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Cafe Oriente - CLOSED
Category: Restaurants Chinese Chinese [Edit]
1157 Maunakea StHonolulu, HI 96817
Neighborhood: Chinatown
(808) 599-5262
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch
- Alcohol:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
12 reviews for Cafe Oriente
Review Highlights
-
"My fave dish here was the Hainanese Chicken Rice." In 3 reviews -
"The chow funn with black bean sauce (chicken or beef) is..." In 2 reviews -
"...inexpensive, clean place for authentic Hong Kong style food." In 4 reviews
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12 reviews in English
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Review from stephen p.
Los Angeles, CA
10/10/2009
Since Spam is part of Hawaii's culinary legacy I guess Drew H. would pile straight into mimicking Panda Express's menu. But his loss is everyone else's gain since he didn't reach the best of the best at Cafe Oriente....the Hainanese chicken speciality!
My Dad spotted a 10% discount coupon in the Chinese tourist booklet as we arrived at Honolulu airport. "Bless him," i thought, but there's no way I'm going to a tourist trap place! Little did I know it would pan out - Yelpers rated this place highly and they didn't even have the 10% discount coupon my Dad just copped.
Go eat here. Get the Hainanese chicken and lots of rice to accompany it. Get a plate of seasonal veg and you'll have a pukka Chinese meal. -
Review from Scott K.
1/29/2010
The only place in Hawaii that I can have Hainan Chicken. Its not like the Hainan Chicken that I love in Los Angeles but it comes pretty close. Savoy Kitchen makes it alittle better with alittle more flavor.
Since Cafe Oriente is the only place in Hawaii, that makes it, I guess I cant complain. Its alot cheaper to eat here then to fly to LA just to satisfy my craving. -
Review from John K.
Lomita, CA
7/2/2009 2 photos
This is definitely a downtown restaurant. The outside veneer fits right in among its Chinatown neighbors--very urban and hole-in-the-wall. Inside, however (though still somewhat shabby), is clean, surprisingly spacious and the atmosphere is inviting.
I stopped by for a quick dinner before a show at the nearby Hawaii Theatre, so I only had time to try a couple of dishes, but the food (Salt-and-Pepper Tofu and Clams with Black Bean Sauce; see photo) and the experience was very good. The flavors were distinct and deliciously home-cooked.
The rest of the menu (as hinted at by the all-Chinese diners around me) seemed quite authentic. I haven't been to China yet, but I imagine it's not the overly-sweetened and needlessly-oily homogenized version that we've grown accustomed to with Chinese take-out. I only saw one dish I recognized on the menu: Kung Pao Chicken. I was relieved by that and promptly avoided it. -
Review from jocelyn l.
San Francisco, CA
1/18/2010
My fave dish here was the Hainanese Chicken Rice
The rice was authentic, the chicken was silky, smooth and tasty and the soup was pretty close to the 'real thing'. The cheap prices were a plus too -
Review from Gene K.
Honolulu, HI
3/5/2009
The place was pretty good. We were actually looking for a ghetto Chinese (American-Chinese) restaurant for once. Should have known that in Chinatown, it'd be pretty authentic. The place looks so run down and dirty when we walked up to it, but when we got inside, it was so clean!
Based on the reviews, we got the Haianese Chicken. It is really good. Love the hot sauce, and we got a 2nd little bowl of it. The other little bowl that it comes with is ginger-garlic and oil. Now, I HATE ginger. I had a VERY bad experience when I was in middle school. But this sauce in combination with the hot sauce is so good!
We also got the ma po tofu. This has large chunks of meat (pork?) in it. Wifey likes it better when the ma po tofu has ground meat in it. But I really love it this way. When you get a chunk of meat and you bite into it, the texture is wonderful and the flavor is so good.
Another dish we got was the Singapore Noodles. It's as good as others I've had, but it also had what looked like char siu in it. Yummy!
This place is good, but if I want real Chinese food, I prefer another place in Chinatown. -
Review from Drew H.
Kaneohe, HI
9/5/2009
We were at first Friday and every one of our usual restaurants were packed so we kinda wandered into Cafe Oriente.
We walked in here with super low expectations and got blown away. The menu is super sketchy, it had toad and literally 200 random items on it. So we said screw the menu and just started shouting out stuff we wanted made...
....the waitress kept bringing out plate after plate of delicious food, that we slammed family style.
We had mandarin beef, crispy beef noodles, kung pao chicken, chicken fried rice, crispy wontons... and hot and sour soup.
Its also BYOB which is very cool.. there's a packy next door you can pick up a couple sixers to enjoy with your meal. -
Review from Cynthia A.
Walnut Creek, CA
2/17/2007 3 photos
A special treat when there's a lion in the place, well lion dancers, anyway. :) That was fun.
Cafe Oriente serves the "usual" chinese stuff (some I tried, listed below) as well as dishes like small intestine and frog legs. Mmmmm...
Mapo tofu: good; adequately spicy, cute presentation in little pot, interesting because the sauce was the most liquid that I've experienced with this type of dish, with less pork than I'm used to.
Schezuan eggplant: very good; great flavor, with thin slices of pork.
Minute chicken cake noodle: very good; crispy noodles served with garlic minute chicken pieces and choi sum.
Crispy chicken: yummy with crispy skin (isn't it weird how sometimes crispy chicken is not served very crispy?!); served with a little dish of salt to dip it in.
Service: SLOW, but it was the Chinese New Year celebration and there were crowds of people trying to get in...
My friends' mom likes to come here for the won ton mein. -
Review from Jaynie K.
Aiea, HI
11/19/2008
Hainanese Chicken Rice. Seriously, what else does a girl need?
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Review from Norm G.
8/6/2007 1 photo
An excellent, fairly inexpensive, clean place for authentic Hong Kong style food. The chow funn with black bean sauce (chicken or beef) is quite good. The gai (chicken) jook is tasty. Their greens, such as ong choi and gai lan with salty fish are satisfying. Sometimes I like to come here for a nice bowl of won ton mien for lunch. The won ton is good and fresh...not like the won ton with thick wrappers that so many local-style restaurants have. I have a basic rule of thumb when looking for good Chinese restaurants. Very politically incorrect, but when I see mostly Euro-Americans (like me) in the restaurants and no Chinese, I turn around and continue my search!
Listed in: Top Restaurants
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Review from carol l.
11/19/2007
Hainanese chicken rice is a fav of mine.. Most flavorful served with Jasmine rice! It comes with sauce on the side to accompany the tender Chinese. As another reviewer mentioned, there are alot of Chinese people dining her ..And I'm one of them :)
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Review from Alice M.
Mililani, HI
5/2/2008
Love this place, only thing there is no parking so you have to park where hopefully you wont get towed or ticketed. My parent's always bring us here for dinner. So good the food and cheap!
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Review from Grimeater A.
Honolulu, HI
5/23/2008
I always order the Hainanese chicken. A 4 star dish until they stopped offering pickled veggies with it. Instead they have replaced it with a couple pieces of choy sum. The pickled veggies meshed so perfectly with the Haianese chicken and sauce. They substitute of choy sum should be a crime. They are no where close in flavors. Good bang for your buck.
