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Cheap Eats: Kaimuki Chop Suey

With Lyle Galdeira and Russell Yamanoha

KAIMUKI (HawaiiNewsNow) This week Russ and Lyle travel to the top of the hill in Kaimuki, and have some Chinese Food off Waialae Avenue. They’ve got some great specials, manapua, and all your favorite dim sum at Kaimuki Chop Suey.

The stretch between 10th and Koko Head Avenue on Waialae Avenue is a Cheap Eats hot spot, and Kaimuki Chop Suey is one of the best.

Lyle asked one table of customers: “Alright on the table we got oyster sauce chicken over cake noodle, some chow funn and over there we got the Chinese chicken salad. So tell me, what's the plan of attack here?”

“I think we're going to go for the Chicken Cake Noodle first, then fight over the Chow Funn” said Dayna Teruya of Mililani.

“This is called Shanghai noodles” said Maria Tom of Nuuanu.

“And you're going to eat all that?” asked Lyle.

“Of course!”

The kitchen here is always on the move. Almost every order is prepared in one very hot wok, by one very busy chef. Today, he's making bitter melon with beef.

Bitter melon always cooks with black bean sauce. After tossing in some carrots for color, the chef finishes it off with some seasonings and chicken broth.

If you want to come in for something really quick, Kaimuki Chop Suey has it all. All your favorite manapuas. They got baked, they got steamed, they got rice cakes. Any kind of manapua you like, they got it right here at Kaimuki Chop Suey.

And that's just back in the kitchen. Hanging in the window out front, they have roast ducks. Which is great news for everyone... except the duck!

“This duck has seen better days, man” said Russ.

And of course, Kaimuki Chop Suey also features roast pork and char siu.

One of the best things about coming to a Chop Suey place is you get to have a little bit of everything. Russ and Lyle try the beef chow funn, off the chopping block. They also try out the roast duck, roast pork, the char siu, pork with green beans, their chicken salad, the dim sum, and the manapua.

Lyle’s favorite is their special, a mound of food: the oyster sauce chicken over cake noodle. And its only five bucks. That's Cheap Eats.

Most menu items are served ala carte and most are in the six to eight dollar range. All of them are Cheap Eats approved.

“Ho, look at this roast pork” said Lyle. “Crunchy on the outside, you hear the crunch, moist on the inside. This is awesome.”

That's Kaimuki Chop Suey, at the corner of Waialae and Koko Head Avenues in Kaimuki. That's a manapua stop on this week's Cheap Eats.

Kaimuki Chop Suey
3611 Waialae Avenue
735-6779