Sunflower Cafe

Not much words for this place. The food was meh, way overpriced (they gave us 8 shrimps for the price of $ 12), and the service was mediocre.

My second visit here. Got the Kabocha with Spare Ribs again. Winnahs again. Not on the regular dinner menu but was on the wall as a special. I don’t ever remember seeing any other Chinese restaurant that serves kabocha. Hainanese Chicken was good but they had run out of their special rice, which I’ll have to try next time. String Beans were fresh and crispy. Char Siu Fried Rice (not on menu, but made to order) was tasty. Jook with the thousand year old egg was very tasty. Potstickers for starters was excellent. Overall a very satisfying meal.

This place is great! We had dim sum and soup noodles and all were delish! The service was fast and friendly. The place was pretty clean, too. If you’re looking for fast, yummy and reasonably priced food you should come to Sunflower Café!

This is my go-​to place for Hainanese chicken rice (either dine-​in or take-​out). Hoping to go back and try their dim sum dishes next time!

You know, the first time I ate here, I came back a few days later, and once again the following week. That makes thrice in two weeks! It’s not that the food here is earth-​shatteringly delicious (although it is very tasty). But being from Hong Kong, I’m always seeking out these little eateries on the island that remind me of food from the homeland. Sunflower Café must have hit a big nostalgia nerve, because I find myself wanting to come back pretty often.
Location/​Parking: Sunflower Café is located on Mauna Kea Street, also known as the street with Chinese Cultural plaza on it, and the one with all the cheap florists that make the best haku leis (flower crowns, for you outsiders, and for heaven’s sake not the Coachella-​kind), and the one with the char siu/​roast duck king Nam Fong on it. Yes, Mauna Kea Street is full of goodies, and Sunflower Café is one of them. The cheapest and easiest parking is in the Municipal lot on your right.
Ambiance: I’m so tired of calling restaurants holes-​in-​the-​wall. Hawaii is the land of small business; every place is a hole in the wall! Sunflower Café is a casual, dine-​in Chinese restaurant in Chinatown (take-​out, too) with simple, tasty food, and quick, friendly service. There is little to no décor except for the must-​have red-​and-​gold Kuan-​Yin mini shrine with incense and a couple of mini oranges as tribute. That kind of restaurant.
Food: Not to be pigeon-​holed as a dim sum place, Sunflower Café boasts dim sum, as well as a full menu of ala carte yummies. Their milk tea is a big draw for me, because in Hong Kong milk tea is pretty much the go-​to beverage even in nice restaurants, and certainly for breakfast or lunch. The milk tea here is not too sweet, and the tea flavor is palpable, which I appreciate.
Their Hainan chicken rice is the thing to order, especially for people who like the «nasty bits» of chicken — the fat, the cartilage, the skin, the bones — in short, all the flavorful bits that go overlooked by most. Surprisingly, the rice that comes with the Hainan chicken is wonderful — it’s very fragrant and soft, and each grain of rice seems to hold its own personality. It’s miles away from the crappy white rice you stuff into musubi or make into jookk when you don’t know what else to do with it. My dining buddy astutely pointed out that the rice is probably cooked with the chicken broth and fat so that it is elevated into something much more delicious. «Chicken-​ey rice!» It’s a joy to eat on its own, as well as with the savory, cold Hainan chicken.
The beef and tendon wonton noodles here are a great accompaniment to any rice dish you might be sharing with your table. Confucius say: two carb is happier than one carb. Zero carb is unhappiest of all.

Their century egg congee is delicious. Everything is made fresh. I love this place. Satisfied my craving and taste just like home. I usually eat dim sum in westminter California aka Vietnamese town.

This small little hole in the wall café is my dad’s absolute favorite when it comes to the Hainan chicken rice dish. Every time we are too lazy to cook, this is our to-​go place for a quick and delicious dinner. I usually order the beef stew and tendon noodles but I ask for half wontons with it. The portions are huge and really filling. Sometimes we even have extra to save for lunch the next day. We’re regulars there, so the servers know what we want once we sit down. Overall, the service is great and everyone is really friendly. The best part is that we get free dessert after our meal too :)

Excellent dim sum place with quick service. I recommend the shrimp dumplings, sesame balls, taro root and cha siu bao. A nearby takeout restaurant owner recommended it and we were not disappointed. If you would like a great sit down restaurant in China town, try it. This is not a fancy restaurant but good quality food.

craving dim sum, but alone = guaranteed you’re going to eat too much !
I didn’t feel comfortable going into most places I saw with huge tables. I randomly ended up at Sunflower which had a table for 2 open right by the door.
Of course dim sum works best when you’re sharing each dish with 2 – 4 people. Yeah, instead I shared each dish with myself and got totally stuffed for $ 17.
The dim sum cart was just parked up in the front of the restaurant and it didn’t seem like there was too much variety, but everything I had was enjoyable.
Service was friendly and I sensed they were steering me toward things they thought a mainland-​looking haole would want. So I did not actually see some of the more exotic items. Free hot tea.
Décor-​wise it’s a dive… but I left happy, and would go back.
update: just went back for dim sum brunch with a friend and it was another great experience for $ 23 including tax and tip for 2 people.

Just ate here tonight! So good :) loved the hainan chicken and rice, and the lobster with noodles too! I recommend the soy milk here too, they make it theirselves!
Great customer service and everyone was really nice. It’s owned by a Chinese couple and they are both really sweet. Seems like a nice small hole in the wall Chinese restaurant with real authentic food.
Will definitely be coming back soon! :)

I didn’t see any sunflowers at this restaurant, but only on the window. What a shame.
My Unilocal elite friend from Las Vegas and I came here on a recent Wednesday evening. A couple of co-​workers had come here before, but myself personally, had not dined here at all. First time here and it was past 8:00pm and I really don’t dare to be in Honolulu Chinatown, if I don’t need to be. Thankful that I was here with a friend, so I wouldn’t be too nervous as to what goes down here late at night. With that in mind, parking here can be a nightmare, especially when you are in the thick of it all. Best bet would be to just do those paid covered parking garages to get to wherever you need to go in Chinatown, but for us that night, we parked on the street nearby. For myself personally, many bus routes travel through Chinatown, including #1, 2, 3, 9, 13, 42, etc. Sunflower Café is your typical Chinese restaurant in the heart of honolulu Chinatown. Although the restaurant is small enough, it’s nice to be here on a quiet Wednesday night to have dinner, even though it can get creepy in this neighborhood after dark. Stuff happens, you know!
This uneventful visit to Sunflower Café on Wednesday, 12÷17÷14 was a positive one. While the restaurant was particularly empty on this night, it proved to be a nice one. My Unilocal friend strikes up a conversation with the waitstaff throughout our time here and it was pretty neat that I could understand all of it, while I could respond a little bit in Chinese. The Sunflower Café is located at 1157 Maunakea Street in the heart of Honolulu Chinatown. They accept major credit cards, except for American Express, which is great for me personally. The restaurant itself is pretty clean and organized. The ambiance of the restaurant was quiet and subdued, but I was told that this place does get crazy and busy during peak time, so that’s how it is during normal lunch and dinner times.
The menu was as typical as you can get it, but knowing myself and what my guilty pleasure was that night, I ordered off menu. I always loved the plain stir fried egg noodles that they have and ordered it in Chinese. I always remember that one in Chinese, as it was my favorite. Although it was about $ 13, the portions that was given was really generous and fit for a good 3 people at least. I was hungry and famished enough that I ate it all in one sitting. Yep, it was like that. Still, it was a nice and quiet dinner with a friend, whom was set to depart for home the next day. He decided on this place since he loved it so much on his last visit before, so he invited me to this place again.
While this place is your stereotypical restaurant for all things Chinese, this may be your alternative to the many other Chinese establishments in Chinatown itself and around Oahu for your dining needs. The food here is fresh and made to order. Although, I don’t necessarily would recommend a Chinese restaurant regularly, this place is one to check out. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what gems you’ll find here.
Support local!
B

I missed out on the Dim Sum and settled for dinner. The good news is the veggies in the dishes were crisp and fresh. The green beans which were likely long beans tasted good. There was a bit more salt than I enjoy. The hot and sour soup was tasteless to me. The Kung pao chicken was not notable. The chicken curry and rice was mostly rice with less than expected amount of curry. I didn’t care for the type of curry.
The staff was good.

I enjoyed eating at the Sunflower Café. It was a pretty good dim sum place, hence the 3.5 (which rounds up to four) star rating.
FOOD:
My boyfriend and I decided to get dim sum on a weekend morning, and we randomly picked this small restaurant in Chinatown. It was clean enough, and most of the families inside were not speaking English (always a good sign). The dim sum menu, I noticed, was considerably smaller and had less variety than other places we had visited previously. We decided to get our go-​tos, shrimp dumplings and egg tarts, along with turnip cakes (a dish my friend recently shared with me). I thought all three dishes were well done. There was a LOT of shrimp in the dumplings, and we got 3 turnip cakes for 2.75. NOT BAD! My boyfriend thought the egg tarts were too sweet, but I thought they were fine.
SERVICE:
Our waitress was quite sweet, but it took a while for them to bring out our checks and a to-​go bag. It took asking them a few times. Other than that, the service was fine.
DECOR:
Not much décor, and this is expected. Hole-​in-​the-​wall Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. ‘Nuff said.
OVERALL:
I enjoyed my time here. I would come again, but it isn’t my fave dim sum place. Still, our food was incredibly cheap, and we got a lot for what we paid for.
3.5 STARS/​5

Food is good, price is not bad. Service is pretty fast even during Chinese New year.
And the best part is this place is BYOB so you go to the liquor store right next door and you get your cheap liquor on!

While it’s not a café of sunflowers, this restaurant offers a mish mash of many different dishes. The morning I came here, I opted for the dim sum – but they also have different ala carte options for lunch and dinner.
Granted, the dim sum that they have here is most definitely not the best dim sum I’ve ever had… They have a lot of your standard items, but none of the dishes particularly stood out compared to what you could get at other restaurants. What I AM a fan of that they have here is the jook with yau ja gwai (thanks to John N. for spelling it out in his review… otherwise I might have completely butchered it!). Yes… In so many ways! We ordered this amongst several other dim sum items, but this was the standout.
I’m a huge fan of preserved duck eggs, and I could probably eat them every day – no kidding. So of course this is the jook that I ordered. If you’re squamish about eating black eggs, then there are other options that are avaliable too. The jook comes with generous helpings pork and preserved duck eggs, and is garnished with a healthy serving of green onion. Yum. Order a side of the yau ja gwai to dip in the jook, and I’m telling you. chinese food heaven! There’s actually a set that you could order, if you come early enough… before 11am that comes with jook, yau ja gwai, and 3 steamed manapuas. This will run you around $ 6 – 7, which is an AMAZING STEAL considering an order of jook is about $ 5 and some change by itsself.
Parking is meh, considering that this restaurant is located in Maunakea St. I don’t think they have their own dedicated parking. If you get lucky there’s a lot of metered parking, but if you come during peak Chinatown hours save yourself the headache and park in a parking structure nearby. One mega plus for this restaurant is that they do take credit cards!

Walked past here a billion times, never got to try this place. Came here for dim sum. Lately, my taste bud hasn’t been tasting right. But I don’t know why I thought the food was actually pretty good. Dim sum was always same to me. As long as it’s not too salty or too small or too expensive.
It was pretty empty. Not much people come around here I guess. But it’s a decent tasting.

Pops was craving da chinese beef stew in noodles again, so this time we decided to try a new place. Somehow we ended up in Chinatown tonight, and ended up at the Sunflower Café on Maunakea Street.
It’s a very small hole in the wall restaurant, I wanna say about 10 tables or so… when we ate there tonight, I was totally surprised at how crowded the restaurant was! Especially since it was night time, and diagonal across the restaurant area is a homeless soup line, so I must say, there are quite a bit of characters walking around in this area at night.
I didn’t feel like anything soupie tonight, so I just ended up getting the Dry Beef Chow Fun noodle dish. The noodles were very soft, with lots of bean sprouts & green onions. The beef was tender, and the dish was seasoned just right. I totally enjoyed my noodles tonight! Everything about the dish tasted so fresh, and I devoured it in no time!
Service was fast & friendly. There is no parking, so you either look for metered street parking, or park in one of the private pay parking lots near by.
Restaurant is not fancy, but clean… and the best part of our meal… it was DIRT Cheap! Check ‘em out!

Sunflower Café’s considered the jack of all trades type of Chinese café cuisine. Off the side on Maunakea Street, it is very small and sometimes often missed.
The reason my girlfriend and I picked this spot for our weekend brunch was that I was craving the weirdest combination of Chinese foods. It was:
Hot milk tea
Pork and preserved duck egg jook
Yau Ja Gwai (youtiao)
Chicken feet
Shrimp Dumplings
Since not many places actually serve all of those above items except for Sunflower Café and a few others, I couldn’t really nitpick the restaurants this time. I also wanted to try their milk tea for some time.
Hot milk tea — Served Hong Kong style which they pull the tea to make it smoother. Quality of tea wasn’t that great and it was just tea and evaporated milk. No sweetener agent inside nor did they offer any sugar or syrup. Taste without any sweetener became quite bland with the lower quality tea.
Pork and preserved duck egg jook — Hard to mess up but it was the highlight of the meal. You can tell ingredients were cut up and prepared on the same day unlike some other places that prepare items days ahead of time. Enough servings for two.
Yau Ja Gwai — I haven’t had this in a while and the taste is the same as anywhere that sells it. Love dipping this in the jook.
Chicken Feet — Overly sweet. Chicken feet pieces aren’t large, but the price is lower than most places.
Shrimp Dumplings — As I said in other reviews, shrimp dumplings are golden standard for dim sum places. Sunflower Café’s shrimp dumplings are absolutely the worst I’ve had in a long time. Strong vinegar smell, pei broke apart too easily, and it wasn’t fresh.
Service is fast and efficient. Come here for the jook and yau ja gwai. The desserts look good but never tried.

Normally, I would have passed this place right on by, but my cousin and mother both wanted to go in, so I acquiesced.
I wish I hadn’t. The food was marginal, at best. The place was empty when we got there, with only one lady working the front. The restaurant had kind of an old, dingy feel to it, and they had incense burning, which I found both odd and off-​putting.
The best thing I can say about this place is that the lady was nice enough to make dim sum for us, despite the fact that it was past dim sum-​serving hours. She tacked on an extra $ 0.25 to each order, but we figured it’d be worth it.
We were wrong. Again, the food wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t all that good, either. With all the places we could have chosen to eat, I’m sad we ended up here.
The service (other than her offering to make the dim sum for us) was terrible. We had to ask for drinks, and then we sat at the table with empty glasses while she stood at the register, doing nothing (we *were* the only ones there, after all). When we flagged down another waitress (who came in while we were eating) for a to-​go box, she gave us a look like, «Why are you bothering me?» even though she had been standing at the counter, talking to another lady.
I can understand letting your service slip a bit if the place is packed and you’re stretched thin, but we were the only ones there! People were coming in and out of the restaurant, but not to eat, and not to order anything. I’m not entirely sure what they were doing there, but we were the only paying customers that I could see, so the fact that we were left with no refills and got attitude when we asked for boxes and our check just annoy the hell out of me.

Strangely enough, I found Sunflower Café to provide the best service of all the dim sum places I’ve been to in Chinatown so far. Granted, it was late Sunday afternoon around 1pm when my friend and I walked in. The place was empty except for 2 other patrons.
The waitress immediately brought us tea and asked if we wanted dim sum — in English! She brought a tray of popular dishes and we almost took them all — shrimp dumpling, siu mai, seafood tofu wrap, seafood dumpling, shrimp look fun, chicken feet, egg tarts.
All that came out to about $ 25 pre tip. So a little bit more expensive than I’d like, but the service was awesome AND they take credit card (no American Express though).