Dining Scene
Hong Kong Dim Sum menu high on variety

By Debra Yuen
TGIF Editor

There's often a line outside Hong Kong Dim Sum on Bishop Street. That's because the plate lunches are made to order – they might take a little more time than at other fast-food joints. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

But as with most things, first glances can be deceiving. The eatery is not the size of a closet — there's actually room for a few people to sit and eat. And the reason for the wait: Each plate lunch is made to order.

That's right. Two woks and a hard-working staff stand at the ready to handle menu items that range from seafood chow fun ($4.68 for a small, $5.72 large) to curry chicken fried noodle ($3.64, $4.68) to sweet sour pork on rice (also at $3.64, $4.68) and many things in between.

The oyster sauce chicken chow mein ($4.11, $5.15) was overflowing with tender noodles and several generous pieces of dark-meat chicken — and that was a small order. A fellow at the head of the line ordered a large plate of something that was truly massive and brought eyeball popping all down the line — you'd have to be pretty hungry to finish that off.

These lunches also can be prepared without monosodium glutamate — good to know if you happen to be allergic (swelling up back at the office is so uncomfortable!).

True to the eatery's name, dim sum ranging from pork hash to taro cake to rice cake and more also are offered, ranging in price from 45 cents to a dollar. Manapua in several forms baked or steamed, char siu to vegetarian to black sugar to curry beef, are 80 cents each.

Check out the specials, too, posted on the front door. At $2.50 each, they're probably another reason there's usually an eager line.

Hong Kong Dim Sum is at 1104 Bishop St. Hours: 6:30 a.m.-6.30 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays. 521-3288.