Mei Sum

The dim sum was epic! Only setback was the waitress only addressed our Asian friend to order… among us «white people».

Mei Sum used to be one of my favorite places for dim sum, until they moved to this location. The normal dim sum was okay, nothing special. We ordered a house noodle dish and it was super salty with msg. I don’t mind a little, but it was ridiculously salty that we couldn’t even eat half of it. And the roast duck was pretty sad. The skin wasn’t rendered enough so it was a little rubbery and unpleasant to eat. Ugh. Knarly.
Anyways, we crossed this one off our list permanently. Won’t be going back.

Usually when I get dim sum, I go to happy days in kaimuki or harbor village in hawaii Kai. My bf and I decided to get dim sum in Chinatown area today since Sunday is free parking and chose this place. We were immediately seated and we ended up ordering: shrimp dumpling (2), mochi rice, pork hash, steamed pork bao, and my favorite… Look fun wrapped shrimp in a sweet soy sauce in total, it came out to about $ 22 and we left full. Wished we could have tried the baked manapua but they were sold out.
The only downside to this place is the parking… Street parking can be hard to find and Chinatown in general can have more pricey parking/​garages. The service here, however, was good. Our waters were always full and we had no problem getting a waiter to order something.
I would definitely recommend this place if you are in the area… Plus they serve dim sum all day!

Unilocal 100 Review Challenge 2015: ¹²⁸⁄₁₀₀
After my coworker brought Deep Fried Garlic Eggplant to work, I’ve had Mei Sum on my mind since. After a few drinks at a bar downtown, I started getting the munchies and headed over to Mei Sum around 7pm on a Monday evening.
Mei Sum was fairly empty with only a handful of tables occupied. We were seated at a medium sized table for 4 people then popped open our beers because it’s BYOB! We had to wait for quite sometime to order while I was able to thoroughly take pictures of the menu. Eventually we had to flag down the worker to order. We ordered about 8 dishes which included 2 orders of the mouth watering Deep Fried Garlic Egg Plant!
The food came in waves meaning we had to wait to get certain dishes as they didn’t come all at once. I was actually surprised at how long the dishes took to come out considering they weren’t very busy. The portion size, specifically of the pork hash, were on the small size compared to other Dim Sum places on the Island. The Deep Fried Garlic Eggplant didn’t have as much garlic as I remember but it was still good with some pieces being larger than others. And of course, I love the hot chinese tea they serve! The Dim Sum is fresh when ordered (not on a cart) during the evening and tasted wonderful!
Our final tab was $ 34 for 4 stuffed adults (pre-​tip)! Very filling & worth the money!
Note: Parking can be tough but their a pay lot across the street & free street parking in the evening.

Mei Sum is definitely worth giving a try for traditional dim sum in a typical dim sum establishment. The restaurant reminds me of the dim sum places on the East Coast on a smaller scale. Don’t expect over the top décor hanging lanterns and dancing touristy dragons. Do expect a good selection of great tasting dim sum at very reasonable prices being pushed around on carts. There are other items to order but I like picking and choosing from the carts.
I was on my own, checking out China Town and stopped in. I already researched the place like any good little foodie does. I was seated right away, served my tea and waited for the carts! I chose 4 items, which filled me up. Actually I forced fed myself the egg custards because I was beyond «filled up».
I like shrimp so I ordered two shrimp items, so yummy. I ordered one deep fried shrimp balls and one steamed shrimp dumpling plate. I really should have stopped there because I was feeling it. According to the photo, I obviously didn’t stop. My favorite was the egg custard, I love egg custard and theirs was good. I couldn’t let it go to waste because according to my Pinoy parents, there are starving children in the Philippines.
I left full and satisfied. The servers were so nice, they even suggested what items are special for the day. Excellent!

I have been satisfying my dim sum cravings at Mei Sum for years, both at their new location on Beretania/​Nuuanu streets, as well as their old location on Pauahi Street in Chinatown. The dim sums here are very delicious. Not only do they have dim sum, but also nice selection of authentic Chinese, family style dishes! Their main non-​dim sum menu has a nice array of soups, noodles, fish, poultry, pork and beef to name a few. They usually have a white board up on the wall which lists their daily specials that you can’t miss when you enter the restaurant. Hmm… now that I think about it, I didn’t notice it today… It may have been taken down or I may have just been oblivious.
The restaurant is very clean, a casual setting with a lot of tables for a small gathering up to large groups for family style seating. The one drawback were the tables were closely situated to each another, that sometimes it was difficult for the dim sum carts to make its way throughout the entire restaurant. Today, I noticed the tables were spaced out better so the dim sum carts could make their way through the entire restaurant. A big improvement from recent years! :)
The noise level was surprisingly quiet today, however, it can get a little noisy, especially during heavy lunch or dinner rush hour. Service is great, and there is always more than one server checking up on your table all the time!
Metered parking can be found along the street or at the city municipal lots for a nominal fee.

We came at about 2:30 and the place was pretty empty. We decided to go in anyways and see if they had my favorite buns I’ve been craving, egg custard baked bun!
Sold out, she said. Ok what about the steamed ones? Sold out, she said again. Ok what about any of the buns in the small section, sold out, she said again!
Why me?! I have been craving that delicious baked custard bun for so long. We still ordered some other dim sum anyways.
We got a few different buns like the bbq pork bun (yum), a fried noodle dish (also yum), and some other stuff, which was all great.
The workers were nice as well and very patient while we asked about all the different items that they were out of.
Would I come here again? Yes, In the morning time so I can get my hands on one of those baked egg custard buns.

My «go to» dim sum restaurant!
Location/​Parking:
Park in the underground Municipal parking off Beretania Street. It’s about a $ 1 per hour and you do not need validation from anywhere. There is also paid street parking. It cost $ 1.25 for an hour and 1 hour is the limit. The machine takes coins and credit card.
Food:
Dim Sum!!! They have your typical dim sum and also have unique dishes such as the jellyfish salad. My favorite dim sum are the pork hash, shrimp dumplings, shrimp with chives, deep fried taro, fried taro with scallop and baked manapua. My family orders the house special as well and the noodles are good with lots of vegetables and meat.
Prices:
The dim sum prices were the average rate in the area. $ 3.10 is the price per plate on most of the food I ordered. The fried taro with scallop was $ 4.95.
Service:
You have to wait until the carts come to you. Sometimes you’ll wait a bit if it’s busy and your on the opposite end of where the cart is. Sometimes you can ask for what you want and a waitress will grab it from the carts.
Water and tea is placed on the table upon seating. Waters are refilled often! The waitress takes away the bamboo containers once they see it empty.
Overall, I will continue to dine here for the dim sum. I’ve been dining here for a couple years now when my family craves for dim sum and have not been disapointed.

We usually come here on mornings during the weekend and are almost always able to score a street parking right in front of the restaurant. It’s not exactly the best place for dim sum, but it’s convenient and familiar. The waitresses are all funny, and you get that typical Chinese restaurant experience where they keep trying to pile your table with more and more food that you don’t really like… e.g. shrimp dumplings 蝦餃燒賣, no no no I don’t want that.
Stuff that’s good here:
Deep Fried Garlic Eggplant with Fishcake (避風塘茄子): This is probably one of my favorite dishes here. It’s covered in little crushed up garlic chips and always comes out hot from the fryer.
Char Siu Sou (叉燒酥): Flaky pastry filled with char siu. In my experience, it’s hit or miss if they actually have this, but if they do, you should totally try it.
Chicken Feet (鳳爪): It’s not actually going out for dim sum if you don’t get these. There’s just something about sucking out the soft bottom pad on the bottom of the foot and skillfully spitting out the tiny bones that makes one feel inherently more Chinese.
Custard Buns (奶皇包): Buns stuffed with egg custard. They’re pretty good here.
Coconut Jin Dui (椰絲煎堆): Deep fried mochi coated in sesame seeds filled with shredded coconut. These are really good if you can get them fresh when they’re still light and chewy.

Recommended by a friend who visited Hawaii.
I was on vacation with my family and my parents were craving some dim sum. We Über’d over to Chinatown to try this place out since my friend had eaten here when she had visited. It was a small area and very clean.
The food took awhile to come out and they did forget some of our orders, but they brought it out eventually. Some of the food took awhile and we had to wait awhile in between our dishes for the remainder of the order. The ladies were nice and the food itself was pretty good.

Our party of 3 came here during their dim sum hours (7 am– 2p. m) for a light lunch. We ordered multiple orders of:
–shrimp dumplings
–fish balls with corn
–pork hash
–spring rolls
–steamed manapua
Everything was pretty tasty! It was good but not as good as some other places in downtown. We were just happy the service w

My parents and brother love coming here because the parking is very easy seeing as there is an underground cheap municipal lot just one block away. As far as dim sum it’s always available and there are lots of choices on the menu. I’m not sure it’s my favorite place to eat dim sum in Chinatown or in Hawaii in general but it gets the job done if you’re having a craving or want to eat dim sum at an off hour that other places might not serve it. Grew up eating here so it’s kind of like a staple but I do think there are better options in Chinatown with more variety. Service is what it is at all dim sum places and they’re not quite as busy as other more popular places soooo you can always get a table and don’t have to wait.
Solid Chinese restaurant dim sum place in Chinatown where you could get a reliable meal.

«Mei» I have «Sum» dim sum please!
I know that’s so corny, but what do you expect when eating dim sum for one of the first time in the morning with friends. My friend Alan T. put out the offer for morning dim sum and I just couldn’t refuse. Along with Unilocalers Anna F. and Jacob N. we got there at 9:00am on a Sunday which turned out to be a good choice, not that crowded. Anna F. who speaks fluently, order for the group and she’s awesome when it comes to ordering food.
The dishes that were order was made to order as it was still too early for the cart, I was stoked and really did care for any bun items that I saw on the cart later because I wanted to try as many new things as I could. Well I got my wish as the food kept on coming and coming, I was ready to tap out, but had to Man up because you know some Unilocalers can eat! I can now say I had my dim sum fix… for the next three months. lol!
Service was as Ok, but I enjoyed the translation of conversations between the waitresses from Anna. You really don’t want to know what they say, pretty darn funny.
Overall 3.5 Stars rounded to 4
Metered Street Parking or Municipal Parking near by.