HAPPY DAYS CHINESE SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

Okay say I am biased because I have yet to find a Chinese restaurant that I didn't like, since I am Chinese, but I have been going to Happy Day (and Nice Day) for 3 years now and they are the best. BEST roast duck anywhere, bar none. No joke, not even close. Great dim sum, relatively cheap too!

:: Dinner Review for Wednesday, 2/27/2013 ::DISCLAIMER: If you're expecting to eat amazing Chinese food in Hawaii like the kind from China / Taiwan / Hong Kong or New York / LA / San Fran, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. You need to understand that the establishments in Hawaii are "local Chinese" restaurants before you can really enjoy Chinese cuisine here on the islands.Now that we have clarified things... Happy Days Seafood Restaurant (Déyùn Haixian Jiulóu) is actually one of the better places to go for Chinese food on the island. Many people come for their reasonably priced brunch/lunch dimsum. It's also not uncommon to see large parties here, either for family reunions or wedding receptions-- they offer private rooms but for extremely large parties (50+ people) they can sometimes take up half of the restaurant!I come here every week or two, either for dimsum or for dinner. Like most Chinese restaurants it's better to come in a larger group so you can order more. On average for two people, you're looking at about $15-25 for dimsum and $30-40 for dinner (3-4 dishes + rice). While their dimsum isn't anything to write home about, it's reasonably priced and fairly consistent in above-average quality.As far as dinner goes, Happy Days has a wide variety of mostly Cantonese and Southern-Chinese cuisine. Like their name suggests, seafood is one of their specialties. They offer specials on crab and lobster, both of which can be prepared in various styles (salt & pepper, deep fried, spicy, etc...). Happy Days also caters to American and local tastes, having orange-chicken, shrimp with walnuts, and ginger chicken available on the menu.Here is a dish I recommend trying:Huk Gin Tofu (Fújiàn Lóngzi Dòufu) - This dish refers to Fujian, a southern province in China. The steamed tofu's relatively mild taste is accentuated with a mixture of vegetables and scallops, wrapped in a lotus leaf and served in a clay pot. Huk Gin Tofu is listed as one of their specialty dishes, and to be honest, I would have never discovered this wonderful tofu without my mother ordering it. I now order it every time I'm here.Service at most Chinese restaurants is usually hit-or-miss. Happy Days fortunately falls under the good service category. Their waiters/waitresses are friendly and speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. While English is clearly not their first language, they have no problem remembering orders and serve customers in the order which they were seated.I'm half Chinese, I've lived in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and I'd have to say that if you're looking for good, authentic Chinese food on the island, I would recommend Happy Days. It's my go-to Chinese restaurant.Tip: Parking can be very, very difficult to find at night and/or weekends for all the restaurants on Waialae. Plan accordingly!

Wow the place is packed for lunch. That said golden Dick in Kahala ha some better food. My dim sum lotus leaf was very oily. The cake noodle was stale yes stale. How do you have chewy fried noodles? After reading reviews of some getting worms And I thought the noodles were a hard sell. I have seen delivery of noodles in the parking lot on Sunday when we went to Big City breakfast so it must be the kitchen or just my plate. No soft gau gee but soft won ton. Who is that inflexible? I felt that my first try was a poor one. Maybe in a year again.

Ok dim sum. Better than most places. Best chicken feet on the island of Oahu!

I came in here for Dim Sum on New Year's Day as it is one of the few restaurants that serves Dim Sum on the east side. The place was packed with people. The food was delicious and the waitress and servers were fairly attentive. However, I would have to say that the dim sum in Chinatown is better. We ordered a few plates consisting of chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, hoisin wraps, and some pork dumplings. The skin was a little dry on the pork dumplings, but the rest of the food was freshly made. The worst part of the experience was it took 10 minutes to cash out, and we had to wait in line for the cash register with one person running the show. I will definitely come back for the To Go Dim sum which offers 15% off. Overall, if you like dim sum and don't want to make the drive to Chinatown, this is the place to be.

The Dim Sum is really good and Service is with a smile.Prices are discounted early morning for To Go.Definitly returning soon.

For Dim Sum, I would give it a five, for everything else, a two...I am very picky when it comes to Dim Sum. I grew up in boston and there are hundreds of places to go and choose from. Finding decent dimsum on the island though is more of a challenge. Dim sum is consistently great and it is the BEST out of chinatown. Dinners and service here is pretty average for your typical chinese restaurant..It can be frustrating though, as when ordering take-out for dimsum, prices are always changing, and the discount they offer you is dependent if you pay with cash vs. credit....

Happy day is a favorite Chinese restaurant of our family! If it wasn't so far from us..we live in pearl city...we would probably come here more often because the food here is yummy!!:9 We have only been here for dinners and it's a great place for a party of 4 to a party of 50 or more! The restaurant is big and it even offers private rooms!:)A favorite dish of mine: char siu(it has a sweet honey sauce on it) I know "char siu" sounds really ordinary but I particularly like this dish because the meat is really juicy and the meat sort of falls apart in your mouth..not like the typical char siu where you have to tug and chew on it a while. And the meat is moist too! I really like the honey sauce they put on it, it makes the char siu different and unique from other restaurants!Being Chinese myself...I pretty much have had my fair share of Chinese food, and probably went to most of the Chinese restaurants on this island(because of my parents). So going to a Chinese restaurant and eating Chinese food is usually pretty boring to me because I eat it all the time and we usually get similar stuff like "chicken, duck, crabs, stir fry, etc." So when I discovered this yummy char siu I was really happy!!The Chinese food in this restaurant is pretty good and legit! If you are looking for a place with good Chinese food, this is the place to go!!The service is alright, the waiters and waitresses have a lot of tables to manage, but they get it done~Parking is pretty good, the lot is pretty big but it does get busy too but not bad! Overall this is a nice Chinese restaurant to go to! I'm a frequent customer here!:)

Yesterday, Wednesday, October 5th, 2012, I took my son out for lunch to help celebrate an advancement at work. He deserved it. I didn't want to do the same old thing when the idea of DIM SUM came up. I started looking around the internet searching out well known dim sum restaurants in Honolulu. I also considered Chinatown but I'm not a huge fan of parking there. I soon came upon yelp's reviews of Happy Days Seafood Restaurant. I have driven past this place at least several hundred times. It is on 11th Avenue in Kaimuki across from Kaimuki Park and kitty-corner from a 7-11.We decided on an early lunch and arrived at 10:30am. As soon as we walked into a relatively good and wide open space we were greeted by one of the staff. Not long after being seated the first cart came along. This was one of the griddle carts which they finish off pot stickers, look funn, and taro cake. We selected the look funn, which was nicely grilled to a perfect crunch that counters the soft noodle-like inside. It was served with a mild plum sauce.The second cart came loaded with different bamboo steamers each containing 3 pieces of your selection. One item that we always get is har gau (the white steamed potato starch shell filled with shrimp) and the char siu bau (manapua with some flair), pork hash and sticky rice balls. Often in Asian cuisine individual items are served in 3's or other odd numbers. We flagged down the grill cart and got an order of pot-stickers. Everything was good and filling. This dim sum trip garnered enough left overs to take home. It was big enough for another dim sum lunch or even dinner.Our entire event, including tip (20%) came to $23.00. I was expecting more like $35-$40 as our previous dim sum outings dictated.The servers were Chinese immigrants (legal, I'm sure) with heavy accents, but were very nice. A quick side note...One of the bus/expeditor came to fill out water glasses. He asked, "would you care for more water?" I was stunned---NO ACCENT! We laughed. He's a local boy.There are probably dim sum restaurants that others prefer, but this find on Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki panned out to be a good choice and definitely will be visited again. One last thing...They open at 8am so if you want to take some dim sum to the office, you could easily do a take-out.Bon-Bon, Bon Fire, Bon Apetit.

We had a fine meal here. Very good Chinese food. My wife and I ordered four dishes from the menu. All were good. We left satisfied.These guys are pushy with the dim sum, but we did not want any today. Also, the waitress was weak with English, but we were able to communicate what we wanted to her.I think this is a good place to eat when visiting Honolulu.

This is by far one of my most favorite places for Chinese food! The food just AWESOME! Fast & Friendly service too!Just got back from Las Vegas, was too lazy to cook, so got the family together for dinner. They had this great deal for a meal for 4, where you get -- soup, four items of your choice from the menu, & a crab or lobster, they also kicked in a desert too...........all of this for just $68.00! WHAT A DEAL! :)Just a friendly tip, if you plan to go here during holidays, or weekends (Friday - Sundays) I would probably make reservations. We went there on a Thursday night, so there wasn't any wait.This restaurant is my parents all time favorite restaurant............The owners are very kind & thoughtful people, I will always remember how they took the time from their busy schedule to support our family, when my mom passed a few years ago.

The only time I come here is for dim sum in the morning on Sundays. It's usually crowded everytime with people standing in line to pay, waiting to get seated, and workers pushing their food carts. Because I can't speak Chinese, I feel like I always have to somehow get their attention and hustle the workers for some food and water. It's like the survival of the fittest!Other than that, I like their pork hash, baked manapua, steamed char siu look fun, eggplant with black bean sauce, and coconut jin dui.

I feel bad for writing a one-star review for a place I grew up going to, but I've never felt so compelled to share my horrible experience. I came with my parents for Father's Day dinner. To start the experience, we walked into the restaurant with an overbearing nauseating stench. I felt like throwing up. Then we ordered half order peking duck, salt pepper pork, walnut shrimp, and cake noodle.Since this is my first review I wanna put it out there that their dim sum is delicious, but tonight's cake noodle was was so-so with a little maggot hiding in the cake noodle. YES! A dead maggot was in our food! I wish i took a picture of it. I mentioned it to a server who then took it back after saying we'll make a new order. Even after careful inspection the second time around, we didn't feel hungry for cake noodle.After going here for so long, I already know about their service, but I have become used to it. In this case, it doesn't make it better. We were the last ones in there, but it really felt like they forgot we were in there. The whole staff was eating I guess what is their dinner in the corner. We looked at them to get their attention and yet some of them looked in a blank stare as if we really weren't there. Once we got there attention, they gave us a check. The total bill was $57. We were confused about the bill because we normally get these items for a cheaper price. We paid the bill but then asked for a take out menu to check the individual prices. When the lady gave us one she mentioned that their prices changed. What an inconvenient time to let customers know about their prices!So in conclusion, we either paid for two orders of cake noodle or they hiked up the price a lot. The nauseating smell in combination with our maggot ala noodle has left me not feeling well right now. This may very well have been our last time here. I complain about PF Chang's portions a lot, but I would much rather go there for quality controlled food and better service after tonight. It was not a happy Fathers Day at Happy Day. Since I was the one to find the maggot, I don't think I can eat Chinese food from an authentic Chinese restaurant. I would much rather settle for Americanized Chinese or something of the like.

I went here for an early Mother's Day lunch on Saturday. It wasn't that crowded when I arrived (about 10:45 am) and my party had reservations for 11 am. We told at least three servers that we had reservations and yet we weren't seated for several minutes. I guess that's what happens when a restaurant takes reservations on a sheet of paper.Upon being seated, a waitress began setting the table. She practically threw the plates and tea cups down making a ton of noise. It's a wonder nothing broke with the way she was handling them.The food was just so so. The manapua dim sum (chicken) was very bland. There was way more bun than filling and the filling didn't have any flavor. The pork hash was the most decent. The lemon chicken was okay. The Singapore noodles took forever. By the time it arrived, we weren't that hungry. The noodles are kind of curried and I wasn't particularly impressed with the flavor.It's like a maze trying to get around too. When the dim sum carts come out, it's very difficult to get around them. It's not like the staff is paying attention either. They don't move for you. In fact, they seem to want you to get out of their way.One thing that I was happy with was when one of the waitresses gave us an extra custard tart, since someone in our party accidentally dropped one on the floor.I've only been here for Mother's Day, so maybe the food and service are better when it's not so busy. I don't think I'll be returning after this last experience though.

The parking lot is very convenient. It is very big so it is easy to find parking (depending on what time of the day you come, of course), since the parking lot is shared with other businesses. But you do have to pay for parking.I came here last night for a small birthday dinner. The restaurant is a lot bigger than it looks on the outside. We were seated in a small room since we had a table of 10.The food was okay. We had lobster, crispy gau gee, peking duck, ginger beef, and a few other dishes. It wasn't anything too exciting. The food was average. I've tasted better. Hee Hing's food quality is way better than here.But the reason I am giving this restaurant 2 stars is because of the staff. A big problem is the language barrier. The worker knew some English but she was having difficulty understanding English. She was also a bit rude. She brings our dishes to our table, and tells US to move the dishes around on the table to make room for the dishes she's carrying. I understand that your hands are full, but we had to help her every single time she came with our food! She tells us "move the lobster over there" in a very demanding tone of voice. I don't know if anyone else on our table noticed it, but I surely did.Not too sure if I'd come back, only if I had to. But nothing at this restaurant was appealing.. besides the big arrowanas.

Decent Dim Sum for lunch. A little more expensive than expected (~$20 including tip). I had:- Shrimp dumpling (har gao)- Shrimp with chives dumpling- Shrimp with spinach dumpling- Sesame seed ball w/ bean paste filling (jin deui)- Choy sum with oyster sauce- Char siuQuick service. Nice servers.

I don't know if they use MSG or some crack like substance, but i'm always craving dimsum from here!Realize that this is a Chinese restaurant. So don't grade it like a five star fancy french place. It won't be the cleanest, friendliest or the healthiest, but for the type of food (sorry not to stereotype here) I love Happy Days! Best dimsum in town!BIG restaurant. With BIG fish on display. They're kind of fun to look at, though they don't do much.A Chinese lady usually asks "how many?" when I walk in. Then they'll point to where you can sit.They give you tea and have hot sauce and soy sauce ready for you at the table.The dimsum is pretty well priced for the size! I love their shumai, look fun (oh god sorry if I butcher any of the spelling), baked sticky char sui bun, baked custard bun (this usually runs out by noon or 1pm!!!) , half moon, and some other stuff I don't even know the name for.The workers there are not friendly, but not mean.You HAVE TO BE AGGRESSIVE. Seriously, don't worry about coming off rude. The dimsum cart pushers will be aggressive trying to give you food, but just sternly say no or yes.They're helpful if you're allergic to anything. My boyfriend can't eat shrimp, so they always point out what dimsum doesn't have any.And they don't explain in great detail, but do explain what some dimsums are. I question what things are sometimes and if it seems good I take it (which is why I don't know the names of a lot of dimsum haha).I once found a fruit fly on the bottom of my sticky bun... I just tore that piece off though. Like I said, can't expect much cleanliness. I'm just thankful I haven't ran into a roach in my food yet *knocks on wood*

After leaving virtually any dim sum restaurant you're bound to be haunted by the smells of whatever your tummy was craving and impulsively ordered on the cart that passed your table. I have to say that Happy Days is definitely a satisfactory standard for dim sum, as they have a large array of anything you might want on an early weekend afternoon. Being greeted by the big fish in the tank as you walk in is a sure sign of a good meal. Though we came here on a weekday and were seated immediately. It was pretty sparse inside but that only makes the service that much quicker.We ordered just a few dishes like the shumai and the shrimp with chives (really well done here) The best part of Happy Days (that even Legends downtown doesn't have) is their deep fried turnip!!! And they fry it ON the spot, on their portable carts. Hello, please bring me three of those. You're bound to find a new deep-fried love that may just replace the one you used to have for deep fried pork-filled taro.Overall the food is average and it's what you've usually come to expect from dim sum dishes. The service is very friendly and for our four dishes it only came to 11 bucks. There's plenty of parking in the lot behind Waialae Ave or on the street. In the words of IHOP, come hungry, leave happy.