Hong Yeon Hawaii — Restaurant in Honolulu

Service: Came in for lunch on a Friday around noon. Manager/owner was handling the wait list and sat 5 parties ahead of us, some waited 5 minutes while we waited 20 minutes. Finally was seated and Jun took our order, dropped the side dishes and then we again waited for 20 minutes while 2 guys next to us got their food in 5 minutes. Jun had completely lost our order of 2 lunch sets. Finally retook our order just as they were running out of noodles for the day. Had to ask another server for tea after we asked Jun and were forgotten again. The party that was sat at the same time at us has already eaten and left. Took over an hour from coming in to get our food.

Food: portions are massive, prices are high too. Probably a decent value for food to price but it's just so much. Some entrees top +$50 on the menu. Even with the $9.99 opening special, ordering two at that price and adding the korean sweet and sour pork(탕수육) at $32 would still cost $52. The lunch set at $24 for a black bean noodle(Jajangmyeon 짜장면) with an smaller entree was just a better deal. Got the Jajangmyeon lunch set with the korean sweet and sour pork and another set with Jajangmyeon and korean spicy garlic chicken(깐풍기). Jajangmyeon was a little bland and watery with little meat and tons of onion, not terrible though. The crisp on the sweet and sour pork was good but breading was heavy and sauce was also watery and bland. Pork under the breading was unseasoned too so pretty underwhelming dish. Garlic tangy spicy chicken was weird. Flavor seemed okay but the sauce was also watery and bland, breading thick, lacked the garlic and veggies I'm used to getting with it. All the dishes were a little anemic, lacked flavor and were watery. Nothing stand out as good, just so so which was a shame with the portions and price.

Worth a visit for curiosity, but no interest in going back. Go for lunch for a better value than the ala carte menu even with the special price. Expect service to be spotty, you may get lost in...

Long story short: I came here, ordered my food, and my bill was $29.01. Somehow, in the magical land of your restaurant’s payment system, that turned into two charges: one for the correct $29.01, and another random $52.02. Truly impressive — not everyone can mess up a single swipe of a credit card this badly.

When I came back the next morning (because apparently I needed to play accountant for you), I was told it was “fixed” and that the $52.02 would be refunded. Sure enough, I saw a pending refund for a few days… until it mysteriously disappeared. My credit card company confirmed what I already suspected: you canceled the refund yourselves. Outstanding work.

So now Chase is handling the dispute for me, because clearly this restaurant can’t even manage the most basic task of taking money without screwing it up.

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As for the rest of the experience? The food ordering system is just as messy as the payments. Tables that sat after me got their food before I did, while my order seemed to wander aimlessly in the kitchen. Look — I get it. You’re new, you’re busy, mistakes happen. But here’s the thing: when you can’t get the order right and you can’t even be trusted with someone’s credit card, we’ve gone way past “growing pains.” We’re firmly in the territory of “we don’t know what we’re doing.”

So here’s some free advice: Learn how to swipe a card without double-charging people. Train your staff so they stop playing “whose food comes out first” roulette. Maybe — just maybe — focus on the basics before pretending you can handle a full restaurant.

Because if you can’t handle the fundamentals, you’re not running a restaurant — you’re running a very expensive guessing game, and customers are the ones...

Dropped by the lunch not expecting much, since our favorite life long spot shut down, did not find any decent jajangmun place. It was a pleasant surprise to find the food was very good, service was fast though parking was difficult and there was a bit of wait. Had 간짜장 and 탕수육, they recommended pork was better and following trend, it was 찍먹 not 부먹. Pork was tender and crunchy, sauce was sweet but lighter and tastier than other places. Noodles were done well and sauce good and plenty, enough to take half home for 짜장밥 later with 탕수육 leftovers. Overall, this is best I had on the island, quality was good enough now we're curious about...