Jackie's Kitchen - CLOSED

Elite '08

129

520

D.J. Y.

Shoreline, WA

It's been over a year since we made our first "family" trek to da Islands...

Yelp'ed a bunch of "special" places to visit for dinner this place was on the "to do" list and yeah, on top of it I have a man-crush for the man....Jackie Chan is DA MAN by the way, FYI!!

This was suppose to be Jackie's finest hour.  Combine fine eats with his action flicks and some movie trinkets, I envisioned this as the Kung-fu Mecca of the US.

Sadly, as we walked up to the front door, taped on the door handle was a hand scribbled note.  "So sorry, we closed now....forever..."  Cr@p!!!!  We missed this place by a freaking week!!!

Yes, I'm still not over it....  While he didn't defile the family grave site or deflowered my younger sister or kill my Father in a heated Kung-fu battle.  I'm still pissed and yes, I'll hold this grudge till the day I die!!!

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

 

28

78

foodlover G.

Honolulu, HI

Ever since it opened, I have NEVER EVER heard anything good about this place. My friend told me "Even their lemonade wasn't good."

Anyway, fast forward few years, and with a new chef and menu...

I haven't gone when it first opened so I don't have anything to comapre it with, but I thought the food was great! The decor is nice too...a bit dim, though.

I posted a lot of pictures, but the portions MAY BE DIFFERENT when you order it. My coworkers and I had an awesome previlege of trying their new menu when it came out so I think they put several orders on one plate.

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

 

66

461

spiff e.

San Francisco, CA

The menu wasn't anything super special, but considering it was a restaurant in the Ala Moana it was decent.  At least definitely different from the other restaurants on the fourth floor, all basically chains.  The restaurant part was generally theme-y with Jackie Chan movie posters plastered all over the walls and at least one flat panel screening a Jackie movie.  The bar area looked neat though, with a distinctly more hip asian-fusion feel to it.

The food itself was actually pretty good.  The ahi poke was yummy.  As was the coconut rice.  The chicken was ehh, like anything you'd find at a regular Chinese restaurant with the cabbage disportionately dominating the plate.  The shortribs were the best though.  Nice and tender and sweet.  And they all came out pretty quick, so no real complaints on the service side.

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

 

264

110

Candice D.

San Francisco, CA

Where oh where do you go when you feel like eating slightly healthy, getting hammered, all while watching jackie chan movies?  Well, it's Jackie Chan's!!!

Give it some credit, it is a test restaurant after all.  Their drinks and desserts have been great since day 1, but with the recent menu changes, the food has finally been the type of food you talk about with your friends.  I highly recommend the fries, they are made with sweet potatoes and come with this awesome sauce that make you want to steal your friend's fries too!
I also recommend the new Creme Brulee, it has a wonderful asian fusion twist to it...I never thought that Ginger, mint, and chocolate would combine in a creme brulee platter, but it does, and it works!

Strong drinks, and the place is designed so that you can either enjoy it restaurant-style or even as a lounge.  The new chairs and bar area are equipped so that you can relax and get drunk while you're waiting for your friends.  The service is friendly beyond expectation, and everything is clean and well taken care of.

If you're visiting the islands and want to visit a restaurant you can't find anywhere in the mainland, you have to come check these guys out!

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

 

11

74

Shannon S.

Oakland, CA

I came here for drinks/dinner with some friends when I was home in HI for the holidays.  I admit we only went here because they had the shortest wait of all the Ala Moana restaurants on that level.  Notwithstanding that it wasn't necessarily our first, choice, we had a fun time.  The bar/lounge area is cool to sit and have drinks while you wait for your table (and p.s., the drinks are good too).    

We tried a bunch of things...notable were the ahi poke, won tons, chopped steak and garlic fried rice.  Beware though, the garlic fried rice is SUPER garlicky.  Not so notable was the ginger chicken, which was mostly cabbage.

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review

 

0

13

MC A.

Honolulu, HI

I always wondered what Jackie's Kitchen's food was like. I joined a couple of friend's for drinks and pupus here. The only credit I will give this place is the lounge atmosphere and decent decor. It's not as noisy as Mai Tais and you can still hang out and have some drinks. As for food, we only had the appetizers. The 5 different appetizers that sounded the tastiest were: shu mai, salmon, chicken sate skewers, shrimp dumplings, calamari. Unfortunately, none of them were good. The shu mai and shrimp dumplings were undercooked and flavorless (similar to pre-packaged, frozen, store shu mai and dumplings). The salmon had a mango salsa on it; It was dry and had no salmon flavor whatsoever; yuck. The chicken sate skewers were burnt and tasted like cardboard. The accompanying peanut sauce was watered down. Lastly, the calamari was the only edible appetizer but wasn't good either. I love calamari legs and unfortunately, there were none; the serving was just thick pieces of the calamari body. I give 2 stars because I can't base the whole dining experience on the appetizers alone, but based on just the appetizers, I wouldn't eat dinner here.

Bookmark   Send to a Friend Link to This Review