Sweet Home Cafe

home SWEET HOME CAFE!
My friends and I arrived around 6:45 on a Tuesday night, there was 9 of us so of course we were expecting a long wait. We were told that we would be split up into 2 tables, which was a little disappointing but ain’t nobody got time to wait any longer for a full table! The waiter offered to get our broths and meats ready during our wait, which was very helpful! We were seated after a 45 minute wait and we were able to start cooking!
Let me say I’ve been to my fair share of shabu shabu/​hot pot places and this place by far has the TASTIEST broth, we ordered the original broth! Inside there are fridges in which you pick and choose which meats, veggies, noodles, and MORE to cook in that mm mm good broth. Prices vary on items you choose! Helpful price charts placed on the menu and fridges!
The service was very good, checked on our tables, filled our waters, and very friendly!
Oh my oh my and that complimentary dessert! So light and refreshing! When I first saw it placed on our table I’m thinking ‘So many things… how can it taste good?’ IT JUST DOES!
I’m already planning my next visit!

Like hot pots? Then this is a place you need to try.
This place offers your typical hot pot in several different broths. I prefer the spicy version to have. A little extra kick but the others are just as good.
Unlike other hot pot, places you can go into the fridge to grab your own vegetables, meats, fish cake, etc. but what truly makes them unique are their sauces. Most places offer a couple sauces but this place offers an entire counter of sauces to mix and match with green onions and/​or cilantro. I recommend the Garlic Butter Sauce (be sure to take your time and grab the garlic and slightly drain the butter into the container before scooping into your saucer — you’ll get the tasty garlic and butter to add to your rice or dip your meets and vegetables into without being overwhelmed by just the butter). I also recommend the soy garlic sauce with green onions as well. With so many options for sauces mix and match and enjoy a different meal each time and each bite.
One nice thing about this place is the dessert that comes complimentary with your order. It comes in a huge bowl with a mixture of shaved ice, almond float, mochi, coffee jello, and some other goodies. Great mixture of flavors and the refreshing taste helps to cut the salty or spicy broths you just ate.
Aside from waiting outside of you come during busy hours, the service is quick and they are very attentive to guests needs. Otherwise just flag someone down and they’ll take care of you right away. Just come a little early or late.
There are quite a bit of seats as they opened a second side to seat guests (both sides are fully staffed and have everything in terms of sauces and foods available).
Parking is a bit tricky as there is a small lot that is used by other businesses and limited street parking. Worth making the effort.
For food I normally order one broth for 3 people though I’ve seen others order two (there’s more than enough; you can even take the broth and soup home like other places which I would recommend). With all of the vegetables, mushrooms, meat, tendon, etc our bill normally runs about $ 60 or just under for 3 people. But as always there are leftovers so factor that into your cost of you like to take home leftovers. Fairly reasonable in terms of hot pot places and the amount of food you’ll get. Never walked out of here hungry.
Atmosphere wise it’s fault crowded with enough room to pass by and not hit other patrons next to you. There will be an aroma when you go in from everyone cooking but nothing so bad that your clothes will be reeking after.
All in all a place worth trying if you are in the area.
Food 4.5÷5
Price ⁴⁄₅ (reasonable for hot places)
Service ⁵⁄₅
Seating ⁵⁄₅
Atmosphere ⁴⁄₅
Parking ⁴⁄₅

Hot pot restaurants are plentiful in this island as several Asian cultures dine in similar fashion. I’ve seen many pics on social media and heard so many good things about Sweet Home Café and not really sure why it took me so long to dine here. Perhaps I’m not really a fan of hot pot? No reservations taken here and I’m not keen in waiting for an open table? Parking in this area can be challenging as many businesses share the same lot?
A way to «lure» me to a place like this is to get a group of peeps together. Spending quality time with friends has been a past time favorite so when Bogdan K. suggested to have dinner here I jumped on board.
As stated in many reviews and Bogdan’s past dining experiences here it was highly advised we’d meet up early. Bogdan’s mother was visiting from out-​of-​town and because of jet lag it had to be an early dinner.
Fortunately, as we arrived an open table of 4 was available so we didn’t have to wait. I noticed the wait staff very youthful and all wore black so you could easily identify who works there. After Bogdan chose the broth we were off to get our meats and veggies.
In the rear there are refrigerators of various seafood, meats, tofu products, veggies and noodles. We each selected 3 – 4 different plates and brought it back to our table. While waiting for the broth to a full boil we went to the sauce bar to customize our dipping sauces. I was impressed with the selection of various dipping sauces and fresh green condiments. My personal favorite was the rich dipping sauce with fermented black beans.
I’ll admit that I’m not a big fan of hot pot or shabu shabu but I’m a social eater so I enjoy eating in a group, which basically what hot pot is all about. I found the broth very flavorful. I was pleased when the wait staff came back filling up our pot with additional broth several times during our meal.
Another highlight during my meal was the complimentary dessert — Taiwanese shave ice that is served in a large bowl to share with tablemates. Many flavors with different shapes and textures. So yummeh!
As noted in other reviews patrons feel rushed during the meal. However I didn’t really feel the pressure to pay our bill and leave. Our dessert arrived just shortly we were about done with the meal. Staff was courteous asking if we wanted to take home the extra broth in which we all declined.
Our water glasses were repeatedly refilled so service was great despite a full house. It wasn’t even 6pm yet. We noticed many people waiting outside for a table and can understand why people come back.
Parking can be an issue as this lot shares with a handful of businesses, including other restaurants.
An excellent place to dine with family and/​or friends. Although not high on my list to dine at but if people suggest to dine here I sure won’t object.

My go-​to place for a genuine, sociable dinner: D I love hot pot/​shabu shabu and I believe this is the best place on island. Auntie who owns the place has the friendliest employees and they are hardworking. The food is delicious and fresh ingredients. They have a sauce bar and their homemade is the best one in my opinion! The wait can get up to 30 minutes because the place is so popular. However, the taste, service, price, and atmosphere is always worth it. Expect to pay about $ 15 a person with tip.

Awesome!!! The best food and service! Really enjoyed the soup and the sauce. Everything was fresh! Pls see Tak! He is the best!

I don’t like shabu shabu. Flavorless meat dunked into hot water, yuck!!!
But wait! Sweet Home Café changed my world! Holy cow it was absolutely amazing and everything was so tasty. SHC charge you by the plates you picked out from the fridge. You get up and help yourself to whatever you like. Parking is a little tough cuz this place is packed! There’s a good reason for it. People love this place and I love this place. I can’t wait to come back and have another meal here. Yum!

I arranged to meet here for an early dinner with friends before going to see a play at Manoa Valley Theater as the proximity and timing seemed like it could work. We arrived at 5:30pm, got seated right away and had a delicious, interactive, and unique dinner. We brought our own drinks, everyone got to eat what they wanted, and we finished in about an hour. Perfect. Our cost plus a good tip came out to $ 20 each.

The staff at sweet home was patient in explaining the broth, meat and vegetable options to us since we had never been there before. They had so many options for us to try in our hot pot. A huge selection of veggies like choy sum, cabbage, different types of mushrooms; tofu, both soft and firm; and other things like lobster balls, shrimp something on a bamboo stick, and so much more. To make it better, the items are labeled and are inexpensive! The food was yummy and the dessert was awesome. We are planning on taking our families there soon!

Always busy and always friendly staff! Totally worth the wait. Good variety of veggies, noodles, and meats and love how you can customize the sauces into pretty much anything you’d like! And of course you can’t beat the delicious dessert!

We came here tonight to try some shabu shabu. The parking here is a little limited but luckily we came on a night that wasn’t too busy. We signed in and didn’t have to wait long for our table. We decided to try 2 different soup bases. The spicy and the tonkotsu. They were both pretty good. We ordered some beef, chicken, and pork belly for our meats and tried a handful of different vegetables. They have many different sauce to try also. At the end of your meal, they serve you a complimentary shaved ice that comes topped off with almond custard, coffee tofu, mochi balls, etc. It is a great way to end the meal!

Service:
The young gentlemen serving us was very friendly even gave us lots of recommendation for local hang out spots. Very nice! The wait time was about 45 minutes.
Food:
Each plate has its on pricing it’s easy to loud up and easily spend a lot. The two of us spent $ 45 so it’s not exactly the most inexpensive hot pot experience but it was good.
Dessert:
The sweets came as complimentary dish, their egg pudding was yummy. We were too stuff to throughly complete and enjoy every bite.

Sweet Home Glad is just an alternative title which actually means «My Favorite Restaurant».
Hailing from the island of Guam, we resonate well with warm feeling restaurants. Food is love in our culture. It is the bridge that connects strangers, families and friends together.
Sweet Home Glad is not just a place to eat, but a place to love! Their food baited me in from the start but after several visits, their story locked me in. Sort of like that stranger who became your best friend or companion. Their exterior was appealing at first, but sooner or later — you noticed something more substantial: their personality. Now you guys are inseparable! After glancing through their menu one day, I stumbled upon the back page which presented their «why» — their personality.
Sweet Home Glad is the by product of a Chinese couple whom created their relationships through the food they make. They decided that their passion for sharing food with others was so strong, eventually leading them to opening a restaurant all the way here in Honolulu. What a bold, courageous move!
The word «home» in the name represents the ambiance they want their customers to feel. When you walk in, the energy is immediately felt. It was as if I was in my home back on GUAM and my Grandma was in the kitchen stirring up her finest recipes for the family to connect over.
Not to mention their food is hella affordable and makes you want to slap your momma, so go there! NOW!
I love you Sweet Home Glad!

Ok, already tried this place more than a few times! They are ON IT! Their so Friendly! Talk about SERVICE with a WELCOME attitude! Seems these guys just LOVE what They do! When we’re in there we don’t even have to THINK when their gonna refill our drinks! Their so ON IT IT’S CRAZY! I always recommend Sweet E’s to not only My Friends but, My Guest from My Hotel! Now their on Kapahulu across from Crane park & it’s a great & bigger place! Everyone should try this place because it’s a awesome place to enjoy breakfast or lunch! Great job Sweet E’!!

I FINALLY made it here! It’s located on King Street in the same lot as Kozo Sushi. There’s lots of stalls, but it’s hard to find an empty one. I was warned about it always being crowded so we must have lucked out because we arrived on a Monday at 6pm and were immediately seated.
Since it was my first time, I wasn’t quite sure of the ordering process. But it was easy. Order your broth (you can’t go wrong with the house broth) and meats through your server. Then, help yourself to the abundance of plates of veggies, seafood, noodles and more in the refrigerators in the back. Also, you can create all your dipping sauce concoctions back here too.
Dump everything into the hot pot and enjoy! When we finished, they packed up our left over broth and brought us the most delicious tapioca laden shave ice ever. It was really delicious. So perfect and refreshing after the amazing hot pot. I love this place!
The AC was on full blast to counter the steaminess of the hot pot so bring a sweater if you get cold! It’s BYOB. I didn’t know this so WAHHHHH! A cold beer would definitely have enhanced the experience.

Been here a few times with friends and felt it was not worth the wait since we were in groups of people and so did not find it appealing to sit around outside of the café watching others and being watched…
The soup base was pretty good at least it was specialized and well-​prepared along with other content that bring out the fun of hot pot. On one hand people believe the nutritional essence would be in the soup on the other some prefer having soup since it feels like new year winter time.
What was even better was the shave ice which comes after the hot pot. It was pretty exceptional and well-​customed although time has been long passed since my last visit it was somehow still lingered in the memory and really had to let it out.
Considering two hour line-​wait for a good hot pot dinner some may find it worth the while while others may find speedier gratification somewhere down the street.

My new favorite hot pot spot!
Service was amazing, they were all so helpful and nice. There was a wait which is expected at popular places. They had a variety of vegetables and I loved you can pick and choose what you like in your soup. The price is fair for what you get and they even give you a free huge dessert! I am highly allergic to mango, and am super cautious even if it’s fake purée mango I’ll avoid. When I asked the worker if the dessert had mango he said yes and did mention that it might not be real mango. But was still concerned and accomodating, he made me a whole new dessert for just me with no mango. I am definitely coming back and have officially made this my favorite hot pot spot!

Came here with a bunch of friends for some hot pot. It’s located across the street from Old Stadium park. It has its own parking lot, but that can get somewhat crowded very quickly especially around meal times. The restaurant itself is a simple, no frills type of place with everything you need.
The way it works is that you pick your broth and meat specials. Then they have fridges near the back wall with different items (ranging from cabbage to noodles to meatballs and other delights!) you can add to your pot that you pay a la carte (the different dish colors cost different amounts. With all the variety and combinations it’s sure to please everyone’s wants.
Lastly, you should try the shave ice after your done. It’s a great treat and sweet compliment to your hot pot meal. It comes with various fruits and bobas added in and really hits the spot.
Pro Tip: It’s first come first serve so make sure that you have someone come early to put your name in the line

Why have I not reviewed this place yet?! I’ve been here a handful of times and it never disappoints. This place is hands down the best! The house broth is my favorite. We always order a bunch of meats, the quality is great and the price is too! I love the variety of hot pot ingredients and sauces they have to offer! You just go up to a fridge and grab what you want, less waiting more cooking! Way easier than having to order it. It’s really easy to figure out, the plates are priced accordingly to color similarly to sushi belt restaurants. And if the hot pot weren’t good enough, they serve you free shaved ice for dessert! The shaved ice is so good and comes with a bunch of toppings, the coffee jello is my favorite. I wish something this good existed in California. This place is da bomb.

Dude. So wifey wanted hot pot, we have hot pot in the bay area but figured we would still give this place a try. THANK GOD we did.
Funky set up:
— order soup flavor (we did spicy)
— order meats (beef and pork belly aka bacon?)
— grab veggies, beef or fish balls, tofu, noodles, etc from two large refrigerators (the color and amount of your plates will determine the cost of meal) (in the bay you order off the menu)
— help yourself to assortment of sauces (green onion and ginger sauce is LEGIT)
WAIT FOR IT… people save room for dessert. Trust me. I KNOW, yes, I know. whenever a restaurant gives you a free dessert it is likely 99% of the time to be inedible. My Chinese folks know what I mean (red bean soup)
I won’t ruin it, just save some room for straight up goodness in your mouth.
Staff super friendly. We had a 5 – 10 minute wait. Burner super easy to control. Yes, 90 minute limit to eat but dude… if you can’t eat in 90 minutes you got issues. Soup broth tasty. I want to come back tomorrow before I leave…

Favorite shabu shabu ever! The wait is worth it, and that wait isn’t very long. It usually goes by quickly. Usually I get the regular or tomato beef broth, but regular is always the safest bet when you are trying this place out.
My favorite part about this place is the abundance of various sauces and fresh cilantro and green onions that you can add to your sauce. All the sauces are so good, but my favorite is the house sauce with cilantro, and the butter garlic sauce (that I use to dip my beef). All the sauces definitely add so much flavor to your food.
Another great thing about this place is the free dessert at the end that consists of shave ice, tapioca, and an assortment of jellies as well. So refreshing at the end of dinner :) Also, a «small rice» is enough for 2 people!
I definitely recommend this place for anyone craving shabu shabu or want a nice and comforting healthy dinner!

I used to always come here all the time over the past 5 years when I first discovered this place. This is my favorite hot spot ever. I finally went to pay this place a visit after more than a year of not coming here. And I thought to myself, why did I stop coming here?! I’ve missed it so much!
The place is still the same as I remember. The wait wasn’t as long as we had a super early dinner around 6pm, which is the best time to go because lines can get super crazy! But it’s worth it because it just goes to show how many people love this place to have lines forming even when they opened up a 2^nd place next door.
I always love getting the spicy broth soup. And if want a variety, you can request for another choice and they’ll put a divider in the pot. I’ve tried the house special and that’s good as well. I’m one to not get meats so I always go straight to the refrigerator and get all the veggies to put in the pot. There’s a lot to choose from that is categorized by plate colors to prices. There’s also a lot of different sauces by the refrigerator for your dipping sauces.
The best part of any meal is the dessert and more so they give the best free Taiwanese shave ice out there. Even after I’m full off of the soup meal, it’s always a great cool down to have the shave ice after. Customer service is always friendly and homey here! Never had a complaint about their service especially from Auntie the owner of the place who I’ve missed seeing! The only downfall is you leave here smelling like hot pot. So you’ll probably need a shower right after.

It’s worth the wait.
The flavours are so yummy and all the add-​ins were fresh and equally delicious. I had never had hot pot before coming to this place. I wasn’t expecting how good this was. My friends and I pigged out and were happily full on what really was a pretty light dinner. The broth was so good, and I believe we had to go back for second rounds of seafood to put in the pot. I don’t have much to say that hasn’t been said already. After a day of hiking and swimming, this was the perfect dinner!
I recommend coming with a small party so you can get in quicker.

It was my first time visiting here. My friend highly recommended this place. We ordered the house broth. The broth was nicely flavored, it wasn’t salty at all. I tried 5 of their sauces. My favorites were 2 spicy sauces, a soy sauce with garlic and soy sauce with chili. We skipped the noodles because we already had a bunch of stuff.
Every meal comes with a dessert. It had all kinds of toppings on coarse shave ice.
I will definitely visit again for another broth and other meat and veggies. Maybe even have some noodles with it, too.

So, I love this place and this is mainly the reason why …
It was my moms birthday yesterday, and she wanted to eat here. My prima and I got there before her, and we were there early … like maybe 20 minutes before they opened. We stood outside in the hot humid weather. bleh. One of the workers came outside and asked us if we wanted to wait inside because it was soooo hot out. He sat us and gave us water, let the other workers know what was going on and proceeded to give us the menu to look at until my mom and her man arrived. That alone, was awesome of them.
When my mom finally arrived, she was in ‘order’ mode. We had the House Special, with beef, pork and lamb … plus a large order of rice … Went to the back of the restaurant and grabbed shrimp, lobster, long rice, corn, choy sum … some other stuff I don’t even remember hahaha …
Their veggie, seafood and starch are in refrigerators in the back of the restaurant. You can pick what you want and they charge by the color of the plate. kinda like Kenki Sushi. they have a assortment of dipping sauces that you can concoct yourself. I can never remember what I mix every time, so it’s always different.
They have different broths to choose from, my favorite has always been the House Special. IMO I kinda like the broths at Little Sheep Mongolian better … And I agree with Mark H about the meat cuts.
You have 90 minutes to eat your food. which really is more than enough time .
ANNND you get free taiwanese shaved ice dessert which is bonus cause its cools you down after sweating over your hot pot lol …
Would I keep coming back here? Heck yes! The fact that they accommodated to my prima and I was 5+ stars!!! Thank you guys and I love you long time!

This place was one of the highlights of our trip and it was CHEAP. If you have never hot pot’d before, it’s like fondue where you cook your food in a broth or oil but Sweet Home is a mix of revolving sushi where you pick what you want and pay per item picked. Oh and before I go any further, IT IS BYOB, I repeat, BYOB!!!
First, pick your broth. Even if you cant agree, I would pick one broth and not two because you will pay full broth price for each even though it is a split pot. Next you order your meat (beef, beef tongue, pork belly, etc) through the server but all veggies, noodles, and various additives are selected from the fridge in the rear of the restaurant. Each plate color determines the price of the items so be careful your eyes don’t get too big.
There is also a ledge behind the fridge area where you can load up on home made sauces. I loved the Garlic Soy while The Boy loved the Garlic Butter and the house made spicy sauce. I dont know picked the house music but we were bumping to Biggie, Dre, Snoop, and all Death Row’s Greatest Hits. We were the only ones who noticed and the families eating didn’t seemed bothered by it but we had a blast rapping and hot potting.
We ordered the house special broth, 2 beefs, 1 pork belly, 1 noodle, 1 mushroom, 1 spinach, 1 Lobster Ball, and 1 Mussels plate all for less than $ 40, They also included complimentary desert of boba, tapioca, and shaved ice that was a nice touch. Our server also offered to box up our left over broth but staying in a hotel, it wouldn’t have worked out well to reheat.
The only negative about the experience is they have a 90 min time limit, ok can do. We had been there a little over an hour when once of the servers came and asked if we could hurry up because they had a «big line outside». I don’t mind following the rules but I don’t like being rushed out either.
PS: get here early, we got there a little after 5:30 and waited maybe 10 min. By the time we left at 6:30 there was a line of 20+ people waiting.

Aloha from the best soup place on the island, well in my opinion anyways.
The seating is funny, they only have a few tables and some seat multiple parties, there is a time limit of 90 minutes, and they won’t seat you until all are present. The parking lot is a riot, and you find yourself waiting to park, which in Honolulu is not a new concept but still a bitter pill to swallow. With all this craziness you ask yourself why ‘em I even here?
Well, the soup is amazing. The soup mixes that I favor are the spicy and the mushroom these are my favorite. The spicy I guess I get most of the time and it is just perfect, spicy but not offensive like some of the other places trying to be extreme. The side plates which are in three colors, are by price and range from Chinese cabbage to oyster mushroom and anything else I can think of. Some new items include tofu with quail egg in it, and lobster fishball.
Any time I have a visitor from out of town or a friend that requires a little TLC as I often do, there is no alternative but getting my butt to Sweet Home Café, trust me on this you will not be disappointed.
Did I tell you desert is on the house ?
Happy Eats

Unilocal 100 Review Challenge 2015: ⁷⁴⁄₁₀₀
With over 1000 reviews already, I am not sure I really need to rave about how wonderful this place is… but I will anyways!
My Fiancé’s cousin came into town and wanted to try the BEST Oahu has to offer so of course we had to take her to Sweet Home Café! First off, we got so lucky that this Saturday evening was slow. I mean we scored parking right in front of the restaurant at 6:30pm on a Saturday night which is unheard of! On top of that, the wait for us 4 was less than 15 minutes! This is totally not normal for this place.
When I was a student at UH Manoa I used to frequent this place but since graduating a couple of years ago but hadn’t dined here for over a year so this was definitely a nostalgic experience! The service was impeccable as always! This time the mama-​san wasn’t here but her son’s and fellow workers are always so friendly and informative. We ordered half «healthy» and half «regular» broth and grabbed tons of ingredients to add in such as whole shrimp, oysters, clams, mushrooms, everything! The worker informed me that the most popular sauces are in the middle row just FYI, but for me, they all taste amazing! Water cups never go empty & they even took our picture for us! After we finished what we could, they kindly wrapped our leftovers to go and brought over the ever-​so-​delicious shave ice dessert. This time our shave ice was a little hard (like old ice) but still good.
After our meal we chit-​chatted outside the restaurant and a worker came out and gave us water! OMG 5-​stars! This is a great place for both locals & tourist alike.

My favorite hot pot spot to go to! The service is always on point. This place has a nice vibe to it. It’s pretty simple to order.
First, choose your broth type
Then, choose your meats
Choose your vegetables from their fridge
Mix it all up & enjoy! So delicious and the price is average.
The best part is the FREE dessert! You can’t go wrong here.