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- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
19 reviews for Ciao Mein
First of all, EXCELLENT SERVICE, so Kudos to Ciao Mein staff for that.
For the food, my only wish is that there was more "Collision Cuisine" on the menu. As it stands, you either have Chinese or Italian, but not much fusion of both together.
Specifically there's just three items under the Collision Cuisine section: Hot Bean Salmon Alla Siciliana, Seafood Funn Lasagna and Spicy Ginger Garlic Shrimp (shown in a photo I uploaded here).
Dishes we tried recently were Chef Ching's Beef, the Honey Walnut Shrimp and Steamed Tai Snapper with Ginger-:Soy Sauce. All very delicious, yet again, I wish there was at least a bed of pasta underneath it.
For appetizers, we tried the Black Bean Alaskan King Crab Legs, Schezuan Eggplant Shrimp Spring Rolls and Focaccia, which features sauteed Plum Tomatoes, Fresh Oregano and Smoked Mozzarella. The later of which was my favorite. Obviously I was more in the mood for Italian on this occasion.
Speaking of which, the Tiramisu here is awesome. Not so much for the Cannoli which we also tried.
Overall, I highly recommend Ciao Mein for a new twist on Italian and Chinese Cuisine. Hopefully Chef Ching will "collide" more of it together in one dish in the future.
I remember Ciao Mein when it was new, hot. So, 19 years later, I wanted to take my wife there. Not the same. The wait staff is still excellent, but the food has lost it's specialness. Tonight we ordered one of the meals for two (Last Emperor) - everything seemed like it had been prepared in advance and held. Dishes came out lukewarm, under seasoned, over sauced. I miss the innovative Ciao Mein and that fresh creative energy.
We chose this restaurant as our first dinner in Hawaii because we stay in Hyatt. We walked in late right before they close. I never had something as the combination of Italian and Chinese style before I was very curious about how will the food come out to be.
The menu looked alright to me. There are Chinese dish and Italian dish. But I didn't see one dish combined with both two styles. The server recommended Honey Walnut Shrimp and bistecca Di manzo Alle Erbe-Prime Sirloin Beef in olive oil.He said both dishes are the signature dishes of the house. I also ordered Chicken broth with Lobster Wonton Soup.
The soup is terrible. As a Chinese. I ate a lot of Chinese food. And this is even wrose than any of the soup i can had in any Chinese restaurants. The soup is salty and with the MSG taste to it. The Lobster wonton is so tiny that i wonder if they really put any LObSTER there. A small bowel with 3 wontons and chicken broth costed you "9" dollars!!
They the entrees came in . The honey walnut shrimp was so so. Again, typical Chinese dish I can eat in any Chinese restaurant with bigger portion and flavor. There's no Italian flare in it. And it cos ted almost 30 dollars which is unbelievably expensive. last the Beef Sirloin steak. It was not impressive, maybe a bit better than the previous two dishes but definitely not good enough for 33 dollars.
We are very disappointed. I never spent this much money with this poor quality food.
This place was good. I had some second thoughts about eating at a Chinese/Italian restaurant but they got it right. Everything mixed really well and the food was perfect. The service was great and they gave us the big family table. When we go back to Hawaii we will definitely go back to Ciao Mien.
Get the beef carpaccio!
My husband and I ended up here because we had to validate parking. The menu was interesting and everything looked good. The only thing that really made me give this 3 stars is because the server could only recommend 2 entrees on the menu (which is fairly large), and the food took forever to get to our table.
As far as taste, I'd say it was pretty good. My risotto wasn't cooked all the way, so I don't know what else to expect out of the other dishes. Prices are decent too. If you need to validate parking to get around to other places in the area, hit up this spot if you have some time to kill.
What happened to their Tiramisu?????
In Nov. 2006, I was looking for a venue to hold my graduation dinner. My family from New Jersey was flying in so it had to be extra special. I called a few places and came across the Hyatt website. Clicked on "dining" and voila! Ciao Mein appeared and I knew that was the place. The managers were awesome in helping me plan this event! The menu - excellent. There were so many items and it was all you can eat! No buffet. It was a sit down dinner with EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE! For $40/person, all you can eat appetizers, entrees, and dessert was a deal. Everything was delicious!! and to this day, everyone still raves about that night.
The private party menu differs from the dining menu. My husband's cousin was visiting last week and wanted to relive her dining experience at Ciao Mein so we went and the food was of course delicious and the service - outstanding! We ordered the Szechuan eggplant, Petti di Pollo, & Raviolo Aperto. And for dessert, the Marco Polo. All highly recommended!
I looooved this place! The mix of italian AND chinese food?! Brilliant! Their whole tagline is "Finally, the end to the eternal argument...Italian or Chinese". They have their individual Italian and Chinese foods and its "collision foods" as well. Located inside the Hyatt hotel, (and its freezing sometimes so bring a sweater) it was busy and open,not a cramped restaurant, and everyone was very friendly. It is pricey though...
I started with a pasta appetizer ( Pesto Marinara w/ sundried tomatoes) and then shared the stirfried chicken entree and an italian beef entre. The table breadstick assortment is darn good too!
The best part was that our waiter's name was Bruce Lee! Unintentional? I'd like to think so!
This place is interesting. They have 2 menus and chefs, Italian and Chinese as you can see from their name. And they have so-called "collision food" on their menu too!
They invited us for a concierge party and the 2 chefs made Chinese stir-fry with shrimp and green peas and Italian risotto. Both were sooooo good that I wanted some more (LOL).
The restaurant is big enough to have several private rooms.
If you are debating which noodle you wanna eat tonight, pasta or noodle in soup, this is the place.
There must have been some sort of confusion 'cause this was no fusion. It was straight up a Chinese dish or Italian dish. We ordered the 5 course dinner, but we ended up with a 4 course dinner instead 'cause they forgot one of the entrees. We didn't notice until they brought it to our attention and discounted our bill for the missing item. That was okay considering how full we were. The food was A-okay. The waiters were friendly but sorta not on top of it all since one of our dishes were forgotten but remembered later on.
In the Hyatt Regency, and a must try! Looks small when you first walk in, but this place is huge! Fusion restaurants are the new frontier, so try this place.
We made a reservation to make sure we had a table, but there was more then enough room. They asked if we were celebrating a special occasion, and we told them we were celebrating our anniversary.
We had a great meal. I had an award winning chinese shrimp plate, and my bf had the award winning pasta plate...it was great. The appetizers were also good. They had the chinese chili sauce and a green garlic sauce...like nothing I have ever tasted.
The best part was they surprised us with the best set of desserts for our anniversary! So nice. We really appreciated it :)
Oh how I miss you Ciao Mein. I used to work here and learned about the restaurant business through Ciao Mein. The bar staff is probably the most entertaining people around this area. I would suggest sitting at the bar if you want the more casual scene. Mike, Bill and Benton serving up the tropical libations and stimulating conversation (sometimes, nah!). It might go like this: "Ho bra', I like da' kine, one Kona brew." "Fucka', no ack'." "Nah nah, lemme' try one Bud light." "Shoots, for you, 10 dolla." "Burah. you like me jump ovah da couna an give you one flase crack?" "You jump ovah da couna, you wake up in da' Ala Wai, 10 dolla short, cuz." Ah so much love for these guys.
Mr. Lee, the head chef makes some awesome food. I used to take home the Lobster cake noodle on a daily basis. And Rick, the pastry chef is probably the most versatile chef I've ever met. The service, fantiastic. I trained them all! I kid. The only downside is how much it hurts the service and customers when they have a nightclub event after dinner on the weekends. Granted its a great spot, but I dont think that Hyatt customers in their hotel rooms with their children want to hear, "Drop it like its hot" at 1:00 o'clock in the morning. Just something to consider. Ciao!, mein.
NOTE: Frank Sinatra and Stan Getz used to party with Mai Tai here.
By far my favorite restaurant in Honolulu. The servers are sweet and thoughtful. The ambiance would be great for a date. I ordered an eggplant dish and their risotto which was a weird combo, but damn I was happy for two days because I even had leftovers. I also had a coffee dessert and bought one of their ciao mein mugs. That's how much I liked this place!
You've got to admit, it's a pretty clever name for a restaurant serving both Italian and Chinese cuisine. It's not an attempt at fusing the two in the preparation of dishes, just an opportunity to order focaccia and fried rice at the same meal. As befitting the Hyatt Regency in which it's located, the room is elegant, and the prices are on the high side. However, if you're looking for a break from grilled mahi mahi and Hawaiian luau-type fare, you can't go wrong with salmon served in parchment, sweet and sour fish, fiery Szechuan eggplant, honey walnut shrimp, and spicy penne with homemade Italian sausage and bell peppers. Homemade bread sticks come with an outrageous pesto or a garlicky Asian chili sauce for dipping, although the latter clashes somewhat with the cheese-flavored dough. The extensive wine list is heavy with Italian options, but which goes best with mu shu pork remains to be seen. At dessert, East finally meets West with the Marco Polo, a melange of neapolitan spumoni, espresso ice cream, lychee sorbet, and white chocolate-ginger ice cream. Go ahead and indulge, you can always hula it off later.
"OK/ good; but expensive. there're plenty of better places for fusion food"
Ick am I the only one who hated this place? I was in Hawaii back in March and I knew that we wouldn't have much luck finding vegetarian options, but Ciao Mein came up in the search boasting its best voted eggplant. So we went, with high hopes, and were horribly let down. The place wasn't very busy at all, and the waiters were awkward and frankly very snobby. The ambience was okay, but the food was just not impressive. The bread in the bread basket was cold and hard as a rock... what a bad place to start. The eggplant was okay, but nothing special. Frankly I've had better at PF Chang. I would hope that premade hoisin sauce mixed with premade chili sauce isn't the best Honolulu has got to offer. The risotto was boring and some of the rice was not fully cooked... Padma would have whined big time while Tom Colicchio stared the chef down. The only thing worth mentioning off the dish was the grilled bok choy, which was fresh and smoky at the same time. Interesting way of prepping bok choy, but sadly it's not quite enough to save Ciao Mein from being an overhyped disappointment.
I love the Chinese salad at Ciao Mein. The first time I visited Ciao Mein, I asked the waiter if they had a "plain" salad. He mentioned that they could make me a Chinese salad. So, I said, okay.... It's made with iceberg lettuce and cucumbers and carrots and topped with crispy won ton strips and crushed peanuts. The dressing is so creamy and delicious. By any means... is this salad, "plain." It is absolutely delicious.
I like that you can order any pasta listed on the menu as an appetizer. The pasta dish on the menu is huge. Unless you are sharing with others, you should order the pasta as an appetizer. I ordered the farfalle pasta with vegetables.
The only other vegetarian item on the menu is tofu with choi sum and mushrooms. The choi sum is delicious, but the mushrooms were very, very tart and unpleasant.
So, anytime, I go there I order the farfalle pasta with the vegetables (as an appetizer) and the chinese salad.
The best item on their dessert menu is the tiramisu.
The wait staff is excellent! I think the best seat in the whole restaurant is near the water fountain. I sat there the first time I dined there, and found the water to be rather soothing.
Ciao mein is a bizzare combination of Italian and Chinese. Ranging from standard Italian pasta dishes to standard Chinese fare, the dishes are suprising well-done given the eclectic menu. The Si Chuan eggplant dish as well as the bistecca were both very good. We will be sure to come here the next time we visit Hawaii!
This is one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Honolulu. It is located in the Hyatt hotel near Waikiki and is a great change of pace restaurant due to their wide array of food to choose from. When dinning their my wife and I tend to go with ordering a preset combination meal which serves an appetizer, main course, desert, and coffee or tea. The portions are generous and when ordering this way it is a 2 person minimum with the prices per person ranging from $34 - $65 ~ which is definitely worth it!
