(3) stars on Yelp is just about right for Don's Chinese Kitchen. So it was 3:30 pm, and since I've been up since 5:00 am, I realized I'd better stop & get some lunch, as I was burning out already. Since I was working in Waimea town, I decided to stop by the food court at the Parker Ranch Center. There are several eateries in the Parker Ranch Center food court, but what caught my eye was - "Don's Chinese Kitchen". Don's Chinese Kitchen kinda reminds me of the old skool "Patti's Chinese Kitchen" we used to have on Oahu back-in-da-dayz. It's typically your Chinese fast food joint. The nice thing about coming to Don's Chinese Kitchen is that the food is already made & ready to go. The service here was fast & friendly, and they give you a CRAP LOAD of FOOD at a reasonable price. My (2) item plate was $15 bucks & some change. Can we say DEALAGES Yo! I elected to get a (2) item plate with starch, and I requested the chow fun, salt & pepper fish, & orange chicken. What I actually end up getting was chow fun & fried rice (because they ran out of chow fun). Also, my orange chicken actually turned out to be sweet & sour pork (I think there was some sorta communication issue) Lol. Overall, the food was just okay. I wouldn't go out of my way, or make a special trip to come back here, but if I'm in the area & don't know what to eat? Sure, I'd stop by again for a quick meal. What can I say about the grub? I would say that the salt & pepper fish was the star on my plate. As for the chow fun, it kinda grossed me out as it was so oily! read more

See all

Well this was a hit. After a day of landmarks and beaches we wanted a casual healthy dinner that wouldn't break the bank. So, back to the food mall at Parker Center. Dons Chinese Kitchen was plan A. 2/3 less $$ Than our Burger night last night in the same mall. Orange Chicken, tempura shrimp , beef broccoli and chow mein. Just enough, nothing left. A Lucky Choice ! read more

They open at 10:00am and the service is fast. We came in early so the noise level was low. The food was good and seasoned just right. read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Two entrees and one side. Chowfunn, orange chicken and zucchini chicken. - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

See all

I spent $50 on a flavorless meal after a long day of hard work. Really sucks when you work really hard for your money and choose to support local, hoping that they have a passion for the food they make, I was super disappointed when I got home to taste nothing but grease. I ordered the roasted duck, beef chow fun-- which only had two small pieces of meat, and the crab won tons, which only had cream cheese and no crab. I initially asked for duck sauce or any sauce that would make it more flavorful and they said they had none. I called to let them know, and they had no way of making it better. I grew up going here when we were craving Chinese food and used to be good, it's either under a new ownership or whoever is in the back cooking just doesn't care and it shows. read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

A friend told me about a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant in a food court, I assumed it wouldn't be much. Going there, I thought it would live up to my expectations. The food proved me dead wrong. The egg flour soup was excellent, quite unlike the viscous slop being served at other restaurants on the island, and closer to what you might find in Hong Kong. The real eye opener was the roast duck, which was easily the best I have had in Hawai'i. Having lived in China for a number of years, this duck was essentially identical to what you would find in some of the better restaurants. It is not 'Peking Duck', but then again it isn't intended to be. The flavor was excellent and the meat smoky and juicy, clearly made with love. I will definitely be going back on my next visit to Waimea. Very highly recommended. read more

Crispy roast duck is fresh and juicy, and the shrimp fried noodles are deliciousDon't miss it when you walk by. read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Stir-fried rice noodles with shrimp - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

See all

My favorite place for Chinese food on the Big Island. Friendly staff, fast service. Highlights are Beef Chow Fun, Chau Xiao Baudz, and eggplant. I lived in Taiwan for my junior year in college, and still get cravings for tasty Chinese food - recommend you check it out! read more

seasoning very local tastes service fast and friendly lovely ample seating and chili oil delicious Ambience clean! chose orange chicken crispy roast port shrimp with sweet sour sauce canned drinks were reasonable fish is tasty and buy what just came out! one tiny comment bags for takeout could be 25 cents read more

I I don't get why the reviews are bad. The quality of the food has improved so much since the new owners took over. read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Eggplant & tofu, chicken & zucchini, chow fun. - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

Mini plate, roast pork and egg plant. Tasty, only 2 pcs of roast pork should include 3-4 pounds pcs of pork for price paid read more

While visiting Waimea on the Big Island. I would occasionally stop to eat Chinese food at Parker Ranch Shopping Center foodcourt. This was one of my dads favorite Chinese eatery. Most of the times I at here in the past the food was tasty. Unfortunately, today the food didn't have as much flavor. I had a mixed plate. 1/2 order chow mein 1/2 order chow funn, sweet sour pork, and roast duck. The noodles was good but the sweet sour pork especially the roast duck lacked flavor. read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

Located as part of the Food Court in Parker's Ranch center, the is a poor excuse for being a Chinese buffet, the dishes were flavor less and taste less. When we opted for 3 entries with the main side, the server gave us three fried shrimp as the third entry. I know and have eaten from outstanding to mediocre food. This one ranks below lousy. read more

Dons is a quick easy fresh Chinese food takeout food Restaurant conveniently located in the Parker Ranch shopping center. Last night a mini takeout half and half rice and Chinese noodle noodle with two choices of meat Set a fortune cookie in Chopstix for less than eight dollars I recommend this place not only because the owner Ellis is my friend but it's convenient is always fresh and the prices are affordable read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Parker Ranch Shopping Center, Chinese restaurant Quick and easy dishes you can see on display or order off the menu - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

See all

The taste is still good, you can eat a lot of dishes, and many flavors are worth trying, and the price is reasonable. read more

See all

Hidden in a food court...Their Shoyo chicken is really good! Nice portions. Fast and kind service.

New owners took over . Food is not the same . Different noodles . Not very good . . Save your money read more

This location seems to have better quality of food than their Kona location. Located in the Parker Ranch Center food court, it's a convenient place for grab-and-go food. It's what you would expect from a food court restaurant: not terrible, but not spectacular. Service was also average. The food is good for their prices. We ordered their chow mein, beef broccoli, and orange chicken (basic, I know - but you can't really go wrong!). I do like the quality of their food better than the Kona Don's Chinese Kitchen. It tasted fresher, like it wasn't sitting out for very long. read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

This just shows you how disgusting and dirty their kitchen must be. This roach was in my plate. I feel disgusted read more

See all

Hello there, if you are reading this let me tell you my experience. My wife and I wanted to find something to eat that would satisfy our appetite. We traveled from Oregon to Kona Island. We first stop at a burrito place that was closed. Then we walked to a pizza place just to learn that it was $10 a slice with no salad as they did not offer any. We walked out. Then we saw a Hawaiian place rather empty, so we.decided to skip it. As we moved past it we almost walked across to a KFC instead, but them saw the Chinese buffet, we said, no way we couls go wrong! Oh boy we were in for a big surprize. We looked and it really wasn't buffet since they served us as we ordered. Honestly we thought ok, well try it. We paid over $30 for old pork, nasty mandarine chicken, nasty noodles cooked with burnt oil. We took a few bites and decided it was time to stop eating that food as we did not want to get sick on our trip. We closed the to go containers left them on the table and walked out. The only thing that was good was the coke we bought. Then headed over to KFC to get other food. Please go somewhere you are spending money anyway! Do not go there to eat, avoid getting sick!! Oh yeah the atmosphere was sad. Empty and the cooks sad in the tables to watch TV. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!! read more

This place has mostly bad food. The only exception was the eggplant, chicken, and tofu stir fry. Everything else was bland to inedible. The egg rolls were exceptionally bad - crispy on the outside but filled with some kind of vegetable goop on the inside. Will never be going back. One star. read more

My mother wanted to try this place in Waimea at the food court. We should have suffered less and gone to Village Burger to wait forever and a day instead. Both of our Chinese plates were uneventful and just blah... When neither of us can finish our plates even when we were starving that is all that needs to be said. This place makes Panda Express seem like real gourmet food. read more

I have never had a bad experience. The food is fast food Chinese so my expectations are not very high. Here's a tip for everyone complaining about the food. Since you can see the food through the glass case, if it looks old and dry don't pick those items since it probably has been sitting there for a while. If you want super fresh food, order off the menu. The food will be fresh and juicy. If the food is bland, ask for shoyu and hot mustard and it will solve that problem.. LOL.. Manapua and pork hash is yummy when fresh. Again, it's fast food so if it looks dry don't buy.. LOL haha.. read more

New ownership, food was terrible! I would not recommend and I won't be coming back. So disappointing because we used to enjoy coming here for years but it's just not the same at all. read more

I am sorry to write this- Don's Waimea in food court is under new ownership and the food is not good as of Juy 2022. We have gone to Don's for over 20 years and my family grew up craving their orange chicken. Have tried 3 times in last 30 days to give them a chance and each time the food tasted bad. The orange chicken is stringy and dry (had to throw away), the beef broccoli was over cooked and not crunchy and the portions were significantly smaller. I am so sad. Not going back. Will have to try Don's in Kona. read more

Theres a food court at Parker Ranch Center by Foodland? Hunh?? Yup there is. Anyway, I only had 30 mins to get something to eat and Don's Chinese Kitchen was sure to be fast since everything is already sitting there pre-cooked. $8.88 for a two choice plate with noodles, and they had unsweetened iced tea. What I didn't like: the hot tray line was really heavy on unidentified meat dishes and low on vegetables. I'm not going to stand there and ask what each tray is. Signs would be nice. I ended up with beef and broccoli and some kind of eggplant thing. Basically the only two trays that looked significantly vegetable. They also display a large dim sum menu which I didn't explore, and had some Chinese pastries in a case, which you don't normally see at a Chinese fast food place. The food court is nicer than most, with attractive wood tables and chairs. Other choices are Village Burger, Dairy Queen/Orange Julius, a Korean (?) barbecue place, and a Mexican burrito place. read more

Not the best Chinese food ever. If you think this is the best, try eating chinese somewhere else. What this place is, is descent chinese food. It's like the kind you would get at a typical take out. Not bad, hits the spot. I'd eat there again. read more

I really downloaded yelp so i csn review the food. It was crap. Flavor not good.not warm.tastes old will never eat here again. read more

Not as bad as the icky chains like Panda Express - actually made fresh and tastes like it. Food is good, service is just OK, but come-on, it's a food court! They have dim sum also, which isn't bad, but not like a real dim sum high end place. $10 for a Combo with two choices + fried rice. Duck, several chicken and several pork options. Gave me a glass of water for free this last time. read more

The food here is decent and usually one of my favorite for Saimin. The staff changed and they are no longer friendly.. Plus they charge 10c for a cup of water.. When I asked about this they said the water is free but the small plastic cup is 10c.. Come on guys, you can do better than this for your customer read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Duck saimin - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

Everytime I have a chance to go to Waimea I stop by to have a quick lunch. Their food selection is much better than their Kona location both in terms of quantity of different items and the quality of the dishes. I love the roast duck and roast pork combo. No other Chinese restaurant serves roast duck on their buffet line. read more

Oh. My. God. This was just awful. Tepid and glutinous with blobs of some unknown gelatinous goop on the vegetables. The noodles were so dried out that they were crunchy. Immediate stomach ache and it was $11. The cherry on top was the lady who worked there practically snarling at me for ordering something, like I was putting her out. Jeez, just do yourself a favor and eat something else. So, so bad. read more

Disgusting! Somehow this chain won Best of West Hawaii for Chinese Food. I had a basic two item combo. I chose Sweet and sour pork, a pinkish pork dish and chow mein. the pin pork dish was the best -it was tasty, they chow mein was fine -nothing special_ and the Sweet and Sour was old- the breading was soggy and falling off the meat. Doesn't sound disgusting?? not really, right? What made it disgusting was the fact that is was barely warm when I got it and turned cold within a couple minutes. Cold Chinese food is disgustli\ng -happy I didn't get sick because it certainly was not at proper food safety temperatures in the warming trays. YUK! Sta far away! read more

I've eaten here several times, though once was enough for me. (My other half keeps bringing home takeout from here, I don't know why). Every single time has been a less than lukewarm experience. I'll describe my latest experience below, which rates just the same with all my other encounters with Don's Chinese Kitchen food. Mushy with a capital M cake noodle. Low on the seasoning (bland). Baby corn in the cake noodle was SOUR and we both got sore stomachs after dinner. Honey walnut shrimp is average. Stingy on the walnut. More breading than shrimp. Skimpy on the sauce. Beef broccoli, bland, bland, bland. People who work there are very nice, unfortunately, the food is just not good. There are better options out there, maybe not in Waimea, but elsewhere. read more

Decent local Chinese food.

Greatest Chinese Restaraunt I ever been to. Its a definite go for chinese food in Waimea. Give it a try people! read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

I tried the pork tofu mabo tofu and chow fun. They were all tasty. The mabo has some kick though so watch out! I think they offer samples in case you want to try it out first read more

Don's Chinese Kitchen - Chinese Near Me - Kamuela, Hawaii

Not good food. The service is also terrible. The ladies are very rude. The food is oily and I tried their desserts which tasted like they were a few days old. read more