Located in Chinatown, Bo Wah trading is a good place to go to get all the basics. It's a family…read moreowned store that's been around for years. This place is not fancy, but definitely has everything that you'll need. Lots of food items, sauces, spices, and candies. I especially like looking at their woks and steamers. My daughter enjoys the guava candy and the white rabbit candy. They also have a large selection of moon cakes if that's something you like. Prices are fair. I keep coming back to this store every time I'm in Chinatown.

This is my go to place in Chinatown When ever I need to…read morerefill my pantry with Asian stuff like oyster sauce etc. The men at the register is always friendly and helpful! There prices are cheaper than most grocery stores and that's why I go there.

Good Vietnamese food and fresh vegetables and friendly services before Chinese New Year I called…read moreto reserve the traditional "banh chung" and the owner saved it for me

The old lady selling seems rude. I asked her to cut the branch off of longan (I was buying from…read moreher, I needed it cut to fit in the bag). She all of sudden became very rude. Will not go back, New Cholon market few feet away has way more selection and are friendlier anyways.

When Chinese New Year comes around, and you need to prepare Buddha's Delight aka Jai or any…read moretraditional Chinese dishes, then Wing Cheong is one of the best stores to come get what you need. Wing Cheong has been around for many, many years. It's located in Chinatown, along Hotel Street, next to Jimmy's Produce, near Kekaulike St. The store is small, and sells a little bit of everything. I like how they always have seasonal items and put them out front for passersby to see, and their produce and other items are always excellent quality. I recommend coming here for Lychee and Longan when it's in season. It was Chinese New Year season, and the front of the store had an array of specialty items for the occasion such as water chestnuts, arrowhead root, fried tofu and fried wheat gluten, dried mushrooms, bean thread, wood ear fungus, ginkgo nuts, dried bead curd sticks, dried oysters, black moss, and etc. It's pretty much a one stop shop! All are excellent quality! Inside the store has more things from the typical Asian sauces and condiments, tea, dried and preserved fruits and candy, and very specialty items such as dried sea cucumbers and dried fish maw. The owner and his family are super nice and very friendly. Always joking around in Cantonese AND English. Proficient in both! Overall, Wing Cheong is an excellent store. Definitely a go to store for specific items. Vegetables and other seasonal items are usually fresh and good quality. Some specific items we come here for and never disappointed are arrowhead root, water chestnuts, taro root, lotus root, lychee, and longan. Their vegetables are nice too. Many things are packaged and ready to go. The prices are very reasonable and fair.

I enjoy coming to Chinatown and I always make a stop at Wing Cheong. Its just a little store run…read moreby a humble & sweet family. The fruits are reasonably priced and it is not normally too crowded. I make this a mandatory stop during Lychee season, they have Lychee in different size bags and this year it was $5.99 per pound. The Lychee is a nice size, fresh and very sweet. I also love to try the different candies and dried fruits, they have everything you could imagine and I really enjoy trying different things candies & dried fruit everytime I visit.

This is one of those IYKYK places for fresh noodles and e-mein (they have it written as yi mein)…read more It's their factory in King Street, and always check their hours before you go because they change sometimes. They serve you immediately and it says "no EBT" and it's an old school place so come with cash. Park in the China town municipal parking lot on marinades Maunakea (if you're vehicle fits) then walk up the opposite stairs to come out in the middle if the Chinese market area then head Ewa on King. If that's the only shopping you plan to do, it's pretty cheap parking (card only now days). They sell e-mein in regular size and mini size round "cakes." These are sold by the piece. Best place to get these ;IMO) since it's not always available at grocery stores. They sell all the fresh noodles by the pound. Really love their thin egg noodles (aka Hong Kong noodles). One pound is about 5-6 bundles. They have flat egg noodles , Should have asked what "elastic noodles" are - next time. Also have white saimin, regular saimin, thick saimin noodles. Haven't tried the white saimin noodles yet. The ladies are e patient with your questions if there's no other customers behind you. It's one of the places that most customers know what they want. If you want fresh noodles (no sauces) at a really reasonably precise, check this place out.

Yat Tung Chow Noodle Factory located on King St across from the Old Oahu Market. Our "Go To" place…read morefor Noodles and Wrappers. They have a great selection of freshly made noodles and dumpling wrappers. Several local restaurants have daily standing orders for their noodles and wrappers. Service is fast and efficient. Definitely recommended

One of the newer stores that opened in Chinatown. Surprisingly, it has been opened for almost year…read morealready, but obviously closed a few times due to the pandemic. Kau Pen Sin offers a wide variety of Chinese and Asian dried goods from the luxurious bird's nest to a variety of dried mushrooms, dried noodles, dried seafood to nuts, teas, herbs, and etc. This store is located along Maunakea St in Chinatown, next to Pho Que Huong, near Lam's Kitchen. It's a small store that's jam packed with items top to bottom. The owner is the Queen of Queen's Travel! She's been my travel agents a couple of times, and many people go to her for cheap flights. Her office actually had a bunch of the items she's selling now, so with pretty much zero business in international travel, it's great that she opened up a store at a good location to sell her dried goods. Overall, a nice store to get your specialty items for those Chinese soups, stews, and special Bird's Nest Soup. There's a lot of variety here, and different qualities as well, so you can choose the one you're comfortable with. The higher priced and higher quality ones are the best, but a lot of the mid range grades are still more than acceptable. The owner is nice and can speak many languages, and don't worry if she's talking on multiple phones while texting, she can still effectively talk to you!

I've rarely ventured to the back of Kekaulike Market, but I took a peek the other day and saw this…read morenew (I think) stall. As far as I can tell, they only sell Taiwanese-style meatballs and zong. I went over to talk to them and ask them what else they had (I was hoping for ba-wan), but they don't understand English very well. All she told me was that she was getting a shipment straight from Taiwan the next day! "Of what?!" I kept asking, but that was all I got out of her. I did get a meatball sample out of the encounter. Their version is fresh, homemade and pretty large, but I'm not a fan of unrecognizably processed meat. Taiwanese meatballs are not like, say, Italian meatballs. The "meat" is more like a paste (like fishcake) and the reason I have "meat" in quotation marks is because they have balls in every flavor: pork balls, beef balls, shrimp balls, squid balls, lobster balls, fishcake balls . . . you get the idea. I think the texture is why they don't grab me; the meat is so transformed from its original state that it scares me a little. Or it could be because my mom fed me so many darn meatballs when I was a toddler. At dinner parties, when I was too young to hold a fork or operate chopsticks, she'd take one of her chopsticks, spear 5 meatballs on it, and hand it to me so I would be quiet while she talked with her friends. When I was done eating it, I'd get another. At one event, my mom's friend finally pointed out to her that my mom had handed me so many makeshift shish kabobs that she was afraid I would just keep eating obediently until I exploded! Maybe that's why I'm not fond of them. I bought a zongzi from them for $3 and just finished eating it. It was good. Of course it's not as good as my mom's because commercially bought zong has more glutinous rice and less pork and mushroom filling (the good stuff) and is not as flavorful. This one could have used a bit more soy sauce and a lot more pork and mushrooms. It had a salted duck egg in it too. I usually try and avoid those, but I didn't find it until it was already in my mouth! For those who aren't familiar with it, zong is that pyramid-shaped thing wrapped in bamboo leaves and twine you might have seen hanging in Chinese establishments. Inside is a mixture of glutinous rice and fillings such as peanuts, dried shrimp, pork belly, and dried shiitake mushrooms, flavored with soy sauce and rice wine. You season everything, half cook it, wrap it in the leaves, then steam it. It's a complete meal in one little package. Now that I think about it, if I had to compete in an ultramarathon or go off into the wilderness for a week, I'd tie a bunch of those bad boys to my belt first. Yeah. Anyway, if you need a bunch of meatballs for your hot pot, or to keep your baby quiet, head on over to KC Meatball House! 3.5 stars

In my opinion, KC Kitchen used to make the best Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (AKA niu rou mien) on…read moreO'ahu. KC's niu rou mien had a rich, dark "hong shao" broth full of wonderful flavors of beef, star anise, cilantro, green onions, and garlic. It had chewy, but not too chewy, noodles and was accompanied with a good supply of pickled mustard greens. Unfortunately, the owner sold his business and (supposedly) took his secret recipe back with him to Taiwan about 4 years ago. I ate BNS at the new KC Kitchen and every other Taiwanese restaurant on this island but nothing came close to the deliciousness of the original KC. For 4 long years, I settled for eating really good Beef Noodle Soup only once a year when my wife and I would visit Taiwan. Recently, Olivia D. reviewed KC Meatball House, which is located in the Kekaulike Market in Chinatown. She wrote about all the Taiwanese dishes they sell including as zongzi and various fish-, squid-, and meatballs. We needed something to toss into the leftover broth from Sweet Home Cafe, so my wife and I headed to KC Meatball House. As Olivia mentioned, the Meatball House is tucked away in the back of Kekaulike. When I finally found it, I saw a display of various seafood and meat balls, zongzi, and other TW foods. A woman behind the counter smiled and offered us various types of meatballs to sample. They were very good. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man sitting behind the counter. I turned to look at him and did a serious double take. To my surprise, it was the original owner of KC Kitchen. My wife asked him if he sells Beef Noodle Soup and he replied "no," but he gave us a large container of broth to take home. Several weeks later, my wife picked up Beef Noodle Soup broth and meat (cooked in the broth for hours) from here. It's as good as I remembered and cost a small fraction of a plane ticket to TW. The former owner of KC Kitchen and the Meatball House were at the Kekaulike Market for 4 years, and we didn't even know it. I probably would never have found them without Yelp. Thanks Olivia!

Some businesses in Chinatown have a non-favorable reputation of store owners and/or their staff…read morebeing curt to customers. As we know, this is not true to all businesses. Sadly, this one lives up to that reputation. Located on the corner of N Hotel St and Kekaulike St., B Y Grocery (BYG) is a store that specializes in Chinese dried and canned goods with a small selection of fresh produce. Compared to its competitors, BYG is definitely a small family business operated by mother, father and son. I pass by BYG every weekend when I do my grocery shopping in Chinatown. I classify them as my "last resort" category due to the rudeness extended to me multiple occasions by the elderly lady. I have only purchased fresh produce when my go-to places didn't have what I needed. Once, I needed fresh lotus root to make soup and my go-to places were either sold out or had sub-par quality. I ended up finding some nice ones at BYG, but only to be barked at while selecting. The lady would yell at me "Don't break it up!" as I put some on the side. Just recently, I was getting my weekly fix of apple bananas and surprisingly my go-to places were sold out. I did come across some hybrid apple bananas but they were the "slimy" version where I'm not a fan of. Some history of my experience of "slimy" apple bananas - - I was given some keiki apple banana trees to grow in my yard. When they fruited, I noticed this white film on the banana exterior. When I ate them, I immediately noticed the slimy texture, which I don't care for. I ended up cutting those banana trees down. I was advised these are Thai bananas. Back to BYG - they had some nice apple bananas that day but no pricing. I asked the elderly lady and she gave me a non-friendly look and replied $1.69/lb. I ended up buying a bunch and asked for a cash receipt. She gave me my change but no receipt so I stood there and waited. When I asked once again for a receipt, she barked "Didn't I give you one?" I replied "No." so she tore it off from the register and handed it to me. Why would I ask for a receipt if she had already given me one? ***crickets chirping*** You see, when you are treated poorly the consumer will most likely take their business elsewhere. With such subpar experiences at BYG, they solidify their spot in my "last resort" category to shop in Chinatown.

I am so happy I entered this store! The guy that works here is super nice and helpful!…read more I've been on the hunt for pure chinese black vinegar, not the diluted one. I'm so glad i found it here, and then some. They have everything i need here for my recipes. The place is clean and doesn't stink. Products are properly arranged and labeled.

Fresh fish, crab, shrimp (with and without heads), etc. in Honolulu, Hawaii…read more.. Located at The Marketplace in City Square, Marivic's Fresh Seafood was an educational opportunity for my friend who was visiting from California. I like this enclosed Farmer's Market because it has free shared parking, good lighting, level aisles, convenient restroom, and air conditioning! Marivic's is one of the many vendors at The Marketplace. All of the items were clearly labeled with prices. I was a bit thrown off when one of the workers was using her bare hand to rearrange the crabs that were on the ice. I guess people will wash their seafood before consuming anyway? Everything looked good!