Yee Hong Pavilion

I wished Unilocal had negative stars because this place doesn’t deserve even a one star! We came on the evening of 1÷30÷2016 after the festivities in Chinatown. We ate here last year and had great service and the food was really good so we came back this year. As we walked in the place looked half empty and it took several minutes before we were seated. We looked around and noticed no one was eating and people was just looking around. Some tables had a dish or two, but, seemed like no one was really eating. After being seated and a menu being «dropped» off to us, the waitresses never came back to bring us water or any dishes. The menu was delapitated and falling apart. After about 10 minutes, we had to flag down a waitress and asked if they could take our order. The waitress seemed like she didn’t know what was on the menu and at times had to point out on the menu what we wanted to order. After a few more minutes of waiting, a lady at another table finally left with her group. I then heard another table complain that they had been waiting for 30 minutes for their food. I then turned to the people next to us and asked how long they had been waiting. The lady said they had been waiting for 45 minutes. Still not being served any water or any dishes being brought to us, we finally left. This place sucked!!! The waitresses sucked! I would not patronize this place again and will not recommend this place to anyone.

This place was right on the corner of Beretania and Maunakea streets at Cultural Plaza. We happened to walk by on our way to our intended dim sum place. On a whim my hubby suggested trying this place instead. Good suggestion! Turned out that the dim sum in this place was far more tastier and a better value than the place we were going to in the first place. Everything was hot and fresh (ouch burn da mout!) The wrappers were soft but not too thin. I hate dried hard skins– that’s a bad sign for dim sum restaurants. The 2 of us ate $ 21 worth and we were stuffed. Chicken feet were plump. Look fun came in pretty big portions. Had different priced plates– $ 2.75/$ 3.45/$ 4.45. Most of our favorites were the small and medium plates. Service was a bit slow. Plan on a leisurely tea. Saw some people order to go. Place was clean. Only thing was that the sponge cake was more like a like chocolate cake, not the usual yellow one. The restaurant wasn’t super busy when we came (around 9 am on a Saturday) but more people came in later. Don’t let the lack of crowds deter you. It was kind of nice not having to deal with the crowd and noise that comes with it. This place is now our go-​to dim sum restaurant!

We booked here for our family’s of 15 on New Year’s Eve. The owner herself was a bit in a bad mood from the beginning. Her customer service was very terrible. My mom was very clear to her of what we wanted and she still messed up the order. When mom tried to tell her what was wrong, the owner was throwing a hissy fit. She knew she was wrong, and said «she now understood what my moms order was» then the rest of the whole night was a bunch of attitude from her. We even tried to add more to the order and she literally rolled her eyes at us. Wouldn’t you want us to order more food. I normally don’t like to leave a bad review, but I had to for today terrible service. Never again I will come back here.

This review is based solely on customer service. Didn’t get a chance to try their food. A friend and I went here for late lunch. They weren’t busy. We were seated quickly. Everything great so far. However, once we were seated, they forgot about us. We sat there for 5 minutes before we were able to flag a waitress down. We asked for water, our dishes and utensils (because we didn’t have any in front of us), a menu, and some tea. It took another 5 minutes for our water, and nothing else, to come. We sat there for another 15 minutes and nothing. At that point, a family walks in and they get serviced right away. Menus, dishes, water, tea… We finally had enough and walked out. I can say I won’t be back.

Line at Legends too long.
Came here.
Spare ribs, tripe, shu mai, and chicken feet.
Only negative would be the chicken feet.
Little bit overcooked. Fall off bone. Feet fell apart. Little to mushy to eat No flavor in the near. Mostly in the sauce.
Wi-​Fi signal still there, but no connections. Provided by Clearwire. But they out of business. Their Wi-​Fi must have been pretty good at one time. Signal so strong it interfered with my personal HotSpot from my phone.
Laptop and iPad kept attaching to their Wi-​Fi.
Will return to try other items on menu.

If I could, I would give this place ZERO stars! We were the only ones here at 630p (closes at 9p) mainly for dim sum. Place was bright & clean. Everything else stunk!
Unfriendly staff, woman made a sour face when we asked for water (6 total). Another older woman came to take our orders after asking twice within 5 mins if we were ready. Since I felt like being rushed, I randomly placed my dim sum order & she repeatedly explained that it’ll take 15 mins to steam it up etc. I said it was okay & that’s all the dim sum I wanted to order for now. Before my cousin could place her order, she turned around & walked away while speaking another language (not English) to her staff then SIGHED LOUDLY in a frustrated tone. I was beyond shocked (& pissed) that I had to ask my cousin if she really did that because I just couldn’t believe it!
I stood up & said, «never mind! It’s okay! I can see that you’re frustrated from the way you’re sighing loudly so we’re not gonna eat here anymore! So damn rude!» She then said something in whatever language while staff came out from everywhere to see what was going on while we walked out. Never coming back ever!

Quick, efficient service and great food.
Had a wide variety of dishes for lunch today, some being: cold ginger chicken, pork belly, lots of greens, steamed fish, sweet and sour pork, etc.
The noise levels were surprisingly low for being a Chinese restaurant, which I appreciated.
Would not mind coming back for another lunch.
Did not have any complaints, other than a couple stains on the tablecloth that made me a teeny bit uncomfortable but that’s no big deal.
PS: if you order oysters., they’re huge! And delicious.

04÷08÷15. I had eaten the Jin dui from Yee Hong Pavilion last year during Chinese new year. Today I got to sample some of their other dim sum and was very impressed. My Chinese lady friend took me there for morning dim sum and we had chicken feet, Spare ribs, half-​moon and of course Jin duo
I’m looking forward to returning to trying some of their other dishes

I came during the day so it wasn’t too busy, I ordered some Choy sum, duck and shrimp eggs and it was really tasty. It tasted pretty healthy, the food wasn’t greasy and the duck was served in little buns and it was really delicious AND really filling for 2 people. Only thing was the lady kept forgetting our stuff like we asked for rice and tea and she kept forgetting it so we had to remind her cuz I guess she was more focused in talking to these guys at another table but 4 stars because the food was delicious

It was my first time here, in this discreet, clean, and conveniently located spot in Chinatown.
We had a group of 20 people for a birthday dinner gathering (BYOB and birthday cake). The staff is very friendly, attentive, and accommodating.
We had a LOT of food! My favorite dish was the garlic chicken. There was so much garlic that we saved some to top off the friend rice that followed. Yum!
All of the other dishes were equally delicious; not too oily, salty, or sweet. I’m just a big fan of fried chicken!
I would say this place ranks right up there with the best tasting Cantonese food restaurants while still being affordable.
On a weekday night there is ample street parking (please walk with friends for safety) or you can park in the structure next door.
Enjoy and be well!

The dim sum and service is just ok, no big deal one way or the other, but I will have you know that for VERY decent Cantonese food, this place has just superseded Moon Garden, which was the only acceptable place for a long time. What makes this place worth returning with family and friends for properly grand 10-​seater meals with the spinny lazy Susan? Intense flavor, lighter sauces than typical northern and Sichuan cuisines. It’s not HK style, but probably the best you’re going to do in Honolulu as of March 2015. You can rely on the following:
Sweet and sour (fried) fish
Bitter melon with beef
Singapore fried noodles
Salt and pepper pork chops
Walnut shrimp — this isn’t really Chinese (mayo), but they do it well!
Green beans
Salted fish in chicken fried rice
If you can muster the friends, the deals are in the 4– and 6-​person meals from which you can choose a variety of dishes; it comes with soup and dessert and a vegetable dish. Kinda unbelievable. There are a ton of options in the area but you may as well get the good stuff; never know when the chef gets fed up and shows up somewhere else.
(Sorry, had to revised down bec/​I’d gotten away with grade inflation. This place is totally great, if you order correctly. Lots of unremarkable dishes as well.)

My wifes new favorite spot for dim sum. The place is clean and its never too busy like legends.

The group I was eating with (all local-​Chinese, born & raised in Hawaii-​type folks) chose this place out of sheer curiosity, & I’m so glad they did! We got the 6-​person set menu, & it fed 7 of us comfortably – including a couple of particularly big eaters) – and the food is GOOD! We did the same thing again last week & there were 8 of us this time. We got an order of salted fish fried rice in addition to the 6-​person menu, & we were all stuffed & happy, with leftovers too. ;-) The service was excellent, attentive without ‘hovering’, everything was super clean, & our total bill was about $ 100…this is my new go-​to place for Chinese food!

My wife and I just happened upon this place and went inside after seeing they serve dim sum. The service was great and the waitresses were extremely helpful. We ended up getting several types of dim sum and «real» lo mein, not that stuff they try to pass off as lo mein in other restaurants. Their half moon is wonderful. We also couldn’t believe how low the prices were for being in the plaza.
We will be going back to try some of the other seafood selections we saw in the menu but didn’t have the belly space for on this trip.
Great place.

I have been here before, a few times for their delicious dim sum. And, since I just wanted a lite bite, was just going to have one or two dim sum. Surprised that they were completely out of inventory by 2pm. Still I was here and I was hungry. Venturing into their regular menu I was very happy to see a nice selection of rice and noodle plates for only $ 7.95. I ordered the beef bittermelon and was more than satisfied. The portion was generous. Even more than that was the deep and rich flavor of the sauce. Good quality beef. Deep and flavorful dish… no skimping here. So delicious I couldn’t stop until I inhaled most of it… and I really didn’t want to have much to begin with. So you might have to point me in the direction of a comfy couch or bed to take an afternoon nap.
Ohhhhh myyy that was the best rice I have had in, maybe years! I mean, if a Chinese restaurant can’t cook good rice, makes me wonder. I didn’t have any thing to worry about here. The long grain white was perfectly steamed and fluffed and very fresh. I ate «almost» all the rice. And this was the most rice I have eaten in a very long time.
Conveniently located at the corner of Beretania and Maunakea in the Chinese Cultural Plaza, the restaurant is very classy, especially for Chinatown. And they get bonus points for convenient in same building parking and private restrooms. One star less because, even after the waitress gave me the menu no one ever came back to take my order. No one brought me water. No one checked on me before or after the food as served. I did get some tea. I ended up having to call out my order across the room. Also distracting was the owner/​hostess yelling across the room to who apparently was a regular customer for a whole conversation. Or… was that just the cultural thing going on?!?

Just like any other typical dim sum restaurant: it’s good when it’s fresh, sucks if its not.

Friendly staff. We parked at the parking garage across the street.
Went there for a quick late lunch. Food is good and not over price. Whew~
They will start to provide dim sum in September. Welcome to check back with them.

Even though they changed their menu and the style, the food isn’t much better. The food was sorta bland. There was sooo much oil in the food.
The noodle soup was alright. The pricing was decent. Not like a lot.
Service was very attentive. But kinda creepy since they practically stare at you the whole time. It’s always empty in this restaurant. Maybe that’s why.
The total price came out to around $ 30 with 3 orders.

Believe me, I was deeply saddened when Yee Hong Pavillion got rid of their dim sum. Their dim sum was amazingly good and the prices were fair. Where else would I go get my dim sum fix besides Fook Lam when they are packed?
Yee Hong Pavilion now serves authentic Hong Kong café food. The difference between here and Hong Kong’s cafes are that YHP kept the same seating arrangements as they did before as a Chinese restaurant. Certainly, it doesn’t give you the authentic ambiance of a Hong Kong style café which are just a handfull of tables with stools but the food is there.
Afternoon tea (low tea) is a hit among Hong Kong residents for decades and rightfully so since all those years of British influence will get to them sooner or later. Instead of tea and cake, Hong Kongers drink tea or coffee, along with a small meal. In Hong Kong afternoon tea prices are usually lower and menus are specifically made for periods from 2pm to 4pm. YHP also does this but serves simple joys like won ton noodle or chicken wings.
They also serve breakfast and have an all-​day menu. I haven’t ate breakfast there but I’ve tried the all-​day menu twice since they changed.
My first visit was right on their «reopening» with their new menus. I walked in, fully expecting dim sum and was kind of shocked that they got rid of it. No matter, since I do kinda miss the Hong Kong style cafes, I figured, «what the heck, let’s just try it.»
I ordered my favorite which is cold milk tea and their «Hong Kong Style Cart Noodles». For those unfamiliar with Cart Noodles, it is just basically your selection of noodles and toppings. They take care of the soup and prep. The type of noodles you can choose is thin, phở, rice, or nissin damae. You can pick two meat selections from a list of 12 items and one vegetable selection from a list of 7 veggies. Additional choices are $ 1 more. My meat choices were beef balls (think phở style) and beef tendon/​brisket, my all time favorite. The vegetable choice was bean sprout. For noodle, I went with Vietnamese phở noodles.
The milk tea was okay. There is nothing special or popping about it, and of course, it didn’t come with boba as with all real Hong Kong style milk teas. It is the Taiwanese type that has boba. It did taste a little bland because there was a bit more milk (I’m guessing evaporated milk) than I’m used to.
The Cart Noodle for me was a disappointment. The soup had very little flavor, but the brisket was extremely good. Much better than what my dad makes. Portion size was on the smaller side but it is enough to make you satisfied. This is typical Hong Kong size.
So I did leave the restaurant in a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t think it was a great idea for them to redo their menu, but what is done will be hard to change. I told my dad about it and he was extremely curious. He did spend 30+ years in Hong Kong and with his culinary experience, he would know if things are below par or better so I promised him I would take him there.
A week later, we went to YHP and it was a bit less busier. My dad ordered double beef brisket and tendon with choi sum in phở noodles and I ordered a combination phở #7 off their phở menu. I also ordered a cold milk tea, just like I did the week before. The food came quick, mostly since it wasn’t too busy. The phở was good and toppings were abundant. I would put it on the top 5 phở places list. Yes, a Chinese restaurant serving phở. A pretty good one at that.
My dad’s order came soon after and it tasted completely different from what I tasted last week. The soup was out of this world and the brisket and tendo was good. I have no idea what they changed or if I got a «bad» order last week but this is one of the best broths I’ve tasted for Chinese style bowl noodles.
The milk tea was perfect also. They really got the tea down this time around. I’m guessing they went with a stronger tea. It was obvious they used Rickshaw tea this time around. Again, if you’re looking for real Hong Kong style milk tea, go for the hot and don’t expect it to be anything like Taiwanese. Each style has its good points.
I was kind of torn in giving them either 4 or 5 stars. As with almost all restaurants, your experience might vary but I would have given them 3 stars from my first visit but the second visit would been an impossible 6 stars. They don’t have every staple of Hong Kong café food items there like Hong Kong style French toast (go to Anytime Café if you want that), different types of jook available all morning, or even pineapple buns/​Mexico buns. I still do wish they bring some sort of dim sum back though. Hope they keep up with good consistency on subsequent visits.

Yee Hong Pavilion recently became one of my favorite places for dim sum.
I’ve been here on different occasions with my Chinese relatives and have also brought many of my local and out-​of-​town friends here to get their dim sum fix. Everyone always leaves happy and satisfied.
HAINAN-​STYLE/​HAINANESE CHICKEN ($ 14.95 for ½ order, $ 9 for lunch set that comes with choy sum, soup and rice):
This is one of the popular items that most diners come for.
DEEP-​FRIED CRISPY GARLIC CHICKEN ($ 10.95 for ½ order):
Salty, crunchy garlicky goodness!
The chicken was moist and juicy on the inside, fried to a crispy finish on the outside. The salty fried garlic chips (and some fried batter sprinkles) was a nice touch, giving the dish even more crunch and garlicky flavor.
SALT & PEPPER PORK CHOPS ($ 9.50):
Generous portions of crispy porky goodness on a plate!
The outside crust was seasoned (on some visits, I could really taste the 5-​spice seasoning) & fried to perfection. The meat remained juicy and tender within the crispy, non-​greasy crust.
My only complaint was that the garlic-​scallion topping wasn’t fried crispy like most Chinese places that I’ve had salt & pepper chops at.
BRAISED DUCK FEET ($ 10.95):
Duck feet, shitake mushrooms and cabbage are braised with dark soy, rice wine, garlic and ginger. The flavors of the braising liquid was wonderful and spot on, infused the shitake mushrooms and cabbage beautifully.
But the duck feet could’ve been cooked longer because it wasn’t as tender as I’d wanted it to be.
***FYI: duck feet isn’t as meaty as chicken feet***
There’s a good variety of DIM SUM with prices ranging from $ 2.35 to $ 3.65.
What separates Yee Hong Pavilion from other dim sum places in Honolulu is their variety of TRIPE! Hot damn!
They have all THREE TYPES OF TRIPE on their dim sum menu, while most places just serve the flavorless paper-​thin white bible/​leaf tripe.
1) HONEYCOMB TRIPE ($ 2.95):
Thicker, meatier and more tender out of the bunch. This tripe is used a lot in local-​style tripe stew. My favorite out of the 3 mentioned.
2) BLANKET/​FLAT TRIPE ($ 2.95):
It’s smoother in texture than the honeycomb tripe.
When cooked to the right doneness, it’s similar to eating beef tongue or beef roast.
3) BIBLE/​BOOK/​LEAF TRIPE ($ 2.95):
The bland, paper-​thin white tripe that most dim sum joints serve. You all know which one I’m talking about!
STEAMED SEAFOOD ROLL ($ 2.95 for 2 pieces):
My least favorite since it was mostly filled with imitation crab and baby corn. There was a thin piece of white fish as well.
I prefer the seafood roll at Happy Days because there’s a whole shrimp, scallop, shitake and fish in theirs.
SIU MAI/​SHRIMP & PORK DUMPLINGS ($ 2.35 for 3 pieces):
It was a bit bland but meaty. Shoyu and chili sauce to the rescue!
PORK SPARE RIBS IN BLACK BEAN SAUCE ($ 2.35):
Tender and meaty spare ribs, very generous portions. I’ve had this on a few occasions and each time we got chunks of pork and very little bones in our orders. Definitely worth trying.
It might not be the best dim sum I’ve had, but I’m definitely a fan for having all 3 cuts of tripe on their menu.
Oh what did you say? You wanna see it again?
BAMM!