02.18.09
Review of Kapolei Chinese Restaurant, Honolulu, Thursday December 2008
525 Farrington Highway, Kapolei near Honolulu, Hawaii, 808-674-8888
Great for: real Chinese food, consistency, re-energizing after much shopping
Now this is what I’m talking about. It’s a bit out of the way from downtown Honolulu, maybe 15 miles, but so worth it. It’s cheap, it’s delicious, they use pretty high-quality ingredients, plus it’s across from a big shopping mall. My family has been coming here since we started visiting Hawaii every year about ten years ago and it has never once disappointed us. I cannot praise that enough in a restaurant! I completely understand that we can never expect exactly the same dish exactly the same way all the time, but I like a good high baseline, and KCR delivers. They consistently make simple food well.
Their chicken corn soup is the best on the island. The corn is crisp, the meat is real, and they put just enough cornstarch to hold it together without making it gloppy. Even my brother loves it and he is one of the pickiest eaters I’ve ever met, and I’m counting myself. The shrimp fried rice is also great.
The teppanyaki steak with peppers and onions was an improvement on Hee Hing‘s.The sauce was even better and the meat wasn’t stringy. I was very happy it was actually chewable. A lot of times I find restos are lazy when there’s lots of sauce on meat – they put in stuff that is so chewy you just kind of have to swallow it and not think too much. There were also lots of veggies and the dish wasn’t drowning in sauce.
The only sort-of miss was the breaded tofu with shrimp in the middle. It was a little too bready for my taste but I liked the shrimp and the accompanying spicy soy sauce. The calamari tossed with garlic, peppers and scallions was not as rubbery as I feared; actually quite good. I usually won’t eat that dish when my parents order it but I found myself stealing a few bites.
The Singapore mi fun (thin rice noodles) was slightly bland, but fine with the addition of hot sauce. It is supposed to be a spicy dish but we all eat super spicy so that might be a skewed opinion. Plus, there are badly-made dishes that hot sauce doesn’t improve, because they need salt or pepper or whatever, so needing a dab of heat isn’t a large criticism. We also really enjoyed the steamed basa fish with soy sauce and scallions.
My parents say this place is authentic Cantonese-style Chinese food. I love it. We come here every year as many times as we can in our weeklong vacation and my very American little brother and sister, who can get away with whining about eating Chinese food all the time on vacation (hah! when I was little I would have been smacked!), actually love it and ask to come here too. So I feel confident saying that it offers something for everyone. Go! Best non-dim sum Chinese on Oahu!
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Our cost: $80 for 5 people, no drinks
Noise level: quiet mostly
Chance of walking in: pretty good. But it closes at 9pm, so don’t get too sidetracked by the giant mall across the way.
