Kelly’s Korner Is Your One-Stop Shop for Chinese Groceries and Asian Snacks in Chinatown

Photo: Andrea Lee

There’s a new snack and drink destination in town: Kelly’s Korner in the Chinatown Cultural Plaza. It’s taken over the former Jolene’s Hawai‘i space on the ground floor, transforming that into an efficiently arranged, well-stocked grocery store.

Kelly’s Korner has been in Chinatown for more than 10 years; this is its third location. Its previous storefront, measuring 1,100 sq. ft., was down the street next to Mun Lun School on Maunakea Street.

With the bigger space of 3,000 sq. ft., Kelly’s was able to bring in the equipment for fresh meat and live seafood. The tanks hold crabs, lobsters, abalones and fish. The meat selection leans more toward Chinese tastes with options like beef tendon, pork jowl and pig’s feet. The produce section has a variety of fruits and vegetables, with many sourced from local farms.

Note: Prices have been edited out of these photos per the owner’s request.

You’ll find everything you need to cook Chinese meals on the numerous shelves, from dried mushrooms to century eggs to Lee Kum Kee sauces. One corner is dedicated to Chinese medicine, with dried sundries to make healthful teas and soups like jujubes, scallops and ginger. Another corner has self-serve crack seed items.

A handful of shelves are full of snacks: chips, biscuits, cookies, candy, you name it. On the neighboring wall of refrigerators, browse all kinds of drinks, from American sodas and coffees to Asian sweet teas and milk teas.

Deliveries come in every day, so the product selection updates frequently. Not everything in the store is Chinese; I spot items from Japan and Korea too.

Photo: Andrea Lee

Business has been good for the last three months since the move, according to owner Kelly Zeng, with customers especially appreciating the well-lit, air-conditioned space. I only grab a few things during my visit since I walked from our downtown office. My haul: a jasmine honey tea; cheesecake-flavored Pocky; orange yoghurt-flavored, cat paw-shaped gummies; and a juicy donut peach.

The snack and drink prices are comparable to other places, with some items I haven’t seen elsewhere. Best to bring your own reusable bags; the store only provides handle-less plastic bags. Though all the workers seem to speak Cantonese or Mandarin, don’t hesitate to ask for help since they speak English too.

Photo: Andrea Lee

You can enter the store from the side facing N Beretania Street or from the inside of the cultural plaza. The street side has some parking stalls out front where you can park for 15 minutes for free. In the Chinatown Cultural Plaza garage (entrance on Maunakea Street) and open market lot, the first 30 minutes are free. After that, regular parking rates apply. The parking payment machine accepts cash or card.

Open Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., 100 N Beretania St. #105, Chinatown

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Andrea Lee is the digital editor of HONOLULU Magazine.