Papa's Cafe Chinese Restaurant

If you’re visiting Chinatown with kids and want to full up without making a huge dent in your wallet, this is it! This has been our most affordable meal the entire time we’ve been in Hawaii, and it was absolutely delicious! We had the teriyaki chicken with rice and the shrimp fried rice, both great. What makes this a good family option is that the portions are generous which makes it a good family-style dining option.

A co-worker and I headed up to Maunakea Marketplace to pick up lunch from Mei Mei but it was unusually crowded so we ended up at Papa’s on the outside of the Marketplace, on Hotel Street. It’s a small space with four or five tables. We ordered Minute Chicken Cake Noodles and Seafood with Crispy Noodles. The restaurant was empty, so service was fast. My seafood plate contained a lot of seafood in a tasty sauce … too much sauce, as it drowned the noodles and softened them. However, it was very good and powered through and finished off my plate. My friend couldn’t finish his Minute Chicken … It was too much food for him. We miss Canton House, just down the street, as it was our “go to” place for Chinese food. However, Papa’s is an adequate substitute … The menu is vast for such a tiny place, and we’ve always been able to find something to please our palate. The prices are reasonable and thus we can continue to give it a thumbs up recommendation.

Great tasting food. We ordered the wonton noodle soup, laksa (with braised beef), and beef chow fun (with gravy). The noodles and soups were packed separately. The laksa was nice and spicy, and the beef cubes were incredibly tender! The chow fun was also very good, with tender thin slices of beef and the bell peppers were cooked perfectly. This is our second time ordering from this take out. So good!