Kaimuki Chop Suey

THINGS THAT I FIND TO BE UNBELIEVABLE; and THINGS THAT YOU MIGHT FIND TO BE UNBELIEVABLE!
1. Michigan State beats Michigan on last play of the game.
Val Y.: With ten seconds left and trailing Michigan by a score of 21 — 23; I thought Michigan State was doomed. Then it happened. The punter mishandled a low, long snap from center; the punter panicked and throws the ball in the air; No. 20, Jalen Watts-​Jackson for Michigan State, catches the ball and returns the recovery into the end zone for a touchdown. Game over. Final score: 27 — 23 Michigan State.
The most unbelievable and improbable ending to a football game that I have ever seen. Pay me Bookie!
2. In the not so distant future, glow in the dark trees could light up our streets through a process called bioluminescence.
Val Y.: This bioluminescence technology is fascinating to me. I can see the day when I will be able to play golf at the Ala Wai Golf Course at 11:00 P.M. because they will have bioluminescent grass and trees.
3. Bruce Lee could throw a grain of rice in the air and catch it in mid-​flight using chopsticks. Unbelievable!
Val Y.: I am an American. I can throw a cooked Idaho potato in the air and catch it in mid-​flight with… ONE chopstick!
4. In the following YouTube video, a Japanese man named Domo from Hokkaido drank a 1.5 liter bottle of water in 4.88 seconds. Unbelievable!
Val Y.: After drinking a 1.5 liter bottle of water, I can pee continuously for 45 seconds… AAHHH!!!
5. In his 1991 autobiography, «A View from Above», Wilton Norman (Wilt) Chamberlain claimed he had sex with more than 20,000 different women. Statistically, over a 40 year period that is over 500 different women a year. Unbelievable!
Val Y.: In my yet to be published autobiography, «And You Laughed at the Old Man», I will be revealing how many women I had sex with in my lifetime. You can reserve a copy of my book by messaging me! No down payment required. Autographed copies available to the first 10 making reservations. [1]
6. I find this to be unbelievable! Kaimuki Chop Suey Special. Whole Roast Duck for $ 15.99.
Val Y.: Regular price: $ 20.00. This month special. Don’t miss it. 30 available per day. First come first serve. You can call to check on availability or reserve your roast duck by phone. Their telephone number is (808) 735‑6779.
No limit on number of roast duck you can order. Not limited to one order per customer. They open at 8:00 A.M.
Their duck is moist and juicy. I got their early; about 9:30 A.M. Got my ducks and made many people happy.
7. You may find this to be… unbelievable! An old Japanese Buddhist man ordered five whole roast ducks from Kaimuki Chop Suey on January 16, 2016 because he thought this special was an unbelievable deal.
Val Y.: Guess who!
[1] By coincidence, my nickname among the women that knew me was the same as Chamberlain’s …“Wilt”!

Food is okay but the lady at the counter is naturally rude and loud. It seems like the way she is acting to the customer’s, including myself, is offputting. She neither means to be one way or the other, she just is that way, naturally.

While on vacation, ate here with a bunch of family. There’s something to be said about an old school Hawaiian style Chinese restaurant. If I ordered half of this stuff in LA, they wouldn’t know what I was talking about.
We ended up here as my childhood favorite, Kapahulu Chop Suey, is no longer. The food was good, but not exactly the same. I was happy to see that they made oyster rolls, but they too were not the same. Good, but in a different way. For the standards, this place is satisfactory. Also, it is damn cheap. 9 dishes, 8 people plus soft drinks, I want to say close to $ 100. Hard to beat that.

This place was not the biz! We came here to try a new small hole in the wall restaurant type hoping for a bang of good food. We’re regulars of Waimalu chop suey aiea, kapolei Chinese restaurant and also kathys Chinese in waianae. I’ve been to other small chinese restaurants in China town and never in all the years I’ve been living have been served crap like this. BTW I don’t have high expectations. I walk in and the lady at the counter doesn’t acknowledge us. There’s me, my husband, and our 3 babies 5 and under. We were surprised that it was totally empty and right before I try to say hello to the lady, the delivery driver for their delivery service comes in and seats us. Old man, he was nice. So we sit and wait. A little bit later she brings the menus. The food pictures look delicious so we order up and can’t believe how cheap it is. (Now I know why!) I ordered 4 different dishes. Some beef broccoli, lemon chicken, duck, won tons etc. NONE of it tasted fresh. The beef broccoli tasted like they used pipe water from the sink to cook it and the lemon chicken was dry with no flavor. Tasted like just plain flour to cook it with no seasonings. It is the worst food I ever tasted. The fried rice was hard and served to us after sitting out for a while. It was a waste of money, waste of time and we didn’t finish. We packed up the food since there was so much and refused to give it to a homeless person because if we won’t eat it, why would we give it away to someone else. Ultimately we just threw it away.

Great food for the price. 2^nd time this week I bought a half duck take out only $ 9.50 tasty and juicy.

Based upon other peoples reviews and Val’s, i knew this place was good. I ordered take out sam see mein last year to take to a party, so this year when I returned to Honolulu, I ordered 5 orders of sam see mein to take to a gathering again. My order was huge and good! So the next night I took my family to dinner here for a 9 course dinner and it was great! And cheap for the 8 of us, and 9 dishes proportionately sized for our party — only $ 90 — a bargain! Only one small criticism — we ordered oyster sauce chicken cake noodle, and they us the special priced dish. Taste was good, cake noodles were good, and chicken was good. But the special priced dish had only cabbage as the veggie. Should have told them that I wanted the full priced version of the dish.

The food was nothing spectacular. The service lady was awkward… It seemed as she was rushing me to order, so I felt like I was under pressure lol!!!
The cake noodle with oyster sauce chicken was only $ 5 so portion & taste was pretty good… The sauce and noodles were appetizing but didn’t care much for the chix. I didn’t taste much of other food, but the beef broccoli was prepared perfectly… just enough crisp to the veggies and beef flavor was exceptional.
I use to love their char siu chow funn but we didn’t pick any of that up… usually they would offer dim sum options but it were all sold out !!!

Try the boneless garlic chicken cake noodles. Singapore noodles also very good. Parking challenging.

I was debating on 4 or 5 star, but decided you deserve my 5 stars,
Kaimuki Chop Suey!
the one star less would be for the service.
Mahalo to Val’s review, I couldn’t wait to go!
He recommend I bring a calculator, & yes!
the calculator sure came in handy. (LOL)
After a day of hanging at Sea Life Park,
there was 8 of us, we were very hungry!
& what perfect timing, to go to Kaimuki Chop Suey.
Off to the restaurant we go…
It felt like my dream finally came true, after seeing all of Val’s pic.
I was so happy! I just couldn’t wait. ;0)
Parking is meter parking in the lot or street parking.
We were lucky to find parking. Yay!
As I walk to the restaurant, I’m getting more excited!
We got a nice table,
we sat right in the back of the printer that Val. mentioned in his review.
like De-​Ja-​Vu. (LOL)
So we got our menu, decisions. decisions. decisions,
so many choices to choose from.
we need more time!
& I had to clean my glasses, so I can double check the prices!
& finally the waitress comes for our order!
We decided on & got the following:
Steamed fish fillet with ginger onions– 9.00
Salted Fish and chicken fried rice-8.00
Yang Chow fried rice– 7.75
Crispy Gau Gee noodles with chow fun, gravy style– 6.50
Mixed vegtables with tofu– 6.50
Ung Choy with bean curd-​? did not look at price
Salt & Pepper shrimp– 9.00
Oyster sauce chicken cake noodles for 1.00, this month’s special with 25.00 purchase.
&
2 bowls of rice– 1.50 each. (the rice was huge, generous!)
Wow! I’m amazed!
The food, everything was so delicious, all 8 of us enjoyed everything!
No complaints at all from my party of 8.
I was even more happy!
This means we can def. come back again! yay!
I’m not sure if Kaimuki Chop Suey has new owners, as the past reviews wasn’t so great. I will find out nexts time.
What I love most about this place, the huge rice portion, cheap prices, huge portions, the monthly special, & all this + food is tasty!
What more can you ask for?
Did I mention, our total bill was only… 57.00!
Double Wow!
I used the calculator, to divide how much per person to eat here–
57.00 — 8 = 7.12. (cheap buffet)
We will be back!
Thanks Val Y. for your review or else I would never discovered this place!
Unilocal Review#72

Many years ago, I came to Kaimuki Chop Suey to try the Oyster Sauce Chicken with Cake Noodles, after seeing a segment of «Cheap Eats» on T.V. …after having it, I remembered the dish to be real salty, and in my eyes… it was a total fail!
I haven’t been back to this place until today, thanks to my Unilocal buddy — Val Y. who posted a wonderful review of this place!
After reading Val’s review, I knew it was time to give this place a 2^nd chance… after all, it’s been close to like 10 years since I’ve eaten here last. Could it still be the same owners? Who knows?
As I walked in with my co-​workers today… I had to try the Crispy Gau Gee Chow Fun.
I was motivated to come here, as I saw Val’s picture of his Crispy Gau Gee Mein he posted on Unilocal.When I ordered this dish, I substituted the chow mein, for chow fun instead.
One of my co-​workers got the Oyster Sauce Chicken Cake Noodles, and my other co-​worker went for the Lunch Plate #C.
What’s in Plate #C??? Well… I saw fried rice, char shu, beef broccoli, gau gee, & shrimp canton.
What can I saw about my lunch today? Overall I really enjoyed my Crispy Gau Gee Fun. The plate came with (4) small, but very Crispy Gau Gee’s. My noodles were loaded with a lot of vegetables like — broccoli, onion, mushroom, baby corn, carrots, & water chestnut. It also had shrimp, and pork inside too. Very tasty, and best of all… not salty at all! Yay!
I asked my two co-​workers how they liked their lunches… both of them basically told me it was kind of bland? But at least it was not salty.
I gotta say Val Y. was spot on about this place! The food for me was very tasty, and it was also very cheap too.
For the three of us… the bill came out to just $ 19.90, and I left a $ 3.00 tip.
Service was fast & friendly… as for parking, you will have to look for metered street parking, or parking in the municipal parking.
Check ‘em out gang! :)

Good place, good service, great prices, good food. This is a hole in the wall joint, so don’t expect 5 star ambience. There’s the tinge of cooking grime all over everything but that’s just old school keeping it real style.

Did you see the movie:“Ratatouille?” Remember the speech of Anton Ego, the restaurant critic”?
What a treat! Writing this review is almost a Community Service. (I live in Kaimuki) I have been going to Kaimuki Chop Suey as long as I have lived on Oahu. (Almost 10 years.) I always order the same items: 1. Singapore Noodles and 2. Chicken Oyster-​Sauce Cake Noodle (5 $!). I am never, ever, disappointed.
That said, I love Kaimuki Chop Suey! From the wealth of their portions to the dishes themselves. Many criticize Chinese food in Hawaii. I have heard others mention the scanty portions and other «inconsistencies». (You can keep your Panda Express™)
I always order take-​out, and when i get home and open those stuffed styrofoam clamshells, its’ always a moment of splendor, like the pirate when he flips open the treasure chest! … seeing glowing, colorful Singapore noodles, toothsome and luscious, studded with char-​sui, shrimp, egg, peppers and onions and the thick, rich Cake-​noodles bedding that tasty chicken, laden with ambrosial Oyster-​sauce gravy!
Friendly Service too. Eat at Kaimuki Chop Suey!

Food is delicious here and cheap! I was pleasantly surprised at the prices! Score! Bang for your buck! $ 5 for oyster chicken cake noodle and $ 6 for charsiu fried rice! Yum! We’ll be back definitely! Already craving again!
I’m not sure if their a/​c was out but it was super hot inside, we waited outside for our food thus my 4 out 5 stars rating.

Kaimuki Chop Suey is not a place that I would take a date– it is a place that I would go to for a late night snack (although they close about 8 pm or earlier sometimes). The food is good or great for the price so don’t think that it is Roy’s quality or Ruth Chris quality. But that isn’t why I go there– after work needing a to eat and wanting a little excess– I order a dinner plate and something like beef broccoli or oyster chicken– eating some of this and then some of that and then having dinner later and not have to cook. Super great meal /​meals for a low price. They changed the counter to a shorter version — so it is not like the picture they show on the website — but the website does have the prices and listing of the menu. There is still the glass case that has the rice cakes, manipua, pork hash, cookies and other small dim sum choices. To me it is not as fresh or as cheap as it is in say downtown Chinatown. But still a good choice way up the hill in Kaimuki.
Beef Broccoli– beef is on the chewy side– crisp crunchy broccoli though– I feel really safe giving the beef to a toddle and knowing that they won’t choke.
Charsu not dry not oily– good flavor on the meat.
Ginger Chicken– little on the oily side– tasty though.
Roast Chicken– little dry side, a little salty fully cooked and cut to make it easier to eat.
Roast pork– sometimes a little dry but well cooked and tasty.
Fried Rice– some great big old chunks of charsu pork and great big pieces of fried egg in the mix of the standard fried rice– goes great with anything and everything.
Crispy Gau Gee — get an extra order– people love to share and it is really good. I can eat at least 10 by myself before eating my plate dinner.
Chicken oyster cake noodle a great cheap eat at $ 5– I don’t know where one could beat this one??? Still great hunk of chicken on good cake noodles in a sauce that I can’t ever make as good at home.
Duck– oily but delicious. Great value and well worth it. Get the buns and shrimp chips because it goes great together.
It really is a great cheap eats place– a go to for me when I am in the neighborhood and starving. Seating is not great for groups but is great for take out to get a pupu party going. Go ahead and dine in if you like but it isn’t my cup of tea to eat there. I like to take out instead.

I used to frequent Kaimuki Chop Suey often with my grandparents before they switched owners (I think there was a fire at one point and the previous owners sold). Kaimuki Chop Suey now has a take out display, meaning food is sitting out all day over warmers instead of being made fresh. The tables are covered with large pictures of different dishes. It looks ridiculously tacky.
My friend likes to order chicken cake noodle for potluck a from here. He buys three individual orders and asks them to put it into a large pan. Each order only costs $ 5, so the big pan of noodles comes out to only $ 15 total. Good deal.
There is no free parking around here unles a you come after metered hours and park down the street. There are a couple loading spots in front, but it’s likely that you won’t score a spot there.
This last time we went to pick up food, it was ready on time, and even though there was a line to order, the guy behind the counter stopped to help us pay. When we got to our pot luck, we opened the sauce/​gravy container to find hot and sour soup. They must have mixed up the order and it was a pretty big mistake, so I feel bad for whoever got cake noodle sauce instead of the hot and sour soup. The hot sour soup/​cake noodle combo was actually pretty good.

Horrible service! Pretty good food. Chicken katsu is delicious. Try calling and ordering over the phone and you will be very frustrated. They don’t speak English… Very FOB. I’M Asian, but these people might as well be from space.
Never eat in, but do order for pickup.

I have never experienced such poor customer service. I’m more shocked than indignant, really. My dad and I walked in around noon on a Saturday to pick up some manapua from the display case. We were waiting for about 5 minutes before our presence was even acknowledged. The one woman working the floor was taking an order from a family that was dining in, so of course she was preoccupied. And when she was done with that she answered a phone order. Ok fine. But she didn’t even make eye contact the entire time.
When she finally did come to take our order, she barked «Is that all?», sullenly took our money, did not say thank you, and then started playing with her iPhone. Her face could not have expressed more boredom. The unfortunate thing is, the 4 baked manapuas we ordered were actually pretty good. They were huge and fresh-​tasting, with a good ratio of bread to char siu. But even though I live in the neighborhood, I don’t think I’ll be back just on principle. It’s a shame. I am amazed that Kaimuki Chop Suey has been able to survive for decades given the poor service and the fact that it’s usually quite empty. I don’t *want* to trek to Char Hung Sut in Chinatown if I don’t have to, but I guess that’s what I’ll keep doing.

So one day, I decided I want some Chinese food. Why, do you ask? Because, I don’t eat it often. My part Chinese daughter hates Chinese food and refuses to eat it. Seriously, she won’t eat Chinese food. That’s unheard of, right? Oh, except from PF Chang’s, but that’s another review.
Anyway, I’m walking around Kaimuki and decide to go here because it’s been a while. I think to myself, it was OK before, can’t be too bad, right? Wrong. The price is OK, but the food is just sloppy and gross. I was turned off from eating it, I didn’t finish. And I always finish my food! I got the lunch plate since I wanted a variety of food, but it was just me having lunch, so it didn’t make sense to order up a whole bunch of food. Maybe they have their lunch plates sitting already made up, because my food was lukewarm at best. And while I know they are Chinese, I was sad to see that I got junk pieces of meat. Sad. And what came into mind is that a friend of mine had gone to have Chinese food some place in Chinatown and he commented that the food is always saucy, and that’s what this food was, saucy. Not good saucy. Just too much sauce. Sometimes sauce is there to hide something, and you know what, it seems like the sauce was doing exactly that. Too bad I didn’t like the sauce. I threw away my lunch.
It’s a real shame because I want to support local and I want to have these hole in the walls survive. But if the food is just yucky, I’m won’t be back in a long time.

Update: If you come here, be sure to check your receipt and review what they charge. Last time coming here, they over charged us 50 cents (I know it’s a small amount) and we didn’t bother in getting it changed. But this is the third time they tried this and the other two times we had to correct them for larger amounts.
We don’t want to go here anymore, my wife and I don’t like businesses who try to rip people off.

I have been here 3 times in the past year. We have never bought a full meal, just a few side dishes to compliment our already prepared feast at home. We know the kids love the orange chicken, which is plump pieces of chicken and not a lot of crust pieces like Happy Day. One order is about $ 6 bucks. Their house cake noodle was pretty good at $ 8.95 it was already cut into pieces with ample seafood and veggies… sorry no picture.
We also ordered two types of tofu dishes, one stuffed with shrimp.
It had about 8 pieces with some salt, ginger, chinese parsley, green onion and broth this was pretty tasty. The other tofu dish was ma po tofu. it had pork and tofu with a gravy
… this was salty but if you mix it with rice that its really nice :) both tofu dishes were $ 6 bucks each.
Every one of these dishes my kids ate with out complaints… and they complain a lot. The service was really good. You can call in your order ahead of time and they have a 3 minute passenger loading zone right smack dab in front. So you do not have to go through the hassle of parking in the parking lot in the back… I call in my order pull up to the space at their door, park for 3 minutes and I am gone.
The lady that is usually there is always smiling and helpful and happy :) I guess that must be her little boy that is always sitting down playing video games every time we come in. I’ll bet he is the heir to the Kaimuki Chop Suey and will revamp the whole restaurant when it is finally his and install video games at each table for customer to eat and play at the same time. I am guessing that the man in the back cooking is her husband and although loves cooking chinese food would like to infuse some local flavors into his dishes like cake noodle poke style or grilled and skewered fresh local vegetables with crispy duck or suckling pig and sweet sour sauce. I like to formulate stories about people before I meet them so that when I do get to know them I can see how close my made up story is to the truth… and it is usually pretty far off.