Panda Cuisine

Update: since June 2015 they do not serve dim sum. Their lunch menu specials are terrible. Food here sucks and the prices are high. Go somewhere else.

So, after 6 years on island and lots of money spent on Chinese food I think I found it. Everything was tasty and service was amazing. I will continue to eat here! I gave found my Chinese restaurant on island… YAY. I am happy as can be so is the husband. He says his wife is picky and asked if it met my standards. I said 2 jalapeños up. He said finally…

Returned back after a couple of years. Food was good but did not have the opportunity to return. Now live in the area and stopped by. Empty today so need to pick the right evening. Ordered salt and pepper chicken and mapo tofu. Service is the same as in other Chinese restaurant. No smile no friendliness. What can turn do. It is the culture and hard to change. Only see Chinese customers. Hope the taste is good.

What happened here? Panda Cuisine was good! It had good food and dim sum, and decent service. According to a few of the recent reviews for this place, there are new owners, again? Hm! Well, it appears the head chef and cooks, and a sense of overall happiness is gone as well.
The most obvious thing that’s gone is the dim sum chef as Panda Cuisine has discontinued serving Dim Sum and has reverted back to the $ 7.99 Lunch Specials with a new, condensed menu that comes with rice and soup.
The servers and FOH manager are still the same people, but wow… the service is AWFUL. It felt like nobody wanted to be there, or cared to be there, with the exception of one lady. After we sat down, we waited forever to even be noticed. It was until this nice lady brought over soup for us. We told her we haven’t even ordered anything yet. She was surprised, and she immediately walked over to grab an order form and took our order.
We got the Steamed Pork Spareribs and Beef Chow Funn (wet). Since the bowl of soup was there already, we had that first. It was your basic pork bone soup, and it was actually very good. Clean and clear with a nice balance of sweet and savory from the carrots and pork bones. Sad to say, that was the peak of the meal, and the fall from it is a steep, steep drop.
The Beef Chow Funn came out very fast – TOO fast. The beef wasn’t even cooked all the way through because it was super chewy. The Look Funn was still clumped together. The taste was very bland – severely lacked salt and flavor. There was also a severe lack of wok heat. This may have been the worst Beef Chow Funn I’ve ever had!
The Steamed Pork Spareribs took so long to come out that I wanted to just cancel it, pay the bill, and leave. But we waited. We should have left… When it arrived at the table, it looked like a macabre massacre. I immediately knew why it took so long. The cooks just wanted to over cook the bejesus out of it. The meat was tough, oily, and only tasted of salt. It was just awful.
Panda Express has better food than here! And it doesn’t even cook real Chinese food!
You lost me, Panda Cuisine. You lost me, forever. Change your name because you’re demeaning and degrading Pandas everywhere.

We were looking forward to having some dim sum for lunch because i’ve been here few times before and their dim sum was good. Well, no dim sum. Our server didn’t care to elaborate on it nor was she a good server at all. She didn’t get refill our waters or come to check back on us until we were almost done. I had to walk up to the front desk person to ask for things we needed.
I had their beef stew on rice — don’t get it! Rice filled half the plate –dry old rice– and the beef had barely any meat on it, all fat! We had poor service.
For your time and safety– don’t come here! It’s a waste of time. Go else where, where the is better service and quality in food.

I thought there was no way to mess up Chinese food. But boy was I WRONG!!! On top of that, I always thought Panda Cuisine was a higher class, better quality type of Chinese food. Nope… wrong again!
We went there and ordered the most expensive set menu available which was over $ 400 for a party of ten. One of the main things we were looking forward to was the Bird’s Nest soup with shredded chicken. First of all, the soup tasted like water thickened with corn starch. There was hardly any chicken at all… and the bird’s nest? What bird’s nest??? They could’ve at least put more chicken in there to disguise he fact that the bird’s nest was non-​existent.
Next was the crab. I don’t know how they prepare it, but the consistency of the sauce was like glue. Oh yea and it had pretty much no taste at all.
When we complained about the soup, the waitress didn’t even look at it. She just said that’s how it’s supposed to be.
I think I would’ve been more satisfied at Panda Express. AND I would’ve saved over $ 400!!!
NEVER AGAIN!!! Save your money and go elsewhere!

Waited 20 minutes until we finally had to ask for water. About an hour wait for first plate — which was oversalted and dissatisfying in portion. They even sent at least three other plates to the same neighbor table. Their kitchen was obviously understaffed. Been to a majority of the Chinese restaurants on this island, this could undoubtedly be one of the worst.

Great food. We had a bad experiece in Chinatown during off-​peak hours and this fully made up for it.
Took home leftovers and additional.

Just like any other chinese restaurant they let you sit anywhere and they leave a clipboard with a piece of paper for them to fill out on every order you choose. The servers come to your table and offer any dim sum you want on the cart and if you want to order anything from the back. The dim sums are ok I wouldn’t say they’re the best but they’re satisfying if you’re craving some dim sum. All I can say is that if you’re really hungry make sure you have cash because most of the dim sum like any other chinese restaurant they only come in 3 pcs set and you’ll just want to constantly order. So in a way it’s good they leave the piece of paper on your table so you can watch your limit lol.
The service is ok. I admit they’re kind of slow even trying to get their attention takes awhile even when the business is slow.

Cat P and her fiancé took us here for Lunar New Year dinner. We had reservations, but still had to wait 30 minutes more than our expected time. Hawaii doesn’t quite specialize in Chinese food, but the food here was actually very good. We wanted to try out their special shrimp, but they ran out. Womp womp.
Instead we got:
Lobster
Peking duck
Noodles with crab– happy new year!
Fried rice with eggs and scallops
Eggplant with minced pork
The service was good and once we were seated, everything moved along quickly. All the food was very delicious, definitely exceeded my expectations. It was a great dinner and I was glad to spend my new year surrounded by friends.

After the closing of Hee Hing we were looking for a new place to call our dim sum home. We grew up on Hee Hing and that’s what we use to compare other restaurants.
I’ve had dim sum in San Fransisco, Vancouver and New York. I’ve heard about the 8-​level dim sum building. In China and Taiwan. I’ve eaten in Hawaii at downtown, legends, China house and others. But I’m still looking for a good place.
Parking was plentiful and under the restaurant. Even though they validated, the cost was still $ 2. Yuck.
When you walk in the door you can see all the live seafood. Dungenous. King. Lobster. Abalone. And more…
We chose this place for pre-​marathon carb intake.
Id say service was not very good and leave it at that.
Hot tea was really hot but there was a crack in my water glass.
The Dim sum can be had at all hours, but it will be a limited menu. So if you’re craving outside of lunch hours or at 1 in the morning, you can still get your dim sum on.
Among other things we had dumplings. Fried shrimp. Har gau. Look fun. Noodles. Char siu BAO. Bean curd. Tsumai. Jung.
It wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t come here again. It was 3 stars but I changed my mind on the way out after paying the parking attendant.

I’ve been here twice and don’t know why I don’t go back. I think it’s because the location/​parking is too hum bug for my taste. Either way, we went for dim sum and it was good but nothing stood out to me as something I could only get here. They offer the standard stuffs. It’s a bit more pricey than my cheaper but consistent Mei Sum and if I want to pay more for dim sum I go to Royal Garden coz at least I get to look at golden dragons and $ 500 shark fins/​mushrooms in a case (and it’s good).
I feel bad for not saying more about this place but again nothing but the humbug parking stands out to me!

Panda Cuisine
I love to go to good restaurants that have fish tanks in the open areas. Luckily, theirs is right as you walk in the front door, so you can watch the fish as during dinner time on most nights there is a long wait just to get someone to ask you how many are in your party to be told now how long the wait time is going to be. So I get to watch the fish.
It is funny, one waitress ignored the people standing in line near me and climbed up the wall of fish tanks, reached in and grabbed a huge red fish (ok, just wondering how she is able to stay balanced but won’t it drip some on the way back?) but that may not have been what she wanted so she put that fish back and climbed up higher on the tanks and pulled out two huge lobster — holding them in 1 hand, and then climbed back down and went on her way.
In the tanks, the prawn do not look too happy or active. The lobster look healthy and heavy weighted with large claws which will be good sweet meat. The abalone looked phenomenal.
Right now, I’m into ordering scallops — blame the where do we get the best scallops thread and then UYE for it being on my mind. Again, I have always loved scallops. So for something that I can’t cook well for myself I can always get the Scallop Basket or the Scallop with Sicuan Style Sauce. I’m able to make sautéed scallops myself — I know I’m not as good as Panda Cuisine but hey they have other things that I can’t cook on their menu that I think are very good. As many know from watching different food network shows, scallops can be hard to cook as the water will come out of the meat and make it dry and unappealing if cooked wrong or too long. Panda Cuisine does cook theirs well and it still has great taste.
My friend really likes and usually orders the Salt and Pepper Sea Bass Fillet. I too am a recent fan of the salt and pepper style of cooking Chinese food– especially in the shrimp. So I’ll suggest the Salt and Pepper Prawn to him next time to try because it is good too.
It showed that both locals and tourists like this place. It was wall to wall full to capacity on normal nights that I have been there. I usually don’t mind waiting since I like watching the fish. But be warned– there may be fewer server than really there should be so wait time is kinda big. Still they are doing their best so I don’t complain to the servers ever.
So let us know when you want to get some really fresh seafood. Do I hear a UYE calling in the new year?
Also– it is restaurant week, so I’m trying to review just restaurants until the week is over– trying my best. Let me know if this is good or not.

This place has AMAZING food, especially for Chinese. I really enjoy coming here during the day for Dim Sum, bok choy, roast duck, and other delicious goodies. I can eat for under $ 20 for two people if I budget right, so I always come in here for lunch before I go to work since they are on the same street. Eventually they stop serving dim sum, but they have an excellent dinner menu and live seafood you can order. When you walk in, there are live crabs, clams, and shrimp right there. They really serve it fresh!
The service is always polite but they need to speed up a little bit.
The place is large for events or birthday parties.
I like also that lunch time is quiet. I go there to chill and get peace.
The jasmine tea is delicious. My favorite tea, so I feel like I always get a treat when I come in.
This is conveniently located by Walmart, Ala Moana mall, and many other places right on Keeaumoku. I am always in this area, so when I crave Chinese, this is my spot.

Dim Sum during lunch and during work days? Why not? I’ve been going to this spot for my dim sum cravings for probably about a couple of years now. I come here for the convenience since it’s near my work. I love how fresh the dimsum is however, the customer service was another story and this story is targeted solely on service. Let me tell you my fairy tale.
Once upon a time, a group of friends and I happen to have been craving dim sum one day and this spot was the most convenient place in all of the land there was without having to fight for parking like many do in Chinatown. It was during the weekday and it was lunch hour and they weren’t busy yet. We were seated and it didn’t take too long to get waiter service. We all decided to get separate checks and the main server gave us a tone that was pretty rude. So I figured we will let it slide. We decided on our dim sum selections and our server just rudely grabs the paper from our hands like she was having a fit that she had to even deal with us. Okay, alright. so that was strike two. During our meal, we over hear her yelling at the busboy in English about not doing something right. I will mark that as extremely rude and unprofessional. So that was strike three. About 20 – 30 minutes later everyone gets their orders which took a while and I was missing one of the dishes I ordered. Of course I see the servers look at my order to make sure I did order them and truth be told I INDEED ORDERED IT. So she tells me that I did order it (I’m thinking «NO! Really!!!» Of course I did!!) and asked if I still wanted it. So yes, I still did want it. At this point I was already beyond upset at the service and the lack of attention to detail.
My advice for my fellow dim sum enthusiasts, come here for dim sum but expect lack of service and lots of rudeness if you get a server name Lilly. If you don’t get her, expect okay service from everyone else. I’ve been here numerous times and this is based on my past and present experience.

Great specials including a $ 10.99 lobster with the purchase if any regular priced dish. We like to get the lobster with an order of e-​mein. Makes a nice meal for two.
Service can be a little spotty when it’s busy.
A solid 3 stars.

This is honestly the first restaurant that I visited twice in a day, since I started Unilocaling. What can I say? Our friends loved it and now I do too. Everything I’ve had from lunch to dinner, from fried rice, noodles, soups, congee, stir fries, deep fries, meet, veggies, were all pretty great. With the exception of the sauteed bitter melon with beef which was too average, and the salt & pepper ribs that tasted dubiously more like sweet & sour ribs. I adored the fact that they serve glazed walnuts in a saucer-​sized dish as a dinner appetizer. Saved me from having to order Walnut Shrimp just to get a few pieces. I swear there were more than enough pieces in the little dish for the entire table!
If I ever visit Honolulu again this will be the default place for Chinese!

This is the first time that we had been back since the new owners took over. I was glad to see that they kept the old crew. Service was OK. They weren’t overly friendly and always seemed in a rush. They did come around to fill the water glasses and tea pot. I am fluent in Cantonese, so maybe that helped.
We ordered capitol pork chops, sweet and sour fish fillets, ginger onion crab and salted fish and chicken fried rice. They were all good and tasted like how all the other Chinese restaurants make them. However, the portions were small. The crab was tiny. I think it was because they were running a special for the crab for $ 14.99.

Panda Cuisine is conveniently located just across Keeamoku St of Wal-​Mart. Me rikee dim sum and den sum! My favorite part was that Panda Cuisine has the all important and super helpful PICTURE MENU for those of us that are challenged by the overwhelming choices involved with dim sum.
All the food was very good but beware that there are about 15 steps to get to the entrance with no elevator available. Parking is $ 1 with validation.

They serve decent dim sum and in the middle of the night!
It’s usually pretty dead at night as you can imagine. It’s nice to have the restaurant all to yourself sometimes.
The food is great and one of their waiter is hilarious and super friendly. Now, they do have certain items that won’t be available at night. If you want all the goodies, I would recommend you come during their regular lunch hours. Parking is free at night. Bathrooms are around the corner and can feel a little creepy for the ladies. They also have a huge selection of fresh seafood. Gigantic lobsters for about $ 400 are available if you’re a baller, they’re shipped in from Maine.