Royal Kitchen

Manapua shops are a dime a dozen here in Hawaii.  A few of these shops have their specialties and I'm sure that many people have their favorite shops too.  Royal Kitchen is the home of "baked manapua", so if it's baked manapua that I want to eat, I will usually come to get it here.

Located outside the Chinatown Cultural Plaza right next to Nuuanu stream, you'll see a lot of elderly men out front playing mah jongg, card games or checkers.  Inside, the shop is small and cramped -- see for yourself.

On the wall facing the counter you'll see the menu board listing the various types of manapua being offered as well as some of the menu items.  On the right is the warmer where the manapua is kept once it comes out of the oven. Since the warmer was nearly full, I got to sample a few of the baked manapua.  Here is the baked cha siu bun (US$.90).

The bread here is light and fluffy with just a touch of sweetness.  The ratio of filling to bun was good and the minced char siu was quite tasty though a bit fatty.

I also tried the baked kalua pork bun (US$.90).

The kalua pork bun didn't really "WOW" me this time.  The pork had a smokey aroma and flavor, however, it was just a bit too salty and a little too dry.  Since this was the last one in the warmer, it may have been sitting for a while. 

And finally, the baked lup cheong bun (US$.90).

An "elongated" bun was filled with a piece of sweet, oily lup cheong.  I rarely eat lup cheong, but this was good -- imagine eating a Chinese "hot dog".

To go along with the manapua, I also ordered two pork hash (siu mai, US$.50 each).

The pork hash were bite-sized, meaty and not at all salty.  The skin was thick and chewy and just the slightest bit oily.

And for an after lunch snack, I got a small package of shrimp chips (US$.50; large US$1.00).

Light and crisp, these made a nice snack.  However, the shrimp chips were a little salty and not as shrimp-y as I would have liked.

Royal Kitchen calls itself the "Home of Baked Manapua" and it's a statement I think many people agree with.  There are about 10 different varieties of baked manapua served here -- from kalua pork to vegetarian to chicken curry -- definitely something for everyone.  The prices here are reasonable and the food is quite tasty.  Royal Kitchen also offers a limited menu of plate lunches featuring Chinese dishes as well as catering and roasting services. 

Royal Kitchen
Chinatown Cultural Plaza
100 North Beretania Street Shop 175
Telephone:  808.524.4461 or 808.524.2843

Comments

[LP]

Hey Reid
I love your food blog, it's the best local one since the end of post of the Plate Lunch Critique -don't know if you local folks remember this site, which looks like doesn't exist in whole anymore - http://www.pixi.com/~hiapp/guest.html. I was just wondering, how much do you spend eating out per week? I wish I had the luxury! ;o) Thanks and keep up the good work!

[Kirk]

Reid - Thank you, thank you - one of my all time fav's Royal Kitchen! Baked Manapua - lup cheong manapua - you don't have to post any narration, I'd just love pictures. On my last trip home - I bought a bunch of manapua for my plane ride - the Missus forget them in the rental car, I just about died......oh the humanity!!!!!

[OsloFoodie]

No Reid, we don't hate it... :). But thank goodness for blog's feeders, all these blogs that we simply have to read every day!

[clare eats]

Well I do :P

I just can't wait for the gory details :)

[Mauison]

Are those the Yik Lung shrimp chips? I use to love eating those when I was a kid!

[RONW]

For myself, kalua pig in a manapua makes for an excellent combination. Because the way kalua pig is shredded, before being served, works well inside a manapua bun. Because the usual fillings inside manapuas, is overly sweet for me, in contast to the smokiness of kalua pig which has few spices added to it. (The char sui pork in a manapua is a misnomer. Instead of "slices" of char sui pork, the char sui inside of a manapua is more like bits and pieces of char sui pork left over from the chopping block, then encased in its own molasses pit. Maybe that's was the orignial intent of a manapua to not waste an iota of food. But try dicing up kalua pig, and there'll be a riot in Hawaii. I would have prefered oyster sauce over the char sui filling to moisten the bun. Many might disagree to this characterization, of course.)

In praise of a kalua pig manapua, where else would you be able to get a byte-sized serving of kalua pig alone. Having said that, very few kalua-pig manapuas satisfy the expectations, at least, that's been what I've run across.

[Reid]

Hi LP,

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for the compliments on the site.

To tell you the truth, I really couldn't tell you how much I spend on eating out, however, I will tell you that I eat out way too much. Maybe one of these days, I'll do a running tally. Maybe some where in my sidebar.

Hi Kirk,

The lup cheong manapua here is quite good. I like the contrast of the sweet, oily sausage with the bread. I'm glad you were able to get manapua here before you left. Any manapua shops out your way?

Hi OsloFoodie,

For some reason, I was checking your blog daily and it didn't seem like it was updating. All of a sudden I check and see three or four new posts. I left scratching my head and wondering where they came from!

Hi Clare,

The gory details are up! =P

Hi Mauison,

Thank you for visting my blog!

Those are actually not Yick Lung shrimp chips. Those were shrimp chips packaged by Royal Kitchen. These were not as shrimpy as the Yick Lung ones.

Hi RONW,

I agree with you about the char siu manapua. The char siu (or what is normally called char siu), is unnaturally pink and most often minced into the tiniest pieces. So tiny that you can't tell if they are actually meat or fat. I really like the char siu bao that you can get in dim sum restaurants because of the sticky sweetness of the char siu inside those steamed buns.

That said, I must agree with your assessment of kalua pork manapua as well. None of the ones that I have tried lived up to my expectations. The ones here, when fresh, are almost there.

[RONW]

Kirk--the best lup chong manapua locally....argualby from 7-11 (or whatever store they, themselves, get it from).

[clare eats]

thanks for the gory details reid hehehe

We get great Manapua here in sydney :)

[Kirk]

Hi Reid - We got the manapua from Royal Kitchen - but forgot tem in the Rent A Car - so never got to eat them - I was crushed.

7-11,huh? I'll have to check that out.

We have alot of Siao-Bao - the Filipino version of Char Siu Manapua - too sweet for my tastes. In LA there are alot of places with "steamed buns" - Northern Chinese Style, the dough aren't sweet but savory - they come with ground pork, nappa cabbage, and mushroom fillings. I've grown fond of these - we're gonig to LA today - I'll pick up a few. And of course the Dim Sum places have their version.

[obachan]

Those shrimp chips look so pretty. Too bad they were not shrimpy enough.

[OsloFoodie]

Reid, that's because I just got my blogging groove back :). I didn't blog for awhile and then got started again.

[kelly]

wow brah! da buggah looks ono again, and da prices are cheep brah.da pork hash wen look especially ONO! Brah.......i stay homesick! no moa good kine food on da east coast....only meat and potatoes!

[Big Bok]

Isn't it cool.. to be able to buy just 2 siew mai..???
Way too cool..!!

[alice]

Hi, Reid,

This was the one place we didn't have time to hit during our HI vacation last week!!

Looks soooo good, now I'm extra bummed I missed it!

[Reid]

Hi RONW,

I've never had lup cheong manapua at 7-11. I'll have to look next time. Thanks for the tip.

Hi Clare,

You do? WOW! I don't think I've seen manapua anywhere outside of Hawaii. You'll definitely have to do a post on it soon. Please...

Hi Kirk,

LOL! I thought you ate it, not left it in the car! BTW...did you at least get a bite of one?

Hi Obachan,

Yes, it was quite a shame because they would have been really nice.

Hi OsloFoodie,

Ahhh. OK, I understand now. BTW, I found a recipe for strawberry soup. Do you have any strawberries left?

Hi Kelly,

It was ono, especially the pork hash. You definitely need to come home to visit more often.

Hi Big BoK,

Hmmm. I would have loved more! =) But then again, I need to refrain from over indulging in certain things, if you know what I mean! *wink*

Hi Alice,

Yes, you should definitely eat here next time. I think I saw that you visited Chun Wah Kam, which is almost as good. The kalua pork manapua is usually quite good, I don't know what happened this time. You should definitely try that one when you're here next.

[Jimmy]

I used to like Royal Kitchen's manapua, but I find that they have really skimped on the size. I remember back in the 80's when they were quite large. I think the size now is about half of the size of what they use to be. I also notice the mouth feel of their dough just isn't same like it was maybe 4 or 5 years ago. Maybe they switched to a different type of flour or something.

[Reid]

Hi Jimmy,

Thanks for stopping by.

I actually only started eating Royal Kithchen's manapua in the last 2-3 years and have found the taste to be quite good. In fact, I would say that the manapua here is comparable to the ones sold at Chun Wah Kam, only slightly smaller.

Judging by what you have to say, I can only imagine what they must have tasted like all those years ago.

Thanks for stopping by!

[Hungry AndOnTheMainland]

Reid - The Royal Kitchen Manapua is 0NO- LICIOUS!!!!! Make me want some now!!! Do they overnight on Federal Express???

[Reid]

Hi Hungry AndOnTheMainland,

Thanks for visiting!

I don't think Royal Kitchen would FedEx manapua to the mainland. If they did, the cost would be outrageous depending on where you lived. I send something overnight before and a small box that was about 4 pounds was $40 for shipping (I think). Is it worth it? =P

[Jeannie]

i love the chow funn, pork hash, and kalua pig manapua!!! :)

[April]

I am trying to find a recipe about a Char sui baked product that I enjoyed in Singapore.

I always called it Char Sui so but I think I am spelling the "so" part wrong.

Do you have any ideas. The crust is sweet and flakey.
thanks
april