside contained hot condensed milk, which mixed well with the powder when you slice the toast open to provide an amazing sweet and sticky flavor. This dish is only for dine-in customers, as takeout would make the bread too soggy. Would...

The lunch trio stopped in at HK Café on Maunakea St because we received good reviews from a few co-workers and friends. HK Café took over the space previously occupied by Happy Garden, just North of Hotel Street. The menu is a single, double-sided plastic encased sheet; with different (lower) prices than seen on the menu for the Waikiki location.

We tried the Beef Brisket and Beef Tendon Stewed Noodles, Seafood Laksa with egg noodles and the Curry Fish Balls (sorry, no pic). The menu cautioned that it could take up to twenty minutes to prepare certain dishes; it took nine minutes for the noodle dishes, almost twenty minutes for the laksa and a little longer for the fish balls.

The beef brisket / tendon dish ($16) reminded us of a similar dish from Mini Garden but the soup is vastly superior. The laksa ($17) was spicy (yes!) and contained two large shrimp, two mussels and pieces of squid and fishcake. The dish that disappointed us was the curried fish balls ($11); it was hyped as a “must have” by an acquaintance … Uh, underwhelming was the group consensus.

Final thoughts … excepting the fish balls, we liked what we ordered and would return. That’s about as good an endorsement as our group doles out for a casual...

My first time ever in Honolulu’s Chinatown, and it did not disappoint. My mom and I wandered around, checking out different shops, before she led us to HK Cafe — a small, no-frills Chinese spot she swore was authentic.

Limited seating. The place was packed. Everyone there was clearly local Chinese — Cantonese, maybe Taiwanese — not a single tourist in sight. That’s usually a good sign. We ended up sharing a booth with an older gentleman since there were no open tables.

Mom ordered the beef chow fun. Unreal. The beef was soft and tender, the onions were perfectly cooked and full of flavor, and the noodles were just right — smoky, oily, and authentic. I got the Cantonese fried rice, which was light, fragrant, and cooked to perfection. Both dishes hit the mark — exactly what you want from real Chinese cooking.

Now, the service? Brutal. One woman running the entire show — waitress, cashier, and host — so water and attention were almost nonexistent. We waited a while for food, but honestly, it was worth it once it hit the table.

Bottom line: terrible service, incredible food. Authentic Chinese at its best. I’d go back in a heartbeat — just don’t expect smiles or...