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Dowon Chinese Restaurant

4.0 (222 reviews)
ModerateChinese, Korean, Noodles
Open 11:00 am - 9:00 pm

Dowon Chinese Restaurant Photos

Business Info

DOWON CHINESE RESTAURANT ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Quiet
Casual
Good for kids
Good for groups

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Recommended Reviews - Dowon Chinese Restaurant

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Reviews With Photos - Dowon Chinese Restaurant

Ceivy M.

Great food! I'll definitely be back for more. I'm not going to lie, I didn't understand much of the menu and I wish there were pictures for us ignorant people, but at the end of the night it didn't matter. Whatever I randomly pointed at ended up being delicious. There's parking.

Follow the sign from Piikoi Street
Nadine C.

Lunch in Honolulu, Hawaii... Dowon Chinese Restaurant is an old school type of place. It serves Korean and Chinese cuisine. I've been wanting to dine here for a while because my friend, Lyla, got ROTD (Review of the Day) many years ago. Between patients, my dentist was able to join me for lunch. She had never been here before either. We both found metered street parking on Piikoi Street, in front of Ichiriki and Thrills Soft Serve. We walked around to the other side of the building to the paid parking lot. That's where the entrance to the restaurant is! We agreed to get the Garlic Chicken and the noodles with seafood and bean sauce. They were both really tasty! My dentist said that the food had a "clean" taste - it's not masked by MSG. I could taste the ginger and garlic. The ingredients were fresh! I would return on a Sunday when metered street parking is free. Our meters ran out because we had a good conversation. We got takeout containers for the leftovers because the portions were generous. Service was efficient and satisfactory. We asked for a refill of hot water in our teapot. The task was completed. Haha! Thank you for the starters! We enjoyed the fresh onions with bean sauce, kimchi, and takuan!

Eunice K.

Dowon is one of the few places that has decent Chinese Korean style food. I got the samsun jjamppong and my husband got the ssamsun jjajjangmyun. We also got a tangsooyook to share. We also ordered TAKEOUT. The good: The food was piping hot, the food scratched the craving, the price is reasonable, and there is parking (paid though) The bad (not bad just can be improved): the ttangsooyook sauce was very watery, but still flavorful. The jjamppong doesn't have nearly enough seafood considering the name. Like I said- everything is ... good. I wouldn't say it's amazing like all these social media posts, but it's good. A nice quiet location with good service. Can't complain- definitely helps curb the craving.

Pork fried rice
Sydni K.

Dowon is the definition of a hole in the wall restaurant. I honestly had a hard time finding it at first, but it's located in the same building as Thrills/Ichiriki, just on the other side of the building. There's a paid parking lot for the building, but I usually just park at Ala Moana and walk over. For five people, we shared four dishes. We got the sweet and sour chicken, bean curd with Chinese mushrooms, pork fried rice, and jjyangmyeon. I think the sweet and sour chicken was my favorite, since it was the most flavorful, but I enjoyed how the dishes we chose complemented each other. I was expecting the portions to be bigger considering the price per dish, so I was still a little hungry after.

Hot and Spicy Garlic Shrimp
Xin L.

After seeing this place get recommended several times on Instagram, I was super intrigued especially to try their jajangmyeon. Especially having experienced the packaged ones previously, I thought trying it from an authentic restaurant could help repair my opinion of the dish. Dowon is a chinese-korean fusion restaurant. Their menu is expansive, although it may be confusing to navigate at first as many of the listings duplicates, like from 1- 31& 110-119 has no english, only chinese and korean. Since I can read chinese, I can tell that they're relisted in english on the rest of the menu. We knew we wanted the jajangmyeon but we didn't know what else we wanted so I told the waitress that we will get one jajangmyeon and to give us a moment for the other item. We later placed the order for the hot and garlic shrimp. Here's when the issue starts arising. After a while of being served, we finally received our banchan. The shrimp arrived first for some reason, for $30, the portion is minimal and the shrimp pieces were almost majority breading especially as the shrimp pieces were SMALL. The jajangmyeon took WAYYY too long to arrive, especially as we ordered it before the shrimp, we got the shrimp, ate most of it, THEN the jajangmyeon arrived. The jajangmyeon were very well done though. The portion was also reasonable with its pricing. I personally wouldn't come back unless i was ITCHING for their jajangmyeon and couldn't find anything similar.

Palbochae Soju and beer
Jay Y.

This long-time favorite has become a go-to spot for many in the Korean community. Oldschool Korean chinese vibe. Their signature pan-fried Jjajang is packed with wok-fired aroma and deep savoriness that hits you from the very first bite. You can choose your spice level, and even the medium option delivers a spiciness of a Buldak Kick. For soju pairings, nothing beats their Palbochae. The sweet-tangy blend of assorted seafood comes together beautifully, creating the perfect shared dish. And the garlic Kkanpunggi adds more charm to the table.

Banchan...
Jace T.

Looking for Korean comfort food cooked Chinese style? Check out Dowon Chinese Restaurant located on Pi'ikoi behind Teapresso. They only have one door in the rear of the building along with their parking stalls in the back. Seating is a bit smaller than other Chinese joints, but is a worth while option to hit up. Optional parking is also close by and a short walk to and from, and also street parking if you can find one of the few nearby. Inside is nice and tidy with red booth tables, and a few table with chairs. Service is welcoming and friendly, and are intent of serving you their form of aloha. I'm mainly giving the 5-stars off of their version of Sweet 'n Sour Pork or Tangsuyuk. Mini pieces of pork, lightly battered then deep fried and then paired with stir-fried veggies with a sweet 'n sour sauce to either go on top or on the side. Personally, I like the sauce on the side. I will say this place does the fried pork part the best than other spots I've tasted like Eastern Paradise, and On Dong just to name a few. Though I truly feel Dowon has this dish down the best. Every piece is about the same size, battered and cooked evenly and taste pretty good without the sweet 'n sour sauce. To me, that says a lot if you can eat something without the other part of the dish, but equally ono together. The other dishes are about the same as the other spots, but you must have the Tangsuyuj if you do come here. Till my next pig-out, Grind On, Pau!

Jajangmyeon
Romyn S.

I came here for the jajangmyeon (black bean noodles) and tangsuyuk (sweet and sour pork) because I am on a mission and this place did not disappoint. I loved the jajangmyeon and there were a lot of noodles. I liked that the black bean sauce had some flavor because sometimes it doesn't. I enjoyed the amount of sauce that they put with the sweet and sour pork because then I just slathered that all of over more rice. You get your banchan (little dishes) so they brought out the yellow pickled radish, kimchi and the raw onion with the dark paste. You get tea as well. Atmosphere - Good, classic chinese (it's a Korean Chinese restaurant) looking kind of place. They had tables and chairs but also booth seats. They had a little side room as well with a bit more seating. Service - Our server was so nice and checked in with us to make sure we needed anything. Cost - This cost us around $50 for the food and then with tip around $60. We got jajangmyeon, tangsuyuk, a small thing of rice and then a soda. Parking - It's a small lot but it fits maybe like 20 cars? You might miss it so slow down when you're turning in. The first 30 minutes are free I believe and $2 for each hour (something like that). You can try to find street parking as well, good luck. Location - Entrance to the restaurant is through that back parking lot. This place is in a building across from the Piikoi Ala Moana ramp entrance. It's in the same building as Thrills (soft serve place) but at the back. This place was good and I would definitely come here again to get jajangmyeon and I should probably try another dish too.

Kim chee, daikon and onions.
Jim C.

I have to admit, it was a miss for me. The food taste was fair. It's the price and portion size: a bit pricy and not a lot. Check out my picture of the $25 black pepper beef. My friend a I went for lunch. Just the three dishes and a beer was $70 before tips. The service was excellent. The setting was classic. Parking is free, just follow the app on the wall inside the restaurant.

Irene M.

Where!?! Located in a building right off Piikoi (Ichiriki, Teapresso and Thrills) with parking entrance on Kona street which is convenient since it has stoplights you won't be able to see them from the front as the entrance is accessible only from the parking. Small yet proportionately decent spaced tables with a couple a private dining areas I can see why many do flock here as there was a steady flow of guests including a bunch of takeout. This what seems to be a Chinese/Korean fusion as we were served some banchan (raw onions, Kimchi and takuan) though they have a vast menu categorized I was slightly disappointed with the noodles selection as all but four items was seafood which I'm allergic to *sob* as mom wanted fried noodles I pivoted not wanting the same and got the shredded chicken with noodles & soup. First of all the noodles was refreshingly different it's a thick round needle nothing I've had before that I'm aware of but the amount of veggies I had was quite impressive and the same for mom's fried noodles the seasoning was right on point so flavorful yet light and delicious. The next time I'm getting the fried noodles for sure and with the great service making the whole experience so wonderful and relaxing the comfort level was just right. Thank you!

Jajangmyun
Valery L.

Decent little spot to get a Korean fix! The portions are a good size for the price. I got a jajangmyun and it seemed pretty authentic. We got there at 8:20 pm with the restaurant closing at 9:00 pm and was rushed by the waitress to order. The menu had lots of options which would have made it difficult to choose quickly if I hadn't looked at other Yelp reviews prior to going. There is a decent size parking lot right outside the restaurant but it was filled up when we went Friday evening! We ended up parking at the mall and walking over.

Sweet and sour pork and jajangmyeon
Emily D.

If you're looking for jajangmyeon in Honolulu, this is a good place to check out, as shown by the older Korean diners coming in for their post-golf lunch. I'm a huge jajangmyeon lover and this place specializes in Korean-Chinese cuisine. I usually order the jajangmyeon, sweet and sour pork, and sometimes fried dumplings if our party is extra hungry. The service is quick and the workers speak English in case you don't know Korean. There is public parking, but be sure to put cash in the cash box with the corresponding parking spot number to avoid getting towed.

A plate with a blackened bottom
Christine L.

I came to eat stir-fried jjambbong, and the taste was okay, but after eating everything, I was shocked when I saw the plate. It seems like it's not polite for a restaurant to give customers plates that have to be thrown away with the bottom completely burned. No matter how delicious the food is, it feels bad to eat from such a plate. When I told the waitress, she said something ridiculous like, "If you put something hot in it, it will turn out like that." Maybe because she works alone, she was very rude and bossy, so it seemed like there was a problem with improving the service. Maybe because there was only one person working in the kitchen, the food came out very slowly.

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Dowon Chinese Restaurant Reviews in Other Languages

Ask the Community - Dowon Chinese Restaurant

Do they have delivery service available through a third party app?

Do they use MSG in their food? Mahalo!

I feel they use chicken broth mix artificial flavor instead of MSG. However, I thought that is same family artificial flavor.

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As always this place delivers not only great food, but the service is great with a combination of…read morefriendly aunties and young servers greeting each customer and making sure that your dining in experience is excellent. So many of the Korean restaurants in Honolulu have servers who are actually mean to the customers and we now refuse to give them our dining dollars. The more modern Korean restaurants are providing much better customer experiences so that a customer becomes a life-long customer who spreads the word to family and friends and who keeps coming back for life. Does anyone remember the "Angry Korean Auntie" who used to run her restaurant like Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi'? That is the kind of service that we try to avoid now regardless of food quality. The atmosphere here is elegant and welcoming and the food is excellent and the ban chans served here are better than any other Korean restaurant in Honolulu. We enjoy coming here and never smell like BBQ when we leave, LOL, due to efficient fans and AC's. Their marinated Kalbi is some of the best I have every had, way better than any LA Kalbi and we recommend it. All the soups are good and generous.

Service was AMAZING as usual!! No one takes care of you the way the Korean aunties here do We came…read morefor my boyfriend's birthday and had a great time! The restaurant was clean, bright, and not too noisy. My new favorite Korean restaurant on Oahu!!! They even have uncles in the lot to help you park

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Kyung's Seafood

Kyung's Seafood

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I honestly hadn't been back to this place in a long time because of the lingering fish smell it…read moreused to have. However, since I was in the area, my partner and I decided to give it another shot...and now I'm hooked In fact, I went three times last month. Not only is the food amazing, but the service is on another level. Everyone is incredibly friendly and welcoming. I highly recommend calling ahead for reservations. My go-to order is always the poke and kalbi, and the third dish depends on whatever my partner is craving that day. Parking can be a little challenging, but I promise it's worth it. Everything we've tried has been absolutely delicious. If I could, I'd eat here once a week! It's currently my partner's and my favorite spot. 10/10, highly recommend!

We are extremely disappointed with our recent experience…read more We've been loyal customers and typically eat here twice a week whenever we're on assignment on the island in the last five years. We have also left two previous positive reviews because we've genuinely enjoyed the food and wanted to support this small business. Earlier this week, we ordered the bulgogi for our kids, but the meat was too chewy and tough making it inedible. Wanting to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt, we ordered the bulgogi again the following day and even requested it be cooked well done. Unfortunately, it had the same too chewy and tough texture, and again, could not be eaten. After feeding the kids something else, bathing them, and putting them to bed, I called the restaurant around 10:00 p.m., but they had already closed. I called the next day, and the owner (a lady with glasses) returned my call. Instead of listening to my concerns, she repeatedly interrupted me and spoke in a passive-aggressive, dismissive manner. I was on speakerphone with four other adults in the car, and everyone commented on how unhelpful and condescending the conversation felt. I explained that I wasn't calling simply to complain - I wanted to share feedback because we genuinely care about the restaurant and have supported it for a long time. I even mentioned that I had previously provided constructive feedback about the takeout bowls, which the restaurant later improved. Before I could finish, she cut me off and said, "We're not talking about the to-go bowls right now, are we? We're talking about your bulgogi." She insisted that if I wanted a refund, I needed to return to the restaurant in person, and that if something was wrong in the future, I should come back immediately so they could remake it. Unfortunately, that's simply not realistic for us. We're staying in a hotel with two young children, and the restaurant is about 40 minutes away. By the time we discovered the problem, got the kids settled, and called, making another round trip would have meant roughly 80 minutes of additional driving with tired, hungry children. I understand that mistakes happen, and I wasn't expecting perfection. What disappointed me most was how the concern was handled. This business does not value customer feedback and will never first listen respectfully, even from repeat customers who have consistently supported and recommended them. Sadly, based on this experience with both the food quality and the customer service, we won't be returning.

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Interior.
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Choi's Garden

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We stopped by Choi's Garden around 11:20 a.m., shortly after they opened at 11. There were already…read moretwo tables seated when we arrived. One thing we noticed right away was that it was pretty warm inside. I'm not sure if the A/C wasn't on yet or if it was having issues, but it's something to keep in mind if you're visiting during the day. We waited about 5 minutes at the front without seeing any staff or receiving a greeting. Eventually, a server rushed in through the door and was clearly scrambling to get everything set up. After another 5 minutes, she finally seated us. She apologized and explained that the person who was supposed to open didn't show up, so she had to cover everything herself. Throughout our visit, several parties who arrived after us also ended up waiting 10 minutes or more to be seated. That was really the only downside of our experience. The server was doing her best under the circumstances, and it seemed like an unfortunate staffing issue rather than the norm. Now for the food--it was excellent! We originally came for the $5.99 naengmyeon special, and it was absolutely worth it. We also shared the spicy pork and the meat jun, and both dishes were surprisingly delicious. Everything was flavorful, and the portions were satisfying. Overall, I'd definitely come back. Despite the rough start, the food made up for it, and I'm hopeful the staffing situation was just a one-off. Hopefully they'll also get the A/C situation sorted out because that would make the dining experience even better.

Friend suggested here as a centrally located place for several of us to get together…read more Service - male server was accommodating Female, not so much. Had to call and up the count on our reservation twice, female did that well. They put us in the far back corner and it was warm. Female did come and turn the fan on after a little while, explaining the AC was broken. Fan did help, but I was near the fan. I don't think it reached the folks farther in (there were 8 of us). Three of us ordered the stone pot bibimbap with bulgogi. One wanted to sub BBQ chicken, was told, "no." She had to change her order since she doesn't eat beef. Friend later told me she had been accommodated before, but these seemed to be new owners.) Two ordered BBQ Chicken plates, one the stir fried squid, one kimchee fried rice, one meat jun, a fish jun. Ban Chan came - two sets (one per table of four) of bean sprouts, fish cake, Choi sum, potatoes, kimchee. They were good. Cold water was served, and after a while we were given a pitcher so we could refill our cups, which was good. Food didn't take overly long to come out but wasn't really quick. (There were only two servers and the restaurant filled up quickly.) Stone pot bibimbap flavor was a disappointment. Only gochujung sauce to add, no sesame seed oil, so it was bland. Both of us who got it didn't think it was very tasty. Otherwise, it was nice and hot, and there was plenty of crispy rice after mixing it all up, and it included a raw egg which added some flavor, but not much. I will not get it again. Those with the BBQ chicken said it was tasty and juicy. Meat jun and fish jun was ok. Kimchee fried rice and stir fried squid were very spicy. Flavor was ok. Had to ask for our checks, were told they had only two staff working so they were very busy, but they kindly accommodated four separate checks for the eight of us. Not sure if I'll return. Prices are reasonable for the portion size, but no AC, bland stone pot bibimbap, we're not to my liking.

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Stir fried squid
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‘I'O Waikiki Korean BBQ Restaurant

‘I'O Waikiki Korean BBQ Restaurant

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I tried their $29 lunch special and it was sooo worth it. The quality of the meat was honestly…read moreimpressive for the price. The brisket and beef belly (toro) were my favorites, super flavorful and cooked perfectly. It doesn't come with salad, egg, or soup, but you still get a solid KBBQ experience with just meat and banchan. If you're looking for something simple and satisfying, this is a great deal. Also, the restaurant is really spacious, which makes the whole experience feel more relaxed and comfortable. Would definitely come back for a quick KBBQ fix.

Sorry, but this place feels like a tourist trap. They're clearly benefiting from being in a prime…read morelocation with very few Korean BBQ options nearby. The premium AYCE option is around $60 per person, which would be reasonable if the quality matched the price. Unfortunately, it doesn't. We're from the Bay Area and have been to countless Korean BBQ restaurants with significantly better meat quality for the same price or less. To make matters worse, even at the highest-priced AYCE tier, fountain drinks aren't included. What really left a bad impression was the automatic 20% gratuity. Our group consisted of two separate parties of three people each. We were seated together at one large table with two grills, but we had separate bills, ordered different AYCE meats option, didn't share food, and made that CLEAR before ordering. The menu states that automatic gratuity applies to parties of five or more, yet we were still charged because we happened to sit together. Had we known this was their policy, we would have chosen another restaurant or sat at different areas of the restaurant. The reason I'm giving two stars instead of one is because our servers were friendly, patient, and knowledgeable. They answered all of our questions about the menu and provided excellent service throughout the meal. Unfortunately, when we brought the gratuity issue to the manager, he insisted we were one large party despite us being separate parties with separate orders and separate checks. At the end of the day, the only difference was that we happened to be sitting at the same table. Overall, the service from the staff was great, but the overpriced food, disappointing meat quality, and questionable gratuity policy make it hard for me to recommend this place.

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Dowon Chinese Restaurant - chinese - Updated July 2026

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