We had a morning brunch with a friend in Honolulu, we mutally agreed Tai Pan Dimsum was the best dimsum in Chinatown. Nestled in the Chinese Cultural Plaza, there is parking available for out-of towners driving rental cars. Most locals either walk or take the metro bus there. There's a good variety of dimsum for every taste. And it's not a noisy place, so you can actually carry a conversation. The wait staff are friendly and can describe some of the food. Their English has improved greatly over the years. The menu covers all the items several times with accurate descriptions and pictures. This is one of our go-to spots whenever we're on the island of Oahu. VIDEO: https://youtu.be/jyANpcq9LvE?si=s4-Hji0WPaMF2tPU read more

Good service - fast on food, water always filled, tea hot Made reservations prior but it didn't matter - they didn't check read more

The food has always been fresh there. The restaurant is under new ownership/mgmt now so I haven't been since then so I'll see how it is and update my review. It can be difficult to get a table during lunch and you may have to share a table with others but if you don't mind a non-quiet ambience the food is good. read more

Ok soooooo egg tart was ammmmmaaazzzing! Crust was flaky & sweet. Pork hash was thee best! Maybe just the customer service can be worked on but everything was yummy! read more

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Tai Pan is a small dim sum restaurant located in a corner of the Chinatown Cultural Plaza. They serve at least 40 types of dim sum. Being Chinese, I think they have the most authentic and reasonable priced dim sum in town. Although they speacialize in take outs, (judging by the line by the take out table) they do offer dine in experience. I would say it's more like an eatery more than your usual Chinese restaurant. I like that the service is really fast-paced too. You will see the servers clean out the tables very quickly after the customers leave. They also serve food pretty quickly. Our family has been patronizing this place for a long time. The quality food, the service speed, and friendly servers haven't disappointed yet. read more

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Only commenting on turnip cake. It was very starchy. It used to be better. It is a very popular restaurant and it was crowded when I went.

Review based on take-out Tai Pan is tucked away inside the Chinese Cultural Plaza. Parking is easy, since they have their own deck. Ordering was also very easy over the phone and the order was ready pretty quickly! I usually don't rate service for takeout experiences, but the ladies there was so sweet! Everything was packaged super well, and they made sure we had enough different dipping sauces based on what we ordered-- very important! The shumai was delicious, and the deep fried carrot mochi (egg custard filled) were as yummy as they were cute! A few others we enjoyed were the shrimp look fun roll and the steamed charsiu buns. I normally love taro puffs, but these were a tad underfried for me. I'd definitely order them again, though, because the filling was still super yum! I'll just ask for them well-done next time. Wait, can you even do that? Anywho, the prices are reasonable and the quality was there. Can't wait to go again for our next dim sum fix! read more

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Love the chicken feet! Good selection. Easy parking in the cultural plaza. Never had a bad experience. read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Fried turnip, chicken feet and egg custard. - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Love here! all menu so ono especialy, posk hash, egg tart amazing house Porridge so taysty read more

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Been a long time since I've been here. The food is always good. It can be crowded during lunch time. The staff are friendly. The atmosphere is the usual small dim sum restaurant. Overall recommended if you like a variety of good dim sum. read more

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Went for an early lunch on a Saturday morning. Got there around 1030. Place was about 75% full. We didn't try a lot but got the pork hash, shrimp dumpling, mochi meat gok, half moon, and turnip cake. Loved the meat gok #1 and turnip cake #2. Gotta go back hungry and try some of the other stuff soon. Aunty that was serving us was on point. Didn't write anything down and brought what we ordered really fast. read more

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Great Dim Sum place. Food was delicious. I like the beef lok fun, chicken feet, and the radish cake. The server came by to make sure our tea pot was filled often. The place was not too busy on a saturday lunch time. read more

Wanted to try them out after new ownership and new menu. But service is not good, only one waitress with short hair and glass has good service (would take order, bring order and refill tea pot), other servers wouldn't even stop by. Especially one older waitress who used to be the owner of the restaurant keep on talking with customer next table to us and won't even bother to stop by and ask if I want to order when I have my hand up in the air for awhile. Food taste alright, not special enough for me to return. The red skin fried shrimp roll was out on the counter so long so is not crisp when it arrive to the table. Is more on the oily side. But egg tart is good though. Overall, I wouldn't be back. read more

I looked at many of the 1-star reviews and it seems the biggest complaint is service. I get it, truly. But I'd rather refer to the service as authentic Chinese restaurant chaos with a side of gentle love and affection. They are working hard and getting the job done. As for the food: it was great for a standard dimsum place. Some items were sold out but the staff offered alternative options. It was a great experience and I'm happy we randomly stopped here. read more

Excellent! One of the best dimsum places I've tried. Ordered the turnip cake, pork bun, egg bun, siomai, look fun, walnut cake, and everything was delicious and freshly made. Service was quick and on point. Will come back for sure. read more

Weird!! They will not help you if you walk in to make a take out. They just let you stand there till pieces of your life fall off and you rot away. If there is a system for takeout tell your customers. Sad communication. Hungry me. read more

Very fast and friendly service. Dim sum and the other dishes were pretty good. Would go back if in the area read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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My wife and I were craving Dim Sum, so we went to the Chinese Cultural Plaza. To our surprise, all of the Dim Sum places that we used to frequent were no longer there, so we ended up at Tai Pan Dim Sum for the first time. When we arrived there was no greeting and no one even cracked a smile. I know when it comes to Dim Sum it's the food that matters and if you get friendly service it's a bonus., but it felt like my visit to China... not the old Hong Kong, but Mainland China where everything just feels a little bit depressing. We ended up ordering a bunch of dishes. Most of which were okay at best although there were a couple of items that were pretty good. We thought the Deep Fried Seaweed Roll was excellent. It was hot, crispy and had good seasoning. The Lotus Wrapped Sticky Rice was also very good. Cooked just right and very flavorful. The shell on the dumplings were a bit too thick for my taste and the ingredients for most of the items seemed overly processed. I tend to like the ingredients in my dumplings more on the chunkier side. Overall I would probably not return to Tai Pan Dim Sum or the Chinese Cultural Plaza for Dim Sum anytime soon. read more

Ok Tai Pan, ok Tai Pan, you're not the most expensive dim sum restaurant in Chinatown, you're just the same as everyone else. It's crazy to think that dim sum was just $2 many years go. Though, I felt like I recently came here, and it was eleven months ago lol! I came here with my grandma. She just came with her friend because she boasted how great the wonton is at Tai Pan, and she possibly had another friend take her! I suppose to have to continue this, and take my wife soon because the wonton was super good! You'll have a hard time finding this on the menu as it's located on the wall, all the way on the left side, on a small, dry-erase whiteboard. It's only $7, and you get TEN big sized wontons filled with tender lumps of shrimp, tasty pieces of pork, and chives and just a scant of cilantro. The soup was nice, clear, and tasty that wasn't too heavy. I recommend it to everyone! We also had the Steamed Beef Balls and the Steamed Pork Spareribs. Both dishes were tender and had excellent taste. Lastly, we had the Dry Beef Chow Funn and added Sour Cabbage. This was stir fried well with nice wok heat. It had good taste, but it was oily, which is typical. The Sour Cabbage helped cut into the heaviness. Overall, I had a pretty good experience, and seeing the prices are the same as everywhere else, I'll definitely consider Tai Pan from now on. The food is good and the service is good too. read more

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Tai Pan is located at the mauka Ewa corner of the Chinese Cultural plaza and is one of four restaurants there that serve dim sum. Like those other restaurants, the food served is very good but instead of dim sum carts traveling between tables, you order from a menu. Once ordered, the food comes out quick. I mean, REAL quick. The main issue at TaiPan is the table situation. Like some local parking lots where the stalls are smaller than most, they try to get as much people in their small restaurant, so your neighboring table occupant is just over your shoulder. Personal space be damned at this place. So as long as you don't mind being close to people, give TaiPan a try. read more

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First time trying bbq pork pastry, and i think this is my new favorite!! Flaky thick layered pastry dough surrounds super most char siu. Perfect savory dish that i need to get more of! Menu out front on the tables so you can figure out what you want before the foh ladies help you with your order. Super helpful that the dim sum has pictures Lots of dim sum options as well as regular family style chinese entrees read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Wow this place needs training in customer service. We waited 10 minutes and no one gave us a menu. There were four other customers that came after us and they were given a menu. Some of them had food while we were waiting. I had to flag one of the waitress down to give us the menu. We waited another 10 minutes and no one took our order. One waitress was on her phone. It wasn't busy either. There were many open tables. We left the restaurant afterwards and ate at Legends. Service was better there. read more

Had to update my review because the chef changed the Siu Mai recipe (used to lack taste) and now it's wayyy better. The shrimp dumpling was always good but I didn't care for the Siu Mai before. Now there's a lot of flavor and looking forward to going back. read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Siu Mai - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Thanks for making this birthday picnic for my friend fabulous!! Ordered beef chow menu, Har Gau, shumai, and crispy carrot to create a birthday picnic. It was so delicious! Such a great celebration. read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Picnic with crispy carrot pork shumai - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Tai Pan in China Town Culture Plaza is one of our previous frequent dim sum restaurant to go to. Then we found a new spot also in China town that recently closed so here we are back again...ordered 2 noodles dishes and 2 orders of dim sum and are Bill was $40.00 ....wow!!! Dim sum ran from 4.95 - 5.95 per dish...I love chinese and dim sum so I guess we'll be back no matter what the price! read more

I went for Dim Sum at around 2:30 pm. In Chinese Culture Plaza, my favorite Dim Sum restaurant called, " Legend " was closed already. I was so hungry I was looking for Dim Sum, then I found the corner " Tai Pan ", nobody was eating I thought it's closed but sign said, " Open " I went inside. Many months ago I came here the food were cold and wasn't fresh, I didn't want to eat here again, but...I tried again. I ordered, Shrimp Dumplings, Spinach and Scallops Dumplings, Shrimp Look Fun, Turnip and Seafood Rice Soup. Surprisingly everything was fresh and hot, delicious!! I recommended Tai Pan now. read more

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If you're not Chinese speaking Cantonese: you'll get old portions, poor service, snobby servers

Love it here. Dunno y it's only 3.2 stars. Food is always hot and fresh and they wait staff is always friendly...I mean considering that it's dim sum. I've had sooo much worse service at dim sum places. read more

This place is always busy in the mornings and you have to go then to be sure to get the dim sum you want. Lots of what they serve you can get at other dim sum places except for my two favorites - the mochi puff "carrot" with custard and the mochi ball with some kind of peanut filling (not peanut butter). The ambiance is a typical Chinese restaurant with lots of tables closely packed in, but this is good if you want to dine in. There's usually a table open or the wait time is short. For take out orders, it's usually pretty quick as they have someone assigned just to help take-out customers. read more

We have picked up dim sum here before takeout, but this was the first time eating in the restaurant. It was very busy, but we got seated right away. The service was very good and the food was delicious.. We will be back read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Dim Sum with Popo. Gung Hei Fat Choy - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Have you ever noticed that when you dine at a Chinese restaurant that the louder your server gets the ruder she is? Saying that the service here is poor is an understatement. We had challenges throughout our meal including trying too seat us in that little pocket on the side when the restaurant was pretty empty. Well, enough of the service now for the food. My measuring stick whenever I try a different dim sum restaurant is the quality of their pork shu mai. The shu mai here is dense and dry, do not order this here. I am used to shu mai that has a rougher ground and is juicier. The black bean spare ribs lacked enough black beans so it was kind of bland. The book tripe was just OK but a little overcooked. My wife's won ton min was also just OK but there wasn't enough broth and the broth needed more flavor. The best bite in our entire lunch was the won tons in the won ton min, really moist and delicious. I won't bother to come back. read more

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Energetic new owners. Quick, Friendly service. Food taste the same. One of their new items is a deep fried purple taro mochi. Taste great. Not too sweet. 紫樹. Translated to English. Purple tree. read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

This is my family's go-to dim sum place in Chinatown. Located inside the Chinese Cultural Plaza, parking is not a problem and costs $1 up to an hour with validation. We went for lunch on a Sunday and it was a little crowded, but still had a couple of open tables. We got immediately seated and were given menus with pictures which are super helpful. They have the full menu on the table as well. They don't go around pushing carts so you do have to order from the waitress. We immediately put in our order of pork siu mai, seafood siu mai, baked char siu buns, taro gok, steamed shrimp dumplings, and deep-fried seaweed roll. The food came out fast except for the deep-fried seaweed roll which is expected. Their pork siu mai is delicious! I can eat those all day. The portion is pretty big as well so it definitely fills you up. I also love their taro gok. The pork in the middle is super flavorful! The exterior is crunchy and light and it's one of the best taro gok I ever had. Another favorite of mines is the baked char siu buns. They are pretty generous with the amount of filling and the pork is yummy. The waitresses didn't check on us, but it's fine since the food comes out pretty fast and they will come to you if you flag them down. Overall, the food is yummy, cheap, and it doesn't taste like it's just sitting out for a long time, which I find can be a problem at dim sum restaurants. I'm glad to see them still busy during this time and hope they continue to be in business for a long time! read more

Tai Pan Dim Sum - Taro Gok, Shrimp Siu Mai, Pork Siu Mai, Baked Char Siu Buns, Seafood Dumplings - Dim Sum Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Despite that the wait for this place could take forever on weekends and the chaos that happens when you are trying to place your name on the waitlist -- the food here is super delicious! No carts so you'll have to order off of the menu but still wouldn't deter us from going. Important tip -- go to the bathroom before coming to this place. It's located in the cultural center so it's shared. The security guard looks sketch already and inside the women's bathroom is gross. read more

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I haven't written a review yet?!! My favorite dim sum place! It recently changed ownership, but it's my go to. I never have to wait and all the dim sum is solid. Lots of chili and mustard on your table so you don't have to keep calling a waitress back. During COVID I also did pretty large take out to have dim sum at home and they were really efficient. Prices have gone up a little, but still really reasonable and basically EVERYTHING is good. We've had: the ha gow, shiumai, baked charsiu bao, sauteed ong choy or bok choy, the seafood congee, fried shrimp wonton, sticky rice, turnip cake (one of my favorites), shrimp fun, and the entree (fish and vegetable with rice). It's all good!! read more

I asked for an itemized receipt and the guy at the cash register got angry so I'm giving them one star. -- Went for dim sum and was not impressed.. Their dim sum dishes were luke warm. Their shrimp dumpling was dry. Pork shiu mai was good but again dry and not hot. Had the Shanghai dumpling and it was decent (it was hot). Got the stir fried ung choi with garlic and it was ok. Needed more flavor. Maybe it's just me but I'm going back to Mei Sum. Their food is better I think. read more

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I think I better update my review of this restaurant called - Tai Pan Dim Sum, located at the Chinese Cultural Center. I was lucky enough to meet up with a cool group of Yeeps for our monthly dim sum get together...........and Tai Pan was the restaurant of choice. After eating at Tai Pan back in 2016, I remembered the dim sum here was pretty good, but the service was kind of questionable............. Fast forward to 2018, what a difference a few years make! Upon my return, the dim sum was still as good as I remembered it to be, but what a big difference in the service we got! I don't know if the overall service got better, or was it because I came here with a few friends..............and just so happens that one of my friends actually speaks fluent Chinese, and is a frequent diner here at Tai Pan. Service was pretty attentive, and basically several waitresses took care of our needs. We ordered an array of dim sum items (see pics), and at the end of our meal, one of my friends ordered some dim sum to take home for her mom...........now here's the kicker, when she ordered some custard tarts to take home, Tai Pan actually ran out of regular custard tarts, but they had one order of the egg white custard tarts available. My friend ended up buying the last order of the egg white custard tarts, while we were still sitting around in the restaurant enjoying each others company...........a fresh batch of egg custard comes out, so the (nice lady) waitress gave my friend a fresh order of these delicious custard tarts for free! How's that for great service???? I must say I was pretty blown away by the waitress's nice gesture! I was pretty happy for my friend who got the free grub, as she is very FAMOUS within the Yelp community! Lol! read more

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Aiya! What Chinese person would venture into Chinatown looking for Chinese New Year's food for the family on Chinese New Year and during lunchtime peak too! On the fly, unencumbered by babysitting duties, my wife and I ventured over to the Chinese Cultural Plaza to pick up food for our family on Friday, the start of Chinese New Year. I had the smarts to use the small parking lot behind Royal Kitchen to avoid having to contend with the cars using the main parking structure. My idea was Old KC Kitchen for their dumplings, Tai Pan Dim Sum for their jai, noodles and dim sum. When we arrived there was ample covered parking which was a big plus. Old KC Kitchen? Closed on Friday for Chinese New Year! I think the only time I've seen Chinese restaurants close was on Chinese New Year. Unfortunately Old KC Kitchen was one of them. No worries, there's many other restaurants in the Cultural Plaza that serve dumplings so no big deal. Next stop Tai Pan Dim Sum. Oh, oh...the line was out the door with a less than socially distancing hoard waiting just inside the door. I politely moved into the restaurant to jump ahead of the people wanted to dine in and around the folks that had already placed their orders. To my dismay the restaurant had run out of jai...on Chinese New Year...before lunch was over! Ugh! Ordered chicken chow fun, dry e-mein with chicken and 9 orders of potstickers (that's 27 potstickers for those of you who are counting) for the families' dinner plus some assorted dim sum for our lunch. The wait was over 45 minutes but hey, what do you expect when you order Chinese food during lunchtime on Chinese New Year from a Chinese restaurant that is open on Chinese New Year? Our dry e-mein was tasty and a good serving. In this case, dry is not a bad thing. It just means that the e-mein noodles are not swimming in gravy. The filling of the potstickers were vibrantly green. Very tasty but unless you love chives Tai Pan's version of potstickers might turn off folks who are more used to their potsticker filling to be light brown or beige (colored by ground pork, mushroom, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, etc.). This ended up a problem for our young grandkids but for the adults (at least those who like chives) the potstickers were tasty. The dim sum was standard fare but I must say that their pan fried turnip cake was among the best I've tasted in Honolulu. The moral of this Yelp review is to order your Chinese New Year food in advance and make sure the restaurant will be open! read more

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We came in and were seated right away. The service is excellent. The food is fresh, and there was so many employees working to help the customers. The stuffed eggplant was so juicy with shrimp, and the pork shumai was very flavorful! The look fun was great! It's a small restaurant but would definitely return (: read more

Good variety of choices and priced reasonable. I will go back and eat again. Or best to call in ahead of time for a speedy takeout. read more