Mei Sum Dim Sum

No frills for Dim Sum and service. Hot tea was tasty. Street parking is sometimes difficult to find. Be patient.

This was quite the experience! We recommend you come with patience and the mentality that there may be a wait due to limited seating and very busy staff. We waited about 20 minutes but once seated we quickly began flagging down waitresses to get our orders in. The food was very good and came out fairly quick once you got your orders in. The garlic chicken wings with the chili paste was very nice as well!! Get the egg tarts before they’re gone, they’re sweet and are perfect to eat with tea.

Dim sum was overall delicious. The chicken bao had an unusual taste, but it might have been because of the bittermelon we had with lunch. Service was fast and efficient.

Good place for dim sum lovers. Plenty of seafood and fish options. Tasty. Service was slightly slow

Cheap place to have Dim Sum, Atmosphere is a bit dated..

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Our family has always enjoyed Mei Sum for its delicious dim sum and dishes at reasonable prices. Great value for the quality here. It can get busy, so if you have a large group, call ahead for reservations.

Fast and fresh food. The garlic chicken wings were exceptionally good. We came early in the morning to ensure we got the most fresh baked goods as well Look Fun with shrimp had nice big pieces of deliciousness. We also got the sweet coconut sesame ball which was hot and fresh! Everything was super good and the place opened extra early! Sunday was our best early morning visit so far.

We love the food here. Great selections on Dim sum, made fresh and great food and the prices are affordable. Very little English is spoken here. But they do a great job. Party of 3 for lunch we got their around 11am. We were served immediately, it wasn't too busy yet. Our food came out very quickly. We were disappointed in their recommendation for their house special noodles. It had no flavor and it was the only thing that we didnt like. Here are a few of the great dishes we ordered. Highly recommended.

When there for lunch, was lucky to find street meter parking nearby, normally you would have to park in the municipal parking or look for street parking. When we arrived it wasn't that crowded, but it started to fill as we dined. We ordered Chicken feet, Char Sui bun, shrimp dumplings, pork hash, scallop look fun, seafood half moon, sweet coconut ball. The chicken feet were very good with lots of flavor my wife ordered another order. The char Sui bun was good and hot and the bun was soft and tasty also the char Sui pork. The shrimp dumplings also were tasty and came out nice and hot. The pork hash was a decent size and was also good. The scallop look fun was bland and you would know that there was any scallops inside. A disappointment. Seafood half moon was good and full of different kinds of seafood. The sweet coconut ball was terrible, it came out cold and greasy and not crispy a big disappointment.

Mei Sum is alright for dim sum. Not junk, but not shaka kine either. If I'm craving dim sum and happen to find parking right in front, sure, I'll stop and eat. If no parking, I'm not going out of my way. I rather stand in da long sss line at Sing Cheong's haha The food? It's fine. I pretty much tried everything that the Honolulu Magazine review hyped up, and while I wasn't blown away, I also wasn't salty. Just solid, standard dim sum--nothing that made me think, "brah, I gotta come back tomorrow" Service is exactly what you expect from an old-school Chinese spot in Hawaii. Pake aunties running the floor. no sugarcoating, no extra smiles, just straight up efficiency. If you grew up here, you get it. If you're complaining about their service, you probably didn't Bottom line: If you're nearby and in the mood, go for it. If you have to make an effort, you're not missing out on anything life changing This place still deserve one shaka though, the kine you trow when someone let you in their lane

Unpretentious Chinese café with reasonable prices and some amazing bites. Our favorites were the beancurd roll (loaded with shredded vegetables and pork), Look fun with shrimp (bigger shrimp than normally used at dim sum restaurants from New York to San Francisco) and panfried pork and vegetable bun (the bun was so soft and pillowy and pan fried just perfectly).

I would frequent this restaurant a lot for take out in previous years as a student going to school and loved their food from the beginning. I had once again returned at the start of the Chinese New year & parade and we were definitely here for it! Always a local favorite of mine when it comes to Dim sum, I knew that this was the perfect simple date night to bring my husband to try and knowing that it would be busy for the holiday weekend I made sure to make advance reservations. The Dim sum did not disappoint and as I'm writing this now I can still taste the half moons, shrimp look fun and pork hash that we tried as well as the shrimp dumplings just to name a few. I love the jian dui or sesame ball for dessert and the egg drop soup was a nice accompaniment before attending a show at the Hawaii Theater for the evening. The ambiance is very casual and the service is always friendly quick and efficient! Be prepared to pay for parking too right across the street

Mei Sum Dim Sum is a no frills Chinese restaurant located in Downtown Honolulu. Upon arrival, their team quickly sat me and within minutes brought me a selection of dumplings to choose from. The Shanghai dumplings took about 15 minutes because they made them fresh for my order and they were well worth the wait. Their menu is extremely affordable and the service is fast. My dim sum lunch cost me less than $20 with tip and tax. You can't beat that in today's economy!

Our new dim sum place in Honolulu! Service was fast and friendly. Dim sum came out quickly and was yummy and fresh. Can't wait to return!

Been to Honolulu twice but only this time I get to visit the Chinatown. Anywhere I go I can't find good Chinese cantonese foods anymore but thank God I found this place by chance. Got to taste their authentic cantonese taste. I hope this place survives long enough for me to visit again in the future. The governor or mayor of Honolulu needs to help revive this Chinatown as many tourists will appreciate for sure

Mei Sum Dim Sum is one of many great places in downtown for dim sum. What I like about this place in comparison to other dim sum restaurants is the welcoming, sit down, and eat as a family vibe. I don't feel rushed when i order. Servicers are calm, collective, and caring. Most of all, I can order my hearts content without feeling forced to buy or being discouraged to not buy too much. Food is delivered fast and on a timely basis. The taste of each item that I ordered had flavor. Aromatic, sweet, salty, ginger, and garlicy flavors working together for a tasty meal. Payment Cash or credit Restrooms are looking in the back Parking -Metered parking (free on Sundays and holidays, Saturdays free after 5pm) -Structure parking -Street parking

I've never had Dim sum before. I went with a family friend and took my kids. I was super hesitant to bring them because their palate is that of babies lol. If chicken nuggets aren't on the menu it's probably not a place for us. My kids loved it!!' They ate so much!! The food was hot and served so quickly !! The pace was fast. The service isn't American polite but I get it. And wasn't offended at all. Will be going back.

Rarely do I try different places for dim sum as I have my favorite places and humans are creatures of habit. Met here to yum cha with some former colleagues, now friends. It's always nice to catch up over food. Their prices are more reasonable compare to the places I usually go to though. Small $3.95, Medium $5.25, Large $6.95. One type of tea, you don't have to choose and it comes with the meal. Service was what you'd expect at a dim sum place. I spoke Cantonese while ordering so felt we go things a little quicker. I got my usual favorites, turnip cake, black bean spare ribs. Gotta get siu mai and ha gau when you go dim sum. My friend taught me you can ask for green onion and cilantro when you order your cheong fun. Game changer! We got it with char siu. Their eggplant stuffed with fishcake was deep fried and dusted with garlic chips. First time having it prepared that way. I think I prefer pan fried with black bean sauce. A dish I haven't seen before was a midsized scallop that was in a taro nest. Interesting, a little oil. I don't think I'd get that again. They weren't too busy so we got a table right away. It was 10am on a Sunday. We were there until close to noon chatting away. Since there were still open tables, they didn't pressure us to leave. At bustling dim sum places, you feel obligated to surrender your table.

Located in Chinatown, on Nuuanu Ave, the food is tasty. They do not have private parking. You can do street parking, public parking across the street or underground. I recommend the underground parking as it is cheaper and convenient. Street parking can be hard to find. There are several tables in the restaurant, but it can be busy at lunch. The service is fast as they seat you right away if there is a table available. They also will take order right away if you know what you want. The food is made when you order and comes out hot and fresh. Overall the food and service is good. The restaurant is fairly clean.

This is our go-to dim sum joint. When we have a craving, when meeting friends for lunch or dinner, we always offer this as an option for pickup and takeout or meeting spot. Service is fast except on Chinese New Year....NOT a good idea, they are swamped and stressed out. This year, we waited 40min for our order, while others said they waited longer. Same with people seated and dining in, everything was taking a long time and I saw one family get up and leave without paying as far as I could see. The dad and kids got up and left while the mom stood in line about 10min and then left the restaurant. They didn't come back in the 20min I sat waiting for my order. But every other day we have been there we have not had to wait more than 5 min and if you are really impatient ask what they have ready in the baskets and order from those. We don't mind waiting, just drink more tea and talk story. I hope that family came back to pay, but for those who find themselves in that situation, you can always just leave an estimated amount including tax and go...without tip. Cash or check left at the register or hand to a staff person. Or, it looks bad, but you can also walk out and come back later and pay them when they aren't so stressed.

Writing this review on behalf of my mom...she said their service was amazing! Very personable, made conversation, gave good recommendations and were so pleasant! They got lots of dim sum and also a special cake noodle with lots of seafood (fish, scallop, shrimp, squid, chicken, char siu, and veggies). She couldn't stop raving about the jin doi that was so good when it was fresh and warm! They said the mochi rice ball was a bit peppery but that's what I like! They even bought extra dim sum to share with our neighbor since they wanted to support even more! Plus they brought some home for me. Woohoo! Reasonable parking at the municipal lot for $1.50/hr. We love local businesses and especially businesses who give great service. Can't wait to go back and get more dim sum! Yum yum!

We came right after their "cart" service (available 7am-2pm) so service was a little slow, but to be expected. They definitely had a crowd during that time that was finishing up. We tried 6 different options and everything was delicious. Shanghai dumplings, shrimp pork hash, spare ribs with black bean sauce, mushroom chicken dumplings, and pot stickers. Zero complaints for me and my friends!

Felt like dim sum and struck out on another place, so we ended up here. No regrets! The food was good, the service was adequate. Definitely would return! Prices are reasonable and the parking was easy to find. Overall a good place for Chinese food and/or dim sum!

Very sad this visit. Said open 9am. Came 10am. Tried to order chicken feet. Not ready. Okay, ribs, Sui Mai, shrimp chive, tripe and seafood dumplings. Don't how they did this, but shrimp dumplings was warm and wrapper was cold. Rest of food came out warm. We decided to just pack up everything and steam it at home. Tried to order Jin dui to go. No luck there either. Main reason was for visit was chicken feet.

Omg!!! I so love this place ... I want to go back already! Honestly this will be one of my shortest reviews because I can't recall every dim sum we ordered - but we did go all out with two go arounds of ordering plus some desserts! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures - but I will next check-in! Good- delicious totally 5 stars!! Parking there is on street parking which is a hit and miss. But lots of parking garages in walking distance... Cleanliness- restaurant was clean! Did not go to the restroom so can't comment on that. Service was quick easy to point at menu for pictures and multiple wait staff checked in on us. Totally do recommend food is very tasty! Definitely a 5 star yelp review!! The fat cells are doing the happy dance!!

This is one of my go to place for Dim Sum when in the area. The dim sum comes quick. Slow on the dishes ordered from the menu. Nice lady servers and great on service in cutting the dim sum in half for sharing and serving us ( 5 ) indivdual bowls at tableside of the Shrimp Fried Rice. Dim Sum - ordered all veious types and loved all of it. My fave is chives with shrimp dumpling. The mochi rice in lotus leaf wasnʻt salty and it had a good ratio of meet inside. All the dim sum we ordered was ʻonolicious. Noodle - Look Fun with shrimp. I remembered thēis dish used to be alot more. It seemed smaller. Anyways, the sauce is a nice salty smooth dark soy based that goes well with the wide flat noodle rolled anout 3 times with Shrimp. its a good choice to order. Shrimp Fried Rice - Not much shrimp in my bowl. Their fried rice is tasty with bits of egg and small cut up cabbage, onion that i could see. It is tasty. Custard tart - The crust changed in my opinion. Today it was almost cookie like. Which to me is jist AWESOME. I donʻt remember the crust like that but it was good! The custard tasted the same. Creamy and smooth. Cnaʻt go wrong with that one!

Let me just say, I've tried to like this place but last night's dining experience did it for me. Never again. Let me repeat, NEVER AGAIN! Upon entering, the workers didn't greet us with a welcoming demeanor but "how much in your party?" Okay, cool...this isn't a fine dining spot but still, restaurant etiquette 101. *rolls eyes* Once we got to our table, I noticed how nasty the high chair was and immediately told my boyfriend to get my son's stroller in the car. I wish I got a picture of it. It's giving unsanitary vibes. *second red flag* After ordering our food, which took the server awhile to even allow us to order, we waited FOREVER. I was so ready to throw in the towel and leave! But whatever, our minced beef soup came and that's when it went downhill... We took a few bites and my son and boyfriend were disgusted!!!! The soup tasted like dishwashing soap!!!!!!!! Oh myy gooooooooodness!!! No!! Minced beef soup is our absolute favorite when eating Chinese! We tried to wave someone down to let them know but it took forever for someone to come to our table. I politely let our server know and all she did was walk away...no immediate apology or anything. At this point, I've completely lost my appetite. But to let my boyfriend have his Chinese food fix, I kept my cool and went about our night. Everything else we ordered was slowly rolling in and the verdict? The dim sum was delicious, hence, the ONE star. The fried rice was not at all good, just bleh. When asking for the check, we waited yet again, longer than usual. The server finally apologized when given the check, maybe to get some brownie points for a decent tip? I think NOT! We were the youngest adults there and felt discriminated in a sense. Never again will I try this place out! Disgustingly dirty, poor customer service, and soapy soup. Next!!!!!!

I'm always looking for a dim sum place that has a wide variety of items that are done very well. Clean, fast service. Mei Sum Dim Sum has most of this but not all. Easy parking across the street (paid lot). They seated us quickly (granted, we went on a week day at 1pm). Pretty clean for a Chinese restaurant. :) Several items had only two per serving, others had 3 - so it was a bit challenging for the four of us to divvy items up without over ordering. The place is definitely not fancy! Hot and sour soup: 4/5 Ong choy: 5/5 Char siu bao: 5/5 (4 pieces), we prefer steamed so this was great, but we also admired the baked char siu buns as they looked like the kind we like as well (smaller bun with a glazed look on the top) Siu mai: 5/5 (four pieces) Deep fried shrimp dumpling: 4/5 (heavier on dough but still crispy, 3 pieces) Pan fried pork and vegetable bun: 5/5, excellent! (3 pieces) Potstickers: 4/5 (3 pieces) Mochi puff: 3/5 (came to table at room temp, cut into halves with not much filling) Bean curd roll: 5/5 (I had to ask three times for it because they kept forgetting, there was a lot of carrot in it which I don't typically prefer but I thought it was delicious!) We'd like to try some other places and would consider going back to Mei Sum Dim Sum.

I'm really fond of this Dim Sum spot. It's absolutely delicious and their food is full of flavor. I visited this restaurant with one of my friends since we were exploring Chinatown together for lunch. Service: Friendly and tentative, especially since we were the only ones present. Ambiance: Good family spot to eat!

I had not been back to Mei Sum since the change in ownership. The shop looks exactly the same, small, busy, and cozy. They don't really roll carts around anymore but they come to your table, take your order, and bring the hot items to your table quickly. We over ordered (as we tend to do) and satisfied my dim sum cravings. Parking kind of is a pain Downtown but jot horrible.

Tasty, inexpensive, and quick. However, some menu items are expensive, so be careful when ordering. A restaurant you want to repeat. All the manju in this restaurant are delicious. Dessert manju is also delicious. However, egg tarts are not delicious at any of the dim sum restaurants downtown. 美味しい、安い、早い。ただし、メニューによっては高価なものもあるので、注文する際には注意が必要です。リピートしたいお店。このお店の饅頭はどれも美味しいです。デザートの饅頭も美味しいです。しかし、ダウンタウンの点心屋ではエッグタルトはどこも美味しくありません。

Going for dim sum any time I leave Chicago is just something I do. It's a challenge to see if we do it better at home or if it can be dope elsewhere. I think that while Mei Sum had some hits, overall it was just ok for us. It had the classic traits of a good Chinese place: using the bathroom for storage, servers who look annoyed you're there, lots of other Chinese families. The food was good. There wasn't much diversity in dim sum choices on the menu but everything was solid. And the pricing wasn't bad at all. It was shockingly one of the cheaper meals we had in Honolulu.

This is a no-frills eatery with the best dim sum in Hawaii! The Siu Mai was steaming hot, yet with a soft wrapper around the pork and shrimp center. The pieces of Har Gau were huge and tasty!, as well as everything else. The service was quick, and the server friendly.

My friend picked this spot for her birthday dinner. It was my second time here and there wasn't noticeable change from my first visit. It took us a bit to find parking as there were issues with the gate at one garage, and we kept taking the wrong one-way streets. It was quite the adventure but we got a good laugh out of. Fortunately and eventually we found metered street parking not too far away. Restaurant is chilly, in more ways than one; a jacket will only solve one problem. There were tiny bugs, maybe gnats, that would not leave our table. We must've looked crazy swatting the air all night. Staff was attentive and there were no issues flagging anyone down. Food was tasty and hot, my favorite was the bao. I couldn't resist ordering more before we left so I could enjoy them the next day. I wish they would pan fry their look fun like other places. I might suggest, with certain forewarning, to grab a bite or two, here. Definitely wouldn't turn down an invite.

Very authentic dim sum! Park on the street and feed the meter. Choose what you want to eat by looking at the photos in the menu as most staff speak Chinese. The restaurant is clean; service is turned over quickly, and dishes arrive promptly. Many locals eat here. The restaurant is not fancy! However, the food is excellent!

They had a book to sign in at the front. We signed in for 2 and waited right outside, and several parties signed in after us. They called all of those parties and sat them before us. It may have been a form of anti-lgbtq discrimination, and I may file a complaint with the Hawaiʻi Civil Rights Commission for them to investigate. I don't know what other reason there is for sitting all of the larger parties who signed in after us before us. Then they didn't even acknowledge that they made that mistake. We are semi-regulars here but I do not want to continue giving them my business after this discriminatory and second-class treatment. Don't come here if you want to be treated fairly.

First off going to be honest , food is decent. Why 2 stars .... Be warned right now ! Last two times I went there my bill was more than expected from menu prices. I'm not sure if they do this to everyone , but last 2 times, apparently they added gratuity to bill. They didn't say that they did ...and gladly accepted 18 % more on top. This second time I asked them why the bill was so much ... they got caught .., and didn't know what to say accept English no good. F - that , they knew exactly what they was doing !!! So be warned ! If your check is more ... they probably added on gratuity!!

The service may be blunt and lacking any personal touches but the food and dim sum is always spot on. It's BYOB so that's a plus. Parking is not the greatest there is a paid lot but stalls are tight. I usually do a few turns around the block and find street parking, worth the walk. Basic Chinese restaurant set up with round tables and tablecloths, bathroom needs updating. I recommend this place and have been coming for years

If you crave dim sum at 2pm in the day, Mei Sum dim sum is serving! It's one of my go-to dim sum spots whenever I'm in downtown. The selection never disappoints, food comes out quickly, restaurant space and cleanliness is . Parking be a challenge depending what time and day you go, but it usually doesn't take too long to find meter parking on the street. There's also Mark's garage right across if you feel that is your last resort.

Need sum Din Sum? hehe... try Mei Sum Din Sum in downtown HNL. Located in a tiny gated, but open, building on Nuu'anu across from Mark's Garage. Street parking is king in this area, but the other municipal parking lots are available as well. Inside you'll see a wide open space with many tables to dine at and also to allow the workers to roll their cart around with your goodies. I've only eaten here once, and really don't know how to judge these types of joints as for they all taste the same to me. One things for certain, nothing tasted bad or inedible so safe to say their stuff was good. Came with an out-of-town friend who said she's been here before and enjoyed their food so I was lucky to tag along. Service was typical for me. They greet you, seat you, give you water and tea, then take your order. Plus too, because they constantly come back to see if you want anything else, we weren't really left high and dry without anything to drink or eat. We ordered many items that contained some sort of seafood, and I wasn't really the one ordering, but I couldn't complain either for everything we had was ono. This spot surprised me in two ways. 1) I remembered the chicken wings were surprisingly ono and freshly made so each bite was steaming, piping, hot. 2) The other surprise was that we came out of this spot pretty full and satisfied. Just looking at the size and amount of each dish was like, that's all? I was thinking, "we will need to eat again right after this." But, low and behold, we were stuffed. As mobile food disposals, this is all we could ask for, happy bellies. If you live in the downtown area, or just visiting, check out Mei Sum Dim Sum for sum surprisingly ono grindz. Till da next visit, Grind On, Pau!

Great place, authentic dim sum almost in the heart of Chinatown. Affordable prices, delicious food overall great experience.

Best bean curd and har gao. Clean and efficient service if they only had parking but happy with food quality and portions

It was my first time trying out Mei Sum Dim Sum in Chinatown. I heard they closed but now they reopened with new management and owner. I went with a group of friends and we arrived at 10:00am. We got a table for the 6 of us right away but around 11:00am to 12:00pm, it was packed with a bunch of people waiting outside to be seated. That a sign that this place is legit lol. We ordered a lot of popular dim sum dishes (such as: siu mai, shrimp dumplings, seafood rolls, mochi rice, egg tart, chicken feet, look fun, spare ribs, etc.), fried dishes (such as: fried shrimp wonton, fried taro, fried seafood roll, etc.), and some stir-fried entree dishes. Everything came out fresh and hot. There were a bunch of steam coming out from each dishes. It was tasty and good. I like how their fried dishes were also hot too which shows it was prepared fresh. I always have issues with other dim sum places where the fried foods were never hot or warm. The shrimps in the dumplings, look fun, wontons, and entree dishes were de-vine and huge. The size was generous and there were a good amount of them in the look fun. The entree dishes we ordered were Honey Walnut Shrimps, Seafood Noodle, and Fried Pork Chops with Peppery Salt. Honey Walnut Shrimps: The shrimp was good. It was super creamy with a hint of sweetness from the honey. There were a generous amount of walnuts with this dish. Seafood Noodle: The noodles were crispy and good. The seafood and vegetables on top were good and flavorful. I like the sauce for this dish. Fried Pork Chops with Peppery Salt: The pork chops were good. It wasn't tough and there were a good amount of pepper garlic toppings. Overall, a good dim sum place. The foods were good, but the service can be better. This place was super busy after 11:30-ish so it's understandable that the servers can get overwhelmed. However it was difficult to get our waters refilled as well as additional orders.

We were in the neighborhood looking for some authentic Chinese food and we found it! The decor is definitely dated but it makes the experience even more authentic. Great service and delicious food!

On a mission to go to Daiso, we found street parking right in front of Mei Sum Dim Sum. I am not a fan of dim sum except for pork hash, half moon and manapua. But of course I wanted to try this place out. Upon entering, I was greeted, most of the dim sum are ready for purchase, not knowing what they all cost, I'm buying things blind until I'm told what I owe. I didn't care for the park hash. The manapua had some big chunks of char siu, I think they should be smaller pieces , but the black sugar gin dui was ono! My bill came out to 15.00. There was a strange smell in this restaurant that did not make me feel good thus I will not be returning to Mei Sum.

We ordered take out and it was goooood! They serve dim sum all day so we were able to have sum for dinner. The food did not taste at all like it was sitting around all day. Food was fresh and ono. The stuffed garlic eggplant was bomb. Minus 1-star for lack of parking esp if you are picking up a big order (we needed 2 people, 1 to wait in the car while parked in the crosswalk if front of the restaurant and 1 to pick up the order) and for the added wait time for a mix up in our order due to the language barrier but they made it up by giving us mochi puffs. Our order was ready at the time I gave for pick up. Will definitely order again and have them slowly repeat the order back! PS the chow fun in the pics was homemade.

Great location, very easy to get to and the staff are funny , like FOB funny; direct, do not mince words, straight to the point, take your order, bring your food and leave you alone to eat! If you need anything extra you need to wave them down to get their attention. The Dim Sum was ok to good. I say that because the Siu Mai was only ok, didn't quite taste like the other thousands that I've had at other locations, Har Gau (Shrimp Dumpling) was great , the Bean Curd less than ok, the Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce was great , the Mochi Rice in Lotus Leaf was ok (my Aunt said hers was good) because it didn't seem fully cooked, and the Char Siu Gon Lo Mein was ok because there were clumps of noodles that had concentrated oyster sauce rather than evenly cooked through. All-in-all, I give this place 3-stars or, my personal rating of 3-shakas !

Our go to dim sum place, Golden Palace, has closed. The owner retired and the son didn't want to take over, so we needed a new place to go to. Searching on Yelp, Mei Sum came up. I want to say that we had come here before, I think when they were in their old location. Parking can be a bit of a challenge. We just parked in the lot across the street. No carts or cute ladies walking around. You tell them what you want and then they bring it to you. They had all the favorites: sui mei, har gaw, stuffed tofu, chicken and chives. However, they were all out of custard tarts. She recommended these rolls, which I thought may have had a custard filling but had char siu instead. They were good, just not the same. Staff is friendly although, the shouting at each other in Chinese was amusing. Steady flow of customers coming in. The funniest was the hapa tourist couple that brought their own chopsticks, and were all lovey-dovey with each other...get a room! LOL! Definitely worth checking out, but I do miss those cute ladies that would bring around the carts. Mahalo Mei Sum!

Honolulu Magazines top five dim sum joints on the island. Good excuse to revisit. And... One of the only dim sum eateries to use mei gui lu jiu (Chinese rose wine). It's different and not for me. Example 1: Dried scallop dumpling - reconstituted shredded dried scallops and wood ear fungus with rose wine in a won ton wrapper. Great texture, loads of umami but a bizarre finish of "stink roses" for lack of a better description. 2/5. Example 2: Bean curd roll - MSG seasoned ground pork, shredded carrots and lots of wood ear fungus and rose wine in a well steamed bean curd wrapper. Again, upfront flavor is good, umami high, but the rose finish brings out a funky barnyard taste in the pork. 2/5. The requisite two items to measure a dim sum restaurant: Har gao - thicker crystal skin wrapper surrounds a mixture of fresh and dried shrimp with copious amounts of diced water chestnuts giving it a very different texture. 3/5. Siu mai - a mixture of ground and chunky pork. Well seasoned and cooked. Tender throughout. 4/5. Others from top to bottom: Tripe - Well cleaned and cooked, loads of ginger and great chili heat from fresh sliced chilies. 5/5. Spare ribs in black bean sauce - Uber meaty and tender. Taste more like Okinawan shoyu pork. 4/5. Fishcake w/ corn - Well flavored heavily seasoned with MSG. Too bad they used frozen corn with rubbery cellulose layer. 3/5. Scallop and spinach dumpling - Very thick crystal wrapper loosely filled with two tiny bay scallops and frozen spinach. Uninspired. 2/5. Extremely efficient phone ordering with the server reading back the entire order before setting a pickup time. Packaged well and ready at the promised time. Chinatown prices. COVID note for dine-in: The restaurant is still trying their best to social distance guests and is properly sanitizing tables, chairs and high touch surfaces. Grabbing the door handle dripping with Clorox... Ahhh the good old pandemic days! Different but if it's your jam...

I came to Mei Sun for a work lunch one day. Honestly, the food wasn't as good as I remember it a few years ago. We ordered a bunch of different things, but I really only tried the steamed char siu bao and sesame rolls. The bao was definitely sitting in the steamer for too long because the bun was very soggy in certain bites. I got to try both the sweet red bean and coconut sesame rolls. Both had the perfect texture - light and crispy. Honestly the food wasn't that great and service was not great either. One of our dishes was taking long and the waiter just said "yeah coming" more aggressive than I'd like. No sorry, no nothing.

I honestly don't think I ever tried this dim sum place. It's kind of tucked in Nuuanu Ave below a condo. Street parking available. After reading about it on Frolic Hawaii being voted for #1 on the top 5 dim sum places, we went to order some takeout the first time. Second time we went to dine in. Service was attentive and great. We ordered our usual for breakfast such as pork hash, shrimp dumplings, mochi rice balls, seafood roll, congee, half moon, and steamed look fun. Everything tasted great and fresh. I think this will be our usual place for dim sum now.

Ordered roast duck $17 upon arrival asked if the item is roast dick or deep fried duck, maybe they made a mistake. The duck was old, hard, non and deep fried. They would not admit... gave them 3 opportunity to make it better.. did not eat the duck , paid the bill and walked out .. Lost a customer

I was craving some dim sum and this place hit the spot. Yes, they were understaffed when I got there and it took about half an hour for the food to come out but it was worth the wait. The siu mai was as delicious. The fried fish balls were so crunchy outside and tasty inside. The best was the mochi sticky rice balls. Never had this dish before and could eat all day. Highly recommend

You can't beat this place. So authentic and the food is so fresh! This is our second time grinding here and both times we had to get rolled out of the restaurant. We ate our usual shrimp ball, manapua, fried taro, noodles and look funn. Grindage!!! And parking is right across the street. It's $9.50 for two hours.

Do you like Dim sum? The traditional Chinese meal made up of small plates of dumplings and other snack dishes and is usually accompanied by tea. Similar to the way that the Spanish eat tapas. This restaurant located in Chinatown serves a great variety of dishes. There are so many choices even beyond dumplings. This restaurant looks like an old run down diner, so don't expect much, but the food makes up for it. It took us a little while to get served as they were quite busy, but once we started ordering the service was great. True authentic dim sun ordered directly not off a cart, so it comes out fresh. There are also literally dozens of other dishes to be ordered with it. The dishes are served to be shared amongst those in your party. Great for brunch.

Went to Mei sum for some Dim sum! Ordered out usuals! Shumai, charsui bao, Mochi rice wrapped in lotus leaves, and har gao. Prices are not bad. Good place to come for Dim Sum! Also recently went here and got take out and tried some new things I've never tried before like their seaweed rolls and fishcake corn patty.

One of my favorite dim sum place on the island. The quality of food is good, fast, and efficient... if you're ordering from the kitchen be prepared to wait because it can get busy on holidays or rush hour... go during slower times of the day and the service is excellent.