I ordered two boxes each were to consist of four different items. According to their menu, each item was supposed to consist of three pieces. That amounts to each box containing twelve pieces. That is not what I received. One box contained only seven pieces and the other box contained only nine pieces. Additionally, I watched as a worker dropped items on the floor, pick them up and place them in the cart for sale. DO NOT GO THERE. read more

The portions and price may be smaller than a lot of the other dim sum places in Chinatown, but I generally like the service, quality and taste more than most. My usual are the shrimp and chives dumplings, pork hash, fried garlic eggplant, chicken feet (if I'm with someone else who will partake with me), scallop look fun, and egg tarts. (This time however, I forgot to take pics of some of the dim sum). However, I am still disappointed that they discontinued their jellyfish salad. I usually park on the street or in the municipal parking lot located below (parking entrance is on the left side of Beretania, immediately past its intersection with Nuuanu). I also highly recommend the Mei Sum special fried rice. read more

Mei Sum Dim Sum - Shrimp and chives dumpling, fried garlic eggplant, scallop look fun. - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Always great dim sum here!! Quick and friendly service. Compared to couple other dim sum paves I've been, they have the greatest tasting ones thus far!! I always order the deep fried taro!! Bean curd and look fun are another favorite of ours. Parking is scarce on the street but there is a parking lot just across the street for about $7 an hour. read more

Mei Sum Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Best dim sum in Honolulu. Reasonable price Beef tomato crispy noodle is my families favorite read more

Gin dui, Coconut mochi balls! Yummmm! Sam sei meun best in Noodle category. Must taste reasonable delish dim sum.

One of our when-on-Oahu staples. Over the years, we might have tried the whole menu. Love their dried scallop dumplings, siu mai, spinach and shrimp, sesame mochi balls and bbq pork puff pastries. Xiao long bao filling has nice ginger touch but the wrapper itself might get too doughy. Great presentation of Peking duck with skin being plated separately. The garlic chicken wings might be simple but oh so satisfying and I and our German exchange student enjoyed the chicken feet in all of their gelatinous glory. Some vegetable dishes border on being too salty but one can always ask for less sauce. Not all servers speak fluent English but there's always someone within earshot who can translate. Overall, a consistent solid 4. read more

If you've never eaten in here before, I recommend coming on a weekday. You will have better luck with the service especially because the restaurant is not a full house. The service is not amazing and you have to wave your hand in the air to get one of the waitresses to come to your table. They have 2 dim sum carts; one for the steamed items and the 2nd for the desserts. The waitresses don't circle the restaurant with the carts. You'll get the cart at your table a few minutes after you get seated. Order all the things you want to eat because the cart never comes back! The cart stays in the middle of the restaurant until another new group of people come in. If you're lucky, they might refill your ice water but no guarantees. I just stick to drinking the hot tea. If you go on the weekends, be prepared to wait for a table and get yelled at by the waitresses. The restaurant is chaotic during lunch because so many groups/families are eating there and it's close to Chinatown. People come to eat after they finish shopping for produce. The food taste good and the prices are reasonable but they don't have everything on the menu in the carts. It takes about 15 minutes for the kitchen to steam up some of the items. If you plan to get look funn or any other noodle dishes, order them with the waitress right after you sit down. The har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings), beef ball, steam beef look funn, and ham sui gok (deep fried mochi ball) are my personal favorites. For parking, there is a paid lot under the restaurant. You enter on S. Beretania Street. You also have the option of metered parking on the street but the limit is 1 hour. read more

Mei Sum Dim Sum - steamed look funn w/ green onions & chinese parsley - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Food came out really fast, like less then 10 minute fast . Everything was nice and hot, me and my family enjoyed our meal, the service was good. They kept filling our water, took away the plates we were done with. Only 2 things I didn't care for, our shrimp fried rice was soaked in oil, when we got to the bottom of the plate there was at least ¼ cup oil on the bottom of the fried rice plate. And also one thing that rubbed me the wrong way was, as I was paying for the bill the old lady that served us, pointed to the recite & said the 110.00 dollar bill is not included the tip, then she pount at the tip % chart. Their tipping chart starts off at 15% 20% and 25%. I have no problem tipping, I enjoy tipping especially when I get good service like how I did today, I just didn't like how she pointed out the tip chart to me, I'll tip what I feel was deserved and I tip cuase I want to not cuase I have to . Any ways i gave a 16 dollar tip. read more

Mei Sum Dim Sum - My girls first time having dimsum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Answered the Phone told us to hold on and never answered. Conversation continued with customers in the background. Phone stayed off the hook. read more

Sister in law was craving dim sum and so we went. There's paid parking garage across the restaurant but I'm cheap so I looked for a street parking! Lol. We came during lunch on sundays and was pleasantly surprised that it was not busy so we were seated right away. However, we haven't even put down are bags and sat down yet and the workers are already asking us what we want! Like please let us seat down first!! The service was initially quick but quickly changed as soon as we got our food. Every time we want to her more Dim sum we had to flag one of them and again the restaurant wasn't busy when we went. Overall, service need improvement. Onto the food. We had garlic fried chicken - pretty good Shumai - it's alright. Could be better Chicken feet - kind of sweet but very moist and tender Charsiu bun - just like manapua Bean curd - bland, need more flavor Half moon - used plenty shoyu and hot mustard Pork hash - 7/11 was better Custard egg - small but edible Overall, will not comeback here. I've had better dim sum around the area. We just came here because I wanted to try different restaurant. read more

Mei Sum Dim Sum - Variety of dim sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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We we're referred here. I had high hopes. Ambiance is what you'd expect for authentic dim sum. Menus were hard to decode, language barriers made it hard to figure out... ordered a bunch of stuff, not sure of exactly what it was, but it was not tasty treats. Even the simplest charsui in bun was ahhhhh ok. If you speak the language you may fare better. read more

If you're ever in downtown and crave for dim sum this is a go to place. A Chinese restaurant that serves dim sums is always a plus. They have so many choices. The fried seaweed was my favorite. Crunchy on the outside and soft and flavorful on the inside. Service was also really good. Water was always filled and they came to heck on us often. Parking is difficult. There is a parking underground right behind the restaurant. There's also a parking lot in front of it but it's expensive. I think it was $7 flat rate. read more

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Delicious food. They need to get real saimin spoons. I had tablespoon with my soup and there was crusted food on it. The dim sum was exceptional and I will be back. read more

Mei Sum is known for their dim sum, though I usually end up visiting in the afternoon or evening (not prime time for dim sum). My favorite order isn't exactly on the menu - I order dry beef chow fun with chow sum & garlic (it usually comes with green bell peppers, onions & black beans). It's delicious! The dim sum is also good - I also had a large char siu bao (BBQ pork bun) that was warm & tasty! Mei Sum does get busy at times, so you really do need to make yourself visible to make sure you get service. One time I came in when they were packed & grabbed the table in the right rear of the restaurant, near one opening to the kitchen. I sat there for 15-20 minutes before anyone checked on me - it was fine, I wasn't in any hurry. They assumed I was waiting for a takeout order, since I was sitting where folks sit to wait for their to-go orders! ;) They were so sorry & treated me like a prince after that - even chatting with me in Cantonese for a short while, which was a fun & brief conversation because I only know food & swear words in Cantonese! ;) Mei Sum is one of my go-to places for comfort food & a little slice of home. read more

Mei Sum Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Wow. This morning's dim sum experience deserved zero stars. It was the most unpleasant dine in experience I've ever had. Take your money elsewhere. It was our first time there so we walk in and waited for someone to assist us; as we know, every business adjusted their way of running things due to covid restrictions. Anyway, so we walk in, wait. We see the sign in clip board so we figure go and sign in. A lady serving water yelled "fo two? Ova hea!" So we went to the table she put the plates on. After serving us water she said "move hea social distance!" ... We took our plates and water and moved to where she pointed as soon as we sit, she goes and takes our order only to cut us off and move us again. This time I tell her where I wanna sit which was a few tables over because I wasn't gonna have her move us again. Anyway, so she finally takes our order. We get part of our order. Meanwhile a party of 20 ppl walks in causing the our waitress to get flustered which then caused every other worker there to panic as well. She started to yell at another worker and was pacing back and forth. At this point it was awkward to say we were ready to place another order (still waiting on our look fun from the first order; our waters not refilled) .... She didn't sound too happy to take our order but did anyway, placed our second order and told us we'd have to wait 15 minutes for the Shanghai dumpling, after already waiting for the look fun my other half decided to wait another 15 for the dumpling. A second waitress comes to our table, grabs our menus, and walks away; passing by again saying "you no need look menu anymore" and walks off with the menus. A few minutes later, another waitress started yelling and pounding on a steel cart arguing with another worker who brought out more food. I mean I could not believe what was going on. Like we're they seriously yelling at each other in front of customers? The look fun eventually made its way to the table, but after 20 minutes of waiting for Shanghai dumpling; the rude waitress came back and said it was not going to be ready. At this point my other half cancelled the order and asked for the check. After paying and signing the rude waitress said "no tip include" to which my other half replied "yes I know." She then starts speaking Chinese to the other rude waitress and she too then said "no tip" to which my other half, again, replied "yes I know!" The rude waitress threw her hands up upset. How do you demand a tip after service like that? I mean how do you even demand a tip period? Yikes. I'm sorry if anyone has a diff opinion, but tips are based on our experience, how we feel THEY did. If you're going to acknowledge us by yelling, move us around three times because you're not organized, not refill our waters, take the menus while we were still working on it, have us wait 40 mins for two different dishes only to receive one of them, get flustered and take it out on us, then don't expect any tip. (There was literally only one other (2 person) party before us and before the party of 20 walked in.) I don't understand how they can be so confused as to why they didn't get any or how they feel they're entitled any. We won't be back. The dim sum was not worth the experience. read more

Mei Sum Dim Sum - Received this message after posting my review. Just thought I'd share and give them the attention they crave. - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Very standard dim sum. I think it was simply an off slow day for them because the food was on the more... room temp/cold side which is atypical. If things were fresh, I'd probably give this a 4-5 rating. Just wasn't the case the day I visited. read more

Mei Sum Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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I have been craving dim sum for months and finally decided to make the drive to Chinatown. Since I live in Mililani I don't usually like to drive to town or dine at places that require me to find street parking or a parking garage. I'd much rather dine at a restaurant that has their own parking lot or valet. Anyway, this restaurant was suggested so I decided to give it a try. We got to the restaurant around 10am on a Saturday and were seated quickly. We were also able to start ordering right away. The service was fast and efficient. We ordered the won ton soup with noodles, shrimp dumplings, shrimp pork hash, spinach & scallop dumplings, shrimp and chives dumplings, mochi rice balls, look fun, and the taro puffs. The dishes were all pretty good. My favorites were the look fun and shrimp dumplings! The won ton soup needed more flavor. read more

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Service is so bad base on my experience. On a Monday afternoon ( lunch time ) we decided to try this place. So we checked in and the lady told us to sit on the corner, 4 people so we we sat down and wait, and wait nobody came to us to ask or help us. And so maybe like 5-10 mins a group of 4 people too have been helped, water and stuff and they're order came in and we didn't get help still. To cut the story short, we walked out already and called the place asked fora manager or the owner to talk to about our experience but the lady that i talked to was rude, and yelled at me on the phone that saying those people ordered first before us well basically they helped them first, even if we came first before them for like 5-10mins. I will never ever recommend this place. Worst experience ever! Put one star cuz coudnt post without giving a star but its a 0 star for me! ‍ read more

This place has been here for a while, not sure if it has changed names but I remember coming to the location when my po-po worked here. They can be busy or slow, hit or miss. This is one of the places i see other ethnicity come in to enjoy where most places in chinatown I only seen chinese diners. Came here a few times and I liked the signature dim sums like siu mai, chicken feet, spinach scallop dumpling, lo bak go (pan fried turnip cake). They have soft shell crab and fried garlic eggplant which is very yummy. Parking is either street or the municipal. They are located on nuuanu facing marks garage parking lot. read more

Hands down, best dim sum in Chinatown, if not Honolulu. This tiny place is right next to the post office and without the big sign you could totally miss it. I tried most of the dim sum items on the menu and I have to admit that my Cantonese palate was delighted. The food is close to what I can get in Hong Kong or Guang Zhou. This review is only for the dim sum I haven't tried their noodles nor rice dishes but I bet they are delicious. read more

Lots of street parking, or you can park in one of the municipal lots. Their prices are just as great as the taste of their dim sum! They serve dim sum from opening to close, so you can get your dim sum fix at any time of the day. They also make other traditional Chinese dishes. This is my favorite dim sum restaurant in Hawaii! read more

I have been here about a dozen times, and I only really get a few things from them. 1. Shumai 2. Red bean sesame balls. Just these two will keep me coming back for more. They make everything to order which is a little different than traditional dimsum. But I like it because it's always fresh. The sesame balls is piping hot and fresh and it's delicious. While this place doesn't have all the bells and whistles, it definitely is a tried and true place for dimsum. I'd recommend people to come here and give it a try. It's a little "hold in the wall" atmosphere so don't expect anything fancy. But their dimsum is fresh and tasty. read more

We spent a week in Oahu and just had to get dim sum in. This place was recommended by a friend as his favorite place. It was the second place we tried, and we made a return trip as well! It's not a tourist spot, but rather where locals go. They've got all day dim sum! They serve from traditional carts during then brunch hours, after that it's all made to order. It won't come out all together as it's all got different cooking times and it's really not made until you order. Everything is fresh and hot. It was so wonderful to have freshly made pockets of happiness arrive at the table in steaming hot bamboo steamers. I was the only one to enjoy the har gow...and it was divine. The wrapper was melt in your mouth good, had the perfect chew, and was stuffed full of almost sweet shrimp. Not a one bite dumpling for sure! Siu mai were so good...we had to make repeat orders. The kids love them, we love them, and they have a very good recipe. It was the perfect blend of pork and shrimp, maybe a bit of scallion ground up? The wrapper again was so tender yet held together when bot in half. And baos are, to the family, the first bite by which a restaurant may be judged. They all decided Mei Sum is a hit. The char siu was different than others we've had. Maybe it's the island touch, whatever it is we loved it. I can't quite place what makes its different, but I kept eating to try to identify (or I used that as an excuse to have another). We had both the steamed and baked versions. I preferred the baked as it's less bun. The hubby preferred the steamed because of the steamed bun. Both are filled with the same deliciousness. There were many other dishes worthy of comment, and defiantly worth ordering. The ladies taking our orders were always helpful and had suggestions of things we might like. Maybe not warm and fuzzy, but certainly helpful and appreciative of our presence. We'll be back our next visit to Oahu. read more

It was ok. It was fair busy when we friday night. I had beef and broccoli. It wasn't too impressive to be honest. the sauce was awfully gelatinous and tthe cuts of beef weren't great. My wife's seafood pan fried noodles looked good though. But it was alright in my book. I wanted wonton soup but they only had mixed shrimp and pork wontons and shrimp doesn't agree with me. Felt a bit rushed looking at the menu too. But I'm gonna have to say I had better but it was open late and close to where I was going, which was first friday in Chinatown. read more

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Very good and decent pricing. Dim sum all day so u don't have to worry abt them running out. Soup dumplings made to order and very good so order them when you get there. Good service and ambiance. read more

Good dim sum. Limited in variety compared to other places, but still good. Big takeout business. Lots of older Chinese people in the dining room. Usually a good sign in Honolulu. read more

Came in for dinner around 5pm - perfect time, no crowd. The place was empty. Tried a few dishes and everything was tasty! Everything from shrimp dumpling to stuffed deep fried taro to the chicken feet! All were so good! The fried rice with salted fish and chicken was also tasty. I thought it was gonna be too salty - but nope, just right. The chicken feet tasted like chicken... Haha! Tip on eating it? Suck off the skin, they fall right off! The waitress kept my glass over water full - always a plus! The only thing that kept me from giving this place 5* was that annoying fly hovering over the table... read more

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Was very skeptical at first, but let me start out and say that this may be some of the best authentic Chinese food I've had. Service was fast and friendly. Priced reasonably. The place was a little dirty. Ambiance was like the hole in the wall it was, but that's what you're looking for when you want some solid dim sum in Chinatown! read more

A nice family owned Dim Sum shop. Food was great and very reasonably priced. The Sweet Red Bean Buns were by far my favorite item on the menu, and I will be returning soon to try them and a few other items. The staff was friendly but pretty visibly stressed. The restaurant has plenty of space and seating but is a little cluttered with restaurant supplies in the front. If you don't really care about ambiance and just want authentic dim sum for a great price, this is the place to go read more

The dim sum here is pretty good. Service is great and quick. You can really get in and out of here fast. So if you work downtown and only have 1 hour for lunch, this is the spot! The shumai, mochi rice, and seafood dumplings were my favorite. It was cooked well, not overcooked. This is a solid place to get lunch. read more

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my go to spot in hawaii. Dimsum is always always consistently good. The cost is fair and I'm glad to see they are still here during and after this pandemic crisis. Glad to see others agree. I love their an choy and har gow. Can't go wrong with this place. read more

This place has the best best best dim sum on the island! Best items: deep fried Taro dim sum, chicken feet, baked custard buns, pork hash, bean curd dim sum It has become my family's tradition to come here on Sunday mornings! Line and wait isn't too long unless it's around Chinese New Year There is about 20 tables ranging in size for families and singles They also have menu ordering but when we go here it isn't as popular. They do have a fried cart, a menu cart and of course 2 dim sum carts. The best thing about this place is they make some of the items like: deep fried wings, gin dui, taro dim sum made to order bc some of these things are best made to order! Sooo delicious when it is pipping hot! Sooo delicious. Super affordable! Would recommend this place besides the street parking situation. read more

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Came here for dim sum on a Saturday afternoon. Scored street parking right in front of the entrance. The outside is nicely designed and welcoming, while the inside is very modest, just a simple open space with round cafeteria-like tables. We were seated right away by friendly staff, well over 6 feet away from the next table. Ordered about 12 dim sum items which arrived within 10 minutes and were very tasty. The spring rolls were too greasy for me, but still delicious. There was just one bathroom which smelled of cleaning products and felt sanitary. The establishment as a whole felt clean, the service was excellent, and the tab was reasonable. Definitely recommend. read more

The interior of Mei Sum and service isn't much to write about, but when so many dim sum restaurants are buying their product frozen and just heating it up, the flavors at Mei Sum are at least generally better than the rest. Everyone has their "usual" order. Mine include chicken feet, taro puff, mochi rice in the lotus leaf, shrimp look funn, and the spinach-scallop. I would also suggest paying attention to what's coming out of the kitchen as that will be the freshest, and if you like soft shell crab, Mei Sum's version is loaded with fried garlic bits and worth trying. read more

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Got lunch with some friends and everything was so fresh and delicious. Everything was made to order, relatively quick. Definitely enjoyed the taste of the food rather than just oil and msg like other restaurants. The only thing I wish was for better water service, but they were very busy. I recommend going around 10/1030 if you are looking to eat there. read more

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Mei Sum dim sum restaurant has been around in Honolulu for a number of years...in fact, they were originally located at the corner of Pauahi and Smith Streets (Good Fortune is now there). They moved to this current address several years and have been seeing a lot more success. We've dined at Mei Sum in previous years but haven't been consistent or regulars because there have been so many other options. During one of our mid-morning walks about downtown Honolulu, we dipped into this restaurant. It was clean and quiet (I guess we missed the breakfast crowd and was just about 10:30AM). There was another couple already dining when we entered and even they greeted us. A server immediately seated us with menus and brought us iced water and a pot of hot tea. As we perused the pictorial menu (no cart service at the time) we settled on our dim sum "standards" such as siu mai (steamed pork dumplings, har gow (crystal shrimp dumplings), deep fried taro puffs (wu gok) and pan-fried fishcake with corn. We also ordered a plate of boneless chicken with choy sum on crispy pan fried noodles. All of the dim sum was delicious, served steaming hot, texturally pleasing and portioned well. The crystal wrappers were nice and even, translucent and even were light (not gummy/rubbery) when bit into. We used the typical condiments of chili paste and hot yellow mustard sparingly to not overwhelm the dim sum. The noodle dish was generously portioned and the noodles maintained its crispness even though there a gravy or sauce over it. We, however, found the choy sum to be a bit tough so we ate most of the leaves. As we were finishing our meal, more customers arrived so the servers started to wheel out steamer carts and went table to table. Shucks, we were there a wee bit too early. We'd gladly return for more and found this restaurant to have dim sum that we enjoyed as well as having fast and friendly service. By the way, Mei Sum is loosely translated as "beautiful heart". read more

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The service is excellent; the owner would come by our table bringing a tray of choices! The new item, Snow Ball Cap Taro Bun is a Winner! Be sure to have this as a dessert delicious & healthy filling of taro!!! I'm already waiting to have another dim sum brunch @ Mei Sum read more

2/11/2023 This is one of my best dining experiences in a Chinese restaurant. I always got stressed with the carts of dim sum because you are rushed to order, the wait for the cart to come, don't know the price of the dimsum, and I only speak English so hard for me to communicate. This place made those frustrations disappear. The picture menus made it easy, dim sum came out in 5 minutes. Waitresses continually checked on us to see if we were okay. And omg, they came around at the end promoting their just made egg custard. Wonderful relaxing experience. Food was good. Just a note for myself that bean curd roll is not to my tastes. read more

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Not a fancy chop suey restaurant but the food is delicious and fairly priced. We've tried their dim sum including their xiao long bao, garlic fried soft shell crab, char siu bao, siu mai and shrimp look fun. Our friend recommended dry beef look fun and we were not disappointed. Waitresses are hustling and for most part friendly. We tried their take out menu of custard buns and egg custards which are also delicious. Parking entrance from Beretania street municipal parking. We prefer to park here because of covered (underground) parking and onsite attendant. read more

It is a convenient walk from downtown and I was meeting a colleague for lunch. Had not been in a while (years), but ordered a few things to share from the dim sum menu. We ordered half moon, ham sui gok, chicken feet, chewing fan...everything was okay. Not fantastic, not especially hot, just okay. If you are in a pinch, give it a try. To be fair this could have been just an off day. read more