The food was cooked with roaches! My son split opened his char siu bao (steamed) and out fell a whole body roach! My son also saw live roaches crawling around the restaurant. Near the table and by the door opening where they cook the food. The owner was there and didn't even say sorry at all or even acknowledge the situation. She ignored us until I had a problem with paying because I honestly didn't want to even pay for our disgusting experience there! The server was nice and tried to give us other things For free but when food has roaches in it, you don't want anything from there AT ALL!!! Honestly I should have a made a big scene but they were lucky me and my son just wanted to get out of there! That place is dirty and don't care for keeping up with its cleansiness or anything for the sake of their customers! They should be shut down. read more

Went in just before the lunch rush on a weekend, service was quick & polite, portions are great size for the price, the carrot mochi with custard on the inside was the BOMB read more

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Located in the Chinese Cultural center in Chinatown, on the ground floor on the Ewa side of the Chinese Cultural center. They do a different style of dim sum, like the steamed chicken feet has a more tomato type of sauce with peanuts it was ok, a little different then what we had at other places. The pork hash was very large and flavorful with a great taste, worth ordering. The Beef Chow fun was also very good and very tasty and flavorful and it was not dried out, but moist and the beef was very tender. The Char Siu Bao was good just the right amount of bun to char siu was just right and tasty, they also carry baked Char siu bao. They changed the parking now they do not validate your parking now, so first 30 mins is free then a fraction after that is a $1.00 then 1 / 2 hours is $3.00, so we paid $4.00 for parking. Restroom are outside and you will need a restroom key from the business you are visiting to use. read more

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Parents visiting from NY and wanna try the dim sum here. My top 2 choices were closed at that time so I was like let's try Tai Pan it couldn't be that bad right? Well like my fellow yelper Andy F said in his review. Food here is hit or miss but mostly miss. I couldn't agree more. Miss: fun gor (skin too thick and it had a weird smell), steamed shrimp dumpling (again skin too think), seafood siu mai (where's the seafood?) Hit: fried dough or yao zha gui (very crispy! Not greasy at all), jook (rice was cooked very thoroughly and very soft) Ok: chicken feet, egg tarts. They are ok not terrible but not really tasty neither. Besides the food, service was another reason I gave 3 stars. The man at the counter (I assumed he's the boss?!) was screaming at his staff all the time and it was quite disturbing. And he took his mask off most the time when we were there. Another red flag for me. They have validated parking at cultural center though. read more

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I'm gonna keep this review short. As of Jan 2023, supposedly restaurant has new owners. Anyway, Food was great. I am yet to come back and would like to try the other things on the menu. But whatever I did try they were all good. Also, by far the best shrimp fried rice I've had for a while. Service could be better, but not saying that it was bad. Understandable because they were very busy. It felt tight/crowded because tables were close to each other, but given how popular n busy the place gets because of the ono food I guess it doesn't bother others. --- Went again to try other things. Food was good. It wasn't as busy as the weekend and it was close to closing time. Service still could be better. But it never really bothered me as long as our orders came out correct. But maybe the associates should have the same service energy. I felt 1 particular associate was something else lol I felt that associate was rude from the beginning. Like we were u wanted and rushed. Or maybe it's because after we were finished that associate asked us to put a tip on receipt. We paid with card n we usually leave cash tips if we don't add tip on card. Anyway, After signing receipt for payment the associate asked for a tip. Who asks for a tip?!? Mind u we weren't a big party. (2adults, 2 kids ages 4 & 5, and 1 infant) I understand if tip was already included for a big party, but we weren't a big one. My husband thought it was rude and was debating to take back the cash he left on table. Haha I of course told him to leave it. I still would come back for the food tho haha read more

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It's hard to believe that the Yelp average for Tai Pan is 3.2. The food is excellent--some of the best dim sum I've had, and freshly prepared to boot, which is a rarity these days. The only thing I wouldn't necessarily recommend are the siu mai. They're good, and very large, but they're pretty standard--not a standout. That's the worst thing I have to say about this place, though. The BBQ pork buns are fantastic: fluffy, not heavy, with well seasoned, juicy pork. The turnip cake is the best I've had anywhere, full of chunks of turnip and just enough preserved vegetable to give it a kick. The shrimp look fun (noodle roll) was wonderfully fresh, with a flavorful sauce and just the right amount of cilantro to give the flavor a boost. For something sweet, the custard buns are fantastic. Not too sweet, creamy, with perfectly steamed dough. The walnut buns are amazing! A rich, flavorful, and crunch walnut filling inside delicious bread--really authentic and unique, and not something you find on many menus these days! As for the folks who complain about the service, well, I have two thoughts. At worst, these comments are kind of racist and culturally insensitive. You have to know how dim sum restaurants work to enjoy them, sure, but don't blame the staff! The noisy, bustling vibe is part of the experience. Don't expect to be "waited on." Just figure out what you want, call auntie over, and enjoy! It's well worth it. read more

We had a morning brunch with a friend in Honolulu, we mutally agreed Tai Pan Dimsum was the best dimsum in Chinatown. Nestled in the Chinese Cultural Plaza, there is parking available for out-of towners driving rental cars. Most locals either walk or take the metro bus there. There's a good variety of dimsum for every taste. And it's not a noisy place, so you can actually carry a conversation. The wait staff are friendly and can describe some of the food. Their English has improved greatly over the years. The menu covers all the items several times with accurate descriptions and pictures. This is one of our go-to spots whenever we're on the island of Oahu. VIDEO: https://youtu.be/jyANpcq9LvE?si=s4-Hji0WPaMF2tPU read more

Ok soooooo egg tart was ammmmmaaazzzing! Crust was flaky & sweet. Pork hash was thee best! Maybe just the customer service can be worked on but everything was yummy! read more

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Good service - fast on food, water always filled, tea hot Made reservations prior but it didn't matter - they didn't check read more

The food has always been fresh there. The restaurant is under new ownership/mgmt now so I haven't been since then so I'll see how it is and update my review. It can be difficult to get a table during lunch and you may have to share a table with others but if you don't mind a non-quiet ambience the food is good. read more

Tai Pan is a small dim sum restaurant located in a corner of the Chinatown Cultural Plaza. They serve at least 40 types of dim sum. Being Chinese, I think they have the most authentic and reasonable priced dim sum in town. Although they speacialize in take outs, (judging by the line by the take out table) they do offer dine in experience. I would say it's more like an eatery more than your usual Chinese restaurant. I like that the service is really fast-paced too. You will see the servers clean out the tables very quickly after the customers leave. They also serve food pretty quickly. Our family has been patronizing this place for a long time. The quality food, the service speed, and friendly servers haven't disappointed yet. read more

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Review based on take-out Tai Pan is tucked away inside the Chinese Cultural Plaza. Parking is easy, since they have their own deck. Ordering was also very easy over the phone and the order was ready pretty quickly! I usually don't rate service for takeout experiences, but the ladies there was so sweet! Everything was packaged super well, and they made sure we had enough different dipping sauces based on what we ordered-- very important! The shumai was delicious, and the deep fried carrot mochi (egg custard filled) were as yummy as they were cute! A few others we enjoyed were the shrimp look fun roll and the steamed charsiu buns. I normally love taro puffs, but these were a tad underfried for me. I'd definitely order them again, though, because the filling was still super yum! I'll just ask for them well-done next time. Wait, can you even do that? Anywho, the prices are reasonable and the quality was there. Can't wait to go again for our next dim sum fix! read more

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Love the chicken feet! Good selection. Easy parking in the cultural plaza. Never had a bad experience. read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Fried turnip, chicken feet and egg custard. - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Love here! all menu so ono especialy, posk hash, egg tart amazing house Porridge so taysty read more

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Been a long time since I've been here. The food is always good. It can be crowded during lunch time. The staff are friendly. The atmosphere is the usual small dim sum restaurant. Overall recommended if you like a variety of good dim sum. read more

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Went for an early lunch on a Saturday morning. Got there around 1030. Place was about 75% full. We didn't try a lot but got the pork hash, shrimp dumpling, mochi meat gok, half moon, and turnip cake. Loved the meat gok #1 and turnip cake #2. Gotta go back hungry and try some of the other stuff soon. Aunty that was serving us was on point. Didn't write anything down and brought what we ordered really fast. read more

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Only commenting on turnip cake. It was very starchy. It used to be better. It is a very popular restaurant and it was crowded when I went.

Great Dim Sum place. Food was delicious. I like the beef lok fun, chicken feet, and the radish cake. The server came by to make sure our tea pot was filled often. The place was not too busy on a saturday lunch time. read more

Wanted to try them out after new ownership and new menu. But service is not good, only one waitress with short hair and glass has good service (would take order, bring order and refill tea pot), other servers wouldn't even stop by. Especially one older waitress who used to be the owner of the restaurant keep on talking with customer next table to us and won't even bother to stop by and ask if I want to order when I have my hand up in the air for awhile. Food taste alright, not special enough for me to return. The red skin fried shrimp roll was out on the counter so long so is not crisp when it arrive to the table. Is more on the oily side. But egg tart is good though. Overall, I wouldn't be back. read more

I looked at many of the 1-star reviews and it seems the biggest complaint is service. I get it, truly. But I'd rather refer to the service as authentic Chinese restaurant chaos with a side of gentle love and affection. They are working hard and getting the job done. As for the food: it was great for a standard dimsum place. Some items were sold out but the staff offered alternative options. It was a great experience and I'm happy we randomly stopped here. read more

Excellent! One of the best dimsum places I've tried. Ordered the turnip cake, pork bun, egg bun, siomai, look fun, walnut cake, and everything was delicious and freshly made. Service was quick and on point. Will come back for sure. read more

Ok Tai Pan, ok Tai Pan, you're not the most expensive dim sum restaurant in Chinatown, you're just the same as everyone else. It's crazy to think that dim sum was just $2 many years go. Though, I felt like I recently came here, and it was eleven months ago lol! I came here with my grandma. She just came with her friend because she boasted how great the wonton is at Tai Pan, and she possibly had another friend take her! I suppose to have to continue this, and take my wife soon because the wonton was super good! You'll have a hard time finding this on the menu as it's located on the wall, all the way on the left side, on a small, dry-erase whiteboard. It's only $7, and you get TEN big sized wontons filled with tender lumps of shrimp, tasty pieces of pork, and chives and just a scant of cilantro. The soup was nice, clear, and tasty that wasn't too heavy. I recommend it to everyone! We also had the Steamed Beef Balls and the Steamed Pork Spareribs. Both dishes were tender and had excellent taste. Lastly, we had the Dry Beef Chow Funn and added Sour Cabbage. This was stir fried well with nice wok heat. It had good taste, but it was oily, which is typical. The Sour Cabbage helped cut into the heaviness. Overall, I had a pretty good experience, and seeing the prices are the same as everywhere else, I'll definitely consider Tai Pan from now on. The food is good and the service is good too. read more

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Very fast and friendly service. Dim sum and the other dishes were pretty good. Would go back if in the area read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Tai Pan is located at the mauka Ewa corner of the Chinese Cultural plaza and is one of four restaurants there that serve dim sum. Like those other restaurants, the food served is very good but instead of dim sum carts traveling between tables, you order from a menu. Once ordered, the food comes out quick. I mean, REAL quick. The main issue at TaiPan is the table situation. Like some local parking lots where the stalls are smaller than most, they try to get as much people in their small restaurant, so your neighboring table occupant is just over your shoulder. Personal space be damned at this place. So as long as you don't mind being close to people, give TaiPan a try. read more

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Weird!! They will not help you if you walk in to make a take out. They just let you stand there till pieces of your life fall off and you rot away. If there is a system for takeout tell your customers. Sad communication. Hungry me. read more

My wife and I were craving Dim Sum, so we went to the Chinese Cultural Plaza. To our surprise, all of the Dim Sum places that we used to frequent were no longer there, so we ended up at Tai Pan Dim Sum for the first time. When we arrived there was no greeting and no one even cracked a smile. I know when it comes to Dim Sum it's the food that matters and if you get friendly service it's a bonus., but it felt like my visit to China... not the old Hong Kong, but Mainland China where everything just feels a little bit depressing. We ended up ordering a bunch of dishes. Most of which were okay at best although there were a couple of items that were pretty good. We thought the Deep Fried Seaweed Roll was excellent. It was hot, crispy and had good seasoning. The Lotus Wrapped Sticky Rice was also very good. Cooked just right and very flavorful. The shell on the dumplings were a bit too thick for my taste and the ingredients for most of the items seemed overly processed. I tend to like the ingredients in my dumplings more on the chunkier side. Overall I would probably not return to Tai Pan Dim Sum or the Chinese Cultural Plaza for Dim Sum anytime soon. read more

First time trying bbq pork pastry, and i think this is my new favorite!! Flaky thick layered pastry dough surrounds super most char siu. Perfect savory dish that i need to get more of! Menu out front on the tables so you can figure out what you want before the foh ladies help you with your order. Super helpful that the dim sum has pictures Lots of dim sum options as well as regular family style chinese entrees read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Wow this place needs training in customer service. We waited 10 minutes and no one gave us a menu. There were four other customers that came after us and they were given a menu. Some of them had food while we were waiting. I had to flag one of the waitress down to give us the menu. We waited another 10 minutes and no one took our order. One waitress was on her phone. It wasn't busy either. There were many open tables. We left the restaurant afterwards and ate at Legends. Service was better there. read more

Thanks for making this birthday picnic for my friend fabulous!! Ordered beef chow menu, Har Gau, shumai, and crispy carrot to create a birthday picnic. It was so delicious! Such a great celebration. read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Picnic with crispy carrot pork shumai - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Had to update my review because the chef changed the Siu Mai recipe (used to lack taste) and now it's wayyy better. The shrimp dumpling was always good but I didn't care for the Siu Mai before. Now there's a lot of flavor and looking forward to going back. read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Siu Mai - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

I went for Dim Sum at around 2:30 pm. In Chinese Culture Plaza, my favorite Dim Sum restaurant called, " Legend " was closed already. I was so hungry I was looking for Dim Sum, then I found the corner " Tai Pan ", nobody was eating I thought it's closed but sign said, " Open " I went inside. Many months ago I came here the food were cold and wasn't fresh, I didn't want to eat here again, but...I tried again. I ordered, Shrimp Dumplings, Spinach and Scallops Dumplings, Shrimp Look Fun, Turnip and Seafood Rice Soup. Surprisingly everything was fresh and hot, delicious!! I recommended Tai Pan now. read more

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Tai Pan in China Town Culture Plaza is one of our previous frequent dim sum restaurant to go to. Then we found a new spot also in China town that recently closed so here we are back again...ordered 2 noodles dishes and 2 orders of dim sum and are Bill was $40.00 ....wow!!! Dim sum ran from 4.95 - 5.95 per dish...I love chinese and dim sum so I guess we'll be back no matter what the price! read more

Have you ever noticed that when you dine at a Chinese restaurant that the louder your server gets the ruder she is? Saying that the service here is poor is an understatement. We had challenges throughout our meal including trying too seat us in that little pocket on the side when the restaurant was pretty empty. Well, enough of the service now for the food. My measuring stick whenever I try a different dim sum restaurant is the quality of their pork shu mai. The shu mai here is dense and dry, do not order this here. I am used to shu mai that has a rougher ground and is juicier. The black bean spare ribs lacked enough black beans so it was kind of bland. The book tripe was just OK but a little overcooked. My wife's won ton min was also just OK but there wasn't enough broth and the broth needed more flavor. The best bite in our entire lunch was the won tons in the won ton min, really moist and delicious. I won't bother to come back. read more

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If you're not Chinese speaking Cantonese: you'll get old portions, poor service, snobby servers

We have picked up dim sum here before takeout, but this was the first time eating in the restaurant. It was very busy, but we got seated right away. The service was very good and the food was delicious.. We will be back read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Dim Sum with Popo. Gung Hei Fat Choy - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Love it here. Dunno y it's only 3.2 stars. Food is always hot and fresh and they wait staff is always friendly...I mean considering that it's dim sum. I've had sooo much worse service at dim sum places. read more

Despite that the wait for this place could take forever on weekends and the chaos that happens when you are trying to place your name on the waitlist -- the food here is super delicious! No carts so you'll have to order off of the menu but still wouldn't deter us from going. Important tip -- go to the bathroom before coming to this place. It's located in the cultural center so it's shared. The security guard looks sketch already and inside the women's bathroom is gross. read more

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This is my family's go-to dim sum place in Chinatown. Located inside the Chinese Cultural Plaza, parking is not a problem and costs $1 up to an hour with validation. We went for lunch on a Sunday and it was a little crowded, but still had a couple of open tables. We got immediately seated and were given menus with pictures which are super helpful. They have the full menu on the table as well. They don't go around pushing carts so you do have to order from the waitress. We immediately put in our order of pork siu mai, seafood siu mai, baked char siu buns, taro gok, steamed shrimp dumplings, and deep-fried seaweed roll. The food came out fast except for the deep-fried seaweed roll which is expected. Their pork siu mai is delicious! I can eat those all day. The portion is pretty big as well so it definitely fills you up. I also love their taro gok. The pork in the middle is super flavorful! The exterior is crunchy and light and it's one of the best taro gok I ever had. Another favorite of mines is the baked char siu buns. They are pretty generous with the amount of filling and the pork is yummy. The waitresses didn't check on us, but it's fine since the food comes out pretty fast and they will come to you if you flag them down. Overall, the food is yummy, cheap, and it doesn't taste like it's just sitting out for a long time, which I find can be a problem at dim sum restaurants. I'm glad to see them still busy during this time and hope they continue to be in business for a long time! read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Taro Gok, Shrimp Siu Mai, Pork Siu Mai, Baked Char Siu Buns, Seafood Dumplings - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Energetic new owners. Quick, Friendly service. Food taste the same. One of their new items is a deep fried purple taro mochi. Taste great. Not too sweet. 紫樹. Translated to English. Purple tree. read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

This place is always busy in the mornings and you have to go then to be sure to get the dim sum you want. Lots of what they serve you can get at other dim sum places except for my two favorites - the mochi puff "carrot" with custard and the mochi ball with some kind of peanut filling (not peanut butter). The ambiance is a typical Chinese restaurant with lots of tables closely packed in, but this is good if you want to dine in. There's usually a table open or the wait time is short. For take out orders, it's usually pretty quick as they have someone assigned just to help take-out customers. read more