Kirin Restaurant

Let's just say this is our family's new favorite Chinese restaurant! Came here on a whim on Feb. 1st to continue our celebration of Lunar New Year and we were ALL PLEASANTLY SHOCKED at pretty much everything. Ever since the food quality and taste at our long time favorite spot went downhill, we have been looking for our next family favorite and believe this is it. -Cindy was our waitress and was fabulously accommodating. She spoke pretty good English AND had a sense of humor, you don't see that everyday!-their tables for 10 are the bigger sized ones so you have enough elbow room to enjoy your food without feeling so cramped.-they changed our plates multiple times, if I remember correctly, I'd say it was at least 4 times. -we ordered the 10 top menu and every course was generously portioned and delicious. We also ordered a couple of ala carte dishes and those did not disappoint.There is valet parking at the Hyatt and the restaurant does validate. I'm hoping that our future dining experiences here will stay consistent but so far, so good!

Came to visit Honolulu for the holidays and Kirin was the first restaurant we went to. We ended up going here mainly because we didn't have any reservations, they were close to the hotel, and had a good rating on Yelp. When walking in, it has a typical Chinese restaurant ambiance. It's a bit difficult to fine because it actually underground but if you look around enough, you'll see signs. The staff were decent as well, nothing amazing but nothing bad either. When it came to the food, I was disappointed mainly because I was expecting more considering it was rated so high. We ordered their dim sum, A5 Wagyu pepper beef, egg drop soup, and their chicken and broccoli noodles. All of the food was okay but there wasn't a whole lot of flavor to it. Just felt very oily and were eating oily fried meat. There were a couple of pieces of the beef that also didn't taste the best. And the egg drop soup was very average. The only good thing was the dim sum where we got to try a variety of their dim sum. And all of them were packed with meat and flavor. Otherwise everything else was pretty average and the price didn't really reflect the averageness which wasn't great. So as much as I would have like to have given this place a higher rating, they unfortunately topped out at 3 stars for me.

I really wanted to like Kirin Chinese Restaurant in Waikiki, but it was a frustrating and disappointing experience. From the start, the service was painfully slow. It took over 20 minutes for our food to come out, and when we politely asked about it, they completely brushed my mom off. To make things worse, it seemed like they were hospitable to every other table except ours.The entire time, it felt like we were out of place, as if we didn't belong there. I usually avoid calling out specific names, but Sam, one of the waiters, really stood out--for all the wrong reasons. When we asked for an update on our food, he responded dismissively and as if we did him wrong, and at one point, even questioned my mom, asking why we were rushing, which was completely uncalled for. Then, when the bill came, he rushed her to pay as if we were inconveniencing him.This wasn't just bad service; it felt personal. The food might be okay, but the experience was overshadowed by the lack of respect and professionalism. If you're in Waikiki and looking for a good meal, I'd recommend going somewhere else. Hospitality should be a given, and Kirin missed the mark entirely.

This restaurant is located in the basement of a high rise but is well decorated. We ordered its specialty Dungeness crab ( live) and it was wonderful, The staff was attentive and the place reminded me of the better Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong. We only had a vegetable dish aside from the crab so cannot comment on other dishes.

12/11/24 Wednesday I have been to this restaurant four times and I didn't write a review till now.Here's the thing--- they have a heavy flow of traffic it's not seen from the outside. When you get there they seem to have big groups of people in the restaurant that have decided to have their lunch or meeting or type of get together last minute party shindig and they seem to be very well with groups. That's the first obvious thing when you get into the restaurant ... which is hidden down the staircase at the corner of the Hyatt Regency hotel on Kalakaua Ave. The outdoor decor really will lure you into see the menu, the menu in comparison to where they are, and what they serve is a far description of the type of food that they have which taste great. Great in flavor and presentation. What I think helps in terms of the food service in the presentation is that the servers both the waiters and waitresses have a consistent uniform I always find that uniforms really make the deal. ...they bring out the food flavor they bring out the enjoyment of your party the group of people you're sitting with the setting of the restaurant the way everything looks. It's overall presentation there's no way that no one can tell me that having a uniform in the restaurant for staff is entirely bad thing even if it's just plain black shirt and black pants it's consistency really! And it's smart! The staff at this restaurant always had the same uniform, which is a white dress shirt and a black vest with black pants and a bowtie or a tie I think it's a bow tie. The other thing that I want to point out is they're very accommodating they did not have what I ate on the menu. What I asked for was noodles with vegetables in soup and that's exactly what they brought me. There was not a variety of vegetables. It was literally broccolini and broccoli in soup with noodles, which actually was just as good as a variety of vegetables. Rather this was two kinds of vegetables and it was very good. I highly recommend that anybody interested in what I had just eaten which didn't have any meat to order the same thing. It's very good. Last thing I want to mention this was about 1:25 PM. It was very quiet and one group of about 20 people had just left the restaurant and there were about three people having lunch me and two other people so the ambience was actually quite nice because it was quiet.. The bill about average expect to pay under 50 bucks for two people for lunch. My bill about $30 the soup $24/25 the seafood pouches about seven dollars.That is I feel the going for a Waikiki meal by myself for Chinese food

We stayed in Waikīkī for a week before going to our ts at KoOlina. Kirin is located in the basement of Hyatt so fairly easy to get to. We've been here for dim sum lunch before but not dinner.Got here around 6ish, got a table without reservation and quite a relaxing ambiance. We ordered:Thinly sliced boiled pork belly in a garlicky/ vinegary sauce, refreshing and tasty.Tea smoked duck okay, a lil on the dry side, duck meat not fatty enoughBalsamic marinated pork ribs, sweet/sour balanced well, too much cornstarch slurry yuck!We were asked as we sat down if we wanted tea, the hostess recommended chrysanthemum tea; it turned out it costs $8+ for the pot...oh well...H2O next time.

The food here made my husband very happy! The selections were extensive and more like what most Americans expect from chinese food. Everything was very tasty. The beef fried rice had quite a bit of beef and egg which i very much enjoyed. The Cantonese beef had a nice but not overwhelming sweetness. The Kung pao pork had a bit of spice but real hot at all. The moo shu pork came pre rolled in the pancakes. My husband was very pleased.This place is down some stairs. The decor is a bit tired and the carpet could use a good shampoo. But the staff is very friendly and helpful.

Everything tasted great! This is such an underrated place for dim sum. Everything tasted so good and it's not crowded and without a wait. They also do parking validation in the hyatt resort which is very nice. The service was great too! They helped us down with the lift for a stroller with a sleeping toddler inside. Highly recommend their fried bean curd dim sum and the fried shrimp ball. Crispy and hot!

We were on a staycation and having walked most of the day we decided to just eat at the hotel. I haven't had Chinese food in many years so was anticipating an enjoyable meal. Yelp reviews were great and given that many celebrities have dined here, we gave it a try.We arrived on a Sunday night around 8:30 PM. As we looked around it looked predominantly of Chinese customers. As soon as we sat down we were given forks. We are part Asian and use chopsticks fully.We ordered the honey walnut shrimp which I wish to love but it was heavy on the mayonnaise. The Mr. ordered the beef special and said there was less beef and too much vegetables. The dim sum was OK.Service was mediocre for the restaurant being fairly empty given it was later in the night. Was the food horrible? No. Did I expect more? Yes. Overall, it was just an OK meal for the prices that are placed.

I'm honestly not sure where to start! I read a lot of reviews before coming here, and I am truly blown away by the fine cuisine at this establishment. If you disagree, you should check it out. This is the best food I've had on this island during my entire stay. Do yourselves a favor and give this place a try! Kirin was fantastic! 10/10