Honolulu Cafe had been replaced by Ginger and Garlic

We have always known of this place in Richmond and heard of their popularity. Despite this we have never been into Honolulu Cafe. The Honolulu Cafe is another Hongkong Style cafe which serves a combination of chinese style cuisine with western cuisine.

The Honolulu Cafe has three outlets. One is in Main St, Vancouver, and another in Kingsway Vancouver. We went to the one in Richmond on Westminster Hwy (address: 180-7771 Westminster Hwy).

The menu of such places are extensive running into hundreds of different items with different menus for different time of the day. We went at 10:30am and found that they were still serving breakfast. They were adamant of not serving the lunch menu until 11am. Since we did not have to go anywhere in the afternoon, we told the waitress that we’ll wait for 30 minutes and asked for the menu.

As in all HK Style Cafe, there is always the Milk Tea with Ice. They came free of charge with each order from the lunch menu.

Suanne asked for what is known as the Hot Pan Set Dinner. In this set dinner, she gets to choose two entrees from the menu. Suanne choose the 5oz Ribeye Steak and Baked Salmon Puff. One gets also to choose the sauce from black pepper, garlic, mushroom, onion or gravy. Suanne opted for the mushroom sauce. The dinner set also includes the soup of the day and a garlic toast. To top off the selection, she also gets to choose between rice or spaghetti. All these for only $10.95.

The garlic toast was a thick block of white bread. It was toasted really nicely with a slight hint of garlic. If it had more spread of garlic, it would have been perfect. The soup of the day was the vegetable, onion and tomato soup.

The ribeye steak and salmon puff is served on a hot plate on top of fries and some cut vegetables. The idea is to pour the sauce over the hot and sizzling hot plate. This throws up a pleasant aroma. The steak was OK and the salmon is served in a soft pastry.

The boys ordered the same old stuff that they like — the shredded chicken with salted fish fried rice. Large dish and costs $8.50.

For me, I ordered the Prawns and Asparagus with Creme Sauce on Fettucine. This dish costs $6.50. I was glad that the dish included quite a bit of mushrooms despite that it was not described on the menu. I had hoped that there are going to be a few spears of asparagus but it came sliced up. However, the prawns were good though. Although the sauce were creamy and rich, it lacked flavour.

I would describe the Honolulu Cafe as a typical HK cafe where the place is so busy and the waiters were so rushed. The waiter who waited on us were impatient and answered our question with monosyllable answers — and absolutely no eye contact whatsoever. Having gotten used to such service in such type of places, it really does not bother me at all.

However, if you have a dollar to stretch, the Honolulu Cafe does give you a lot of value for your money. Quality is not top notch but certainly made up for it with the quantity of food they offer. You should check it out, if not already, and be prepared to overlook their less than perfect service.

I just love their Iced Milk Tea.