The Weekly Eater Nadine Kam

Ho Ho boosts
its buffet formula
with sit-down service

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For about two years, I could speak Cantonese. That was time spent in conversational Cantonese classes at the University of Hawaii. The great thing was that after the classes were over, I was able to visit Hong Kong and be understood in the native tongue! Unfortunately, the residents, my relatives and shopkeepers would assume I was fluent and proceed to speak terrifyingly fast, at which point I would have to admit I was a mere student of the language.

Coming back home, I wasn't able to use my Cantonese much and lost it to a point where I confuse what little I do remember with scraps of high school Spanish. At one point, a couple of us at the office were determined to improve our Spanish by speaking it among ourselves. All we learned was that newsroom speak is pretty limited to phrases such as "¿Quiere usted comer?" (Do you want to eat?) and "¿Quién robó mi diccionario?" (Who stole my dictionary?)

At least I remember enough of my studies to realize Ho Ho, which recently opened at the Market Place at Kapolei, has nothing to do with Santa Claus, Hostess snack cakes or rap. In Chinese the name simply means "very good."

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STAR-BULLETIN.COM Meals at Ho Ho Chinese Cuisine range from quick buffets to elaborate family feasts.

The restaurant is the latest endeavor of Nam Fong and Buffet 100's Al Leung, a majority player who keeps making his way further west, first with a Buffet 100 in Aiea, now with Ho Ho Chinese Cuisine in Kapolei.

Ho Ho does make use of the buffet formula on weekends, but it adds sit-down service so that those on the Leeward side won't have to head to Chinatown (or Kaimuki) for a meal that's more Chinese than local chop suey.

The room is at once attractive enough for special occasions but non-threatening for families. I especially like the art niches built into the back wall. Like much of Kapolei, the building itself is so new it doesn't have the frayed look of so many of Honolulu's Chinese restaurants that seem to be going on 200 even if they're a spry 15 or 20 years old.

IN ORDER for the concept to work, the go-go Kapolei crowd will need to adopt a Hong Kong frame of mind. That means Saturday and Sunday mornings are not to be wasted on errands, bill paying, shopping or cleaning. Instead, the time should be devoted to food, tea, friends and family. In Hong Kong, spending two or three hours at the table in the morning is not unusual.

Ho Ho will get you out much quicker than that with its Saturday and Sunday buffet, offered from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., which aims to get you fed and get on to that afternoon ballgame or sale without wasting a second. The weekend buffet is not as bountiful as Buffet 100's 100-item menu, but just about everything you'd expect from a Chinese restaurant is here, from beef broccoli to kau yuk, or pot roast pork. About 20 items are featured, more than enough to fill you up.

Naturally, some items fare better than others in a buffet. You can't go wrong with spicy eggplant or cold ginger chicken, which is at no risk of being overcooked while waiting to be picked up by patrons, but pork hash tends to dry out in the steam trays, turning hard as bullets even if the flavor is intact. Kung pao chicken was spicier than most, but peanuts in the dish tend to get soggy in the lineup.

Staffers are proud of their sweet orange chicken, though I was more intrigued by beef with the flavor of preserved plums.

Thin-shelled salt-and-pepper shrimp were rather mushy and are best ordered fresh a la carte, at $7.95.

Reflecting a kinship with Nam Fong, where people line up out the doors for roast duck and char siu, the char siu is the best item on the buffet. Roast duck is served strictly a la carte.

THE BUFFET is just an introduction to the full menu, ranging from the homey steamed pork hash ($6.25) to special-occasion Peking duck ($22 whole, $12 half).

In between you'll find crisp deep-fried oysters, the local favorite of shrimp and walnuts ($9.95) coated with honeyed mayonnaise, and Hong Kong-style crispy chicken ($5.95), which allows you to salt to taste.

One of the most extravagant items on the menu is the Dungeness crab casserole ($17.95), a stew of long rice, wine sauce, bell peppers and onions. Drenched in sauce, it's messy going. Just pretend you're at home and dig in with both hands. Two small eaters could get away with ordering this dish with rice and a side dish of vegetables. The dish offers a change from the usual crab with ginger and onion sauce, and is worth trying. I know this casserole will pick up a lot of fans, even if I still prefer crab as plain as possible.

For simpler meals, there is won ton mein ($4.50) and roast duck noodles in soup ($5.25). Keep these in mind as the weather cools.

Yes, all the major food groups are addressed, and if you'd like to see anything else on the menu -- that would be more dim sum for me, but then again, I live way over in Kailua -- I'm sure your suggestions will be welcome. A neighborhood restaurant needs to please its neighbors, after all.

Ho Ho Chinese Cuisine Market Place at Kapolei, 590 Farrington Highway, suite A-1 / 692-9880 Food Service Ambience Value Hours: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays and Sundays, 6 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Saturday and Sunday buffet 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost: About $25 to $30 for four; buffet $10.95 general or $6.95 for ages 3 to 10

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See some past restaurant reviews in the
Columnists section.

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Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:

	excellent;
	very good, exceeds expectations;
	average;
	below average.

To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to nkam@starbulletin.com