More than just a buffet
Friday - August 24, 2007
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Last Friday morning, Ruby Watkins, Jessica Chau and Tina Au, co-owners of newly opened Imperial Chinese Restaurant in Pearlridge, were busy fussing over the buffet line.
They checked chafing dishes, adjusted serving utensils, made sure that napkins and chopsticks were plentiful, and I got the impression I was at somebody’s house waiting for dinner rather than at a Chinese restaurant for an $8.95 lunch.
Perhaps it’s because the restaurant is owned by four women (Sara Chun makes up the quartet) that it seems slightly different from many other places.
The room, with a seating capacity of about 150, is clean, bright and every detail from table to buffet station is attended to by either one of the owners or several waitresses who reposition spoons after I move them, and adjust chafing dish lids to make sure no heat escapes.
I watch as an elderly man walks to the buffet, and one of the waitresses immediately goes to help him. She describes each dish, takes his plate, asks him what he’d like and serves the food for him. He seems pleased and a little surprised that someone would cater to him at this inexpensive luncheon.
For $8.95 you don’t really expect personal service - but that’s what Imperial wants people to remember.
“To run a successful restaurant,” says Au, “it’s important to have good food and great service, but sometimes people don’t expect great service from a Chinese restaurant.”
The women are determined to change all that.
“We’re constantly reviewing how fast the food comes out, and asking people their opinion. Then we go back to the kitchen and let them know what’s going on in the restaurant.”
Among them, the ladies have a lot of experience running Chinese restaurants.
Watkins and Chun have more than 30 years’ experience - something they like people to know.
“We’ve been working in restaurants here in Hawaii for a very long time,” says Watkins, “and a lot of our customers follow us and like to know where we are. They know that they will get good food here, but that they will also experience a real family-style restaurant too.”
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The food is Hong Kong-style, with the plentiful buffet available seven days a week at lunchtime and a regular menu offered for dinner.
“Our food is mainly Hong Kong-style, as we’re all from the south,” explains Au, “and we do some dishes a little differently. Our noodles, for example are slightly browned on both sides and a little crispy - which is different for some people, but very good. And we don’t use MSG and flavorings, so our food has lots of taste but you don’t need to have a pitcher of water to drink when you leave.”
The buffet offers more than a dozen daily dishes and has rotating dishes including different types of soup, and standard favorites like beef broccoli, sweet and sour pork, rice vegetables, house noodles, cold ginger chicken, crispy chicken, pork hash and a very moist, tasty steamed fish fillet with ginger and green onion.
At $8.95 on weekdays and $10.95 on weekends, the lunch offers good value, in welcoming surroundings, with an emphasis on service.
You’ll find Imperial in the Westridge Mall on the ground floor opposite Circuit City.
Imperial Chinese Restaurant 98-150 Kaonohi St.
Aiea 484-0188
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