lee ho fook

excellent restaurant, excellent food. the kingfish sashimi appetiser is to die for it's a total #firstworldproblem but having the kingfish sashimi as your first dish almost makes everything else seem disappointing. of course none of the other dishes are disappointing at all. the eggplant is preternaturally good. the smoked eel is incredible and the barramundi is cooked to perfection. it's not cheap but the portions are reasonable, the service is well above par and the wine list extensive. highly recommend.

food is alright. however service is shocking. our waitress was sliding dishes onto the table clanking everything in its way. when we were ordering or asking questions she would stare at the wine glasses on the shelves on the other end of the dining floor. her attitude definitely threw off our dining experience. i feel like i've never had the reason to point out service but now i realize that it is very important.

the food was beautiful in flavour, some dishes could have been hotter. i think the temperature of the dishes is due to the lack of service here. the staff while friendly enough are inattentive and too busy gossiping with one another. i waited 15 minutes to be offered a drink without a food menu in front of us. the food portions are small for the cost, however the flavours are delicious and inventive. 3 of of our group of 4 got their entrees promptly and another 10-15 minutes later the 4th was served, and everyone else had finished their entrees. the main courses were also all very tasty, however 2 of the dishes came out almost cold. i think this is because the servers were too busy talking to realise the food was in the dumb waiter. drink service was abhorrent and we were constantly look for our bottle of wine or a new one and one of our party finished drinking alcohol and was not offered a soft drink in replacement. we finished mains and got given dessert menus and waited a really long time for someone to take an order and eventually gave up and decided to just get the bill. this place has a lot of potential, but the service is terrible. i would recommend it for food but expect nothing from the service.

enjoyed my dining experience here, i was disappointed that i couldn't get a big dish of beef chow mein however, as per my friend warren's suggestion - twas not on the menu. will continue to seek this dish, and return once it is on the menu.

awesome little area, was a little small, but didn't appear crowded.
the food was very nice, and the staff were lovely. the only fault i have is that they forgot our drinks, which was a little disappointing. however would still recommend.

very nice chinese food. service was good too and they were very efficient with filling up our wine (which i love)
the steamed fish /barramundi was amazing! it was the standout dish by far.

i would return again however the thing i didn't love was as a dinner venue it is very brightly lit from the long overhead lights. i felt it needed to be dimmer in there as it felt it gave it a too casual/quick style look which isn't really what it is based on the food quality, price and service.

nice venue. fun, fresh and well presented food. deep fried eggplant dish was the standout, the mushrooms and pizza options were other standouts.

very nice wines, reasonable dishes. 

came with a large group of friends for set menu dinner. most courses were average to good. once course however was so salty it wasn't edible, to the point where it slightly burned and cheeks went red. told the staff nicely, however were told nicely back that we were all wrong. considering the audience and the fact that we put salt on our salt, and the fact that we were polite, would have been nice for them to accept it. they did however give us a free course.

would i go again? not sure. its a maybe.

fantastic every time! faultless execution. victor liong and his team has done a great job. have been here many times and would not hesitate to recommend to anyone.

good authentic chinese food. it's definitely elevated from your average chinese restaurant but none of the flavors are compromised. the ingredients are of the highest quality, cooked with skill and plated with a lot of care. staff could be friendlier though - saying this based on the price of food here.

overrated from my perspective. food is fine but i would say overpriced given no wow factor for us - group of 5 asian ladies. we had to wait quite a while. won't be back.

friday lunch. first time visit. we had the set lunch menu. well presented and tasty. some unique dishes done well. the crispy eggplant and the chilli chicken on the lunch menu hit the spot. loft style room above the classic melbourne city laneway. wine choice a bit limited. first choice not available but ended up with beaujolais - which surprisingly matched well. be warned - no coffee available.

trading plates recently spoke to liong to find out more about the inception of one of melbourne’s favourite chinese restaurants and how they create their signature taste. trading plates: how did you come up with the idea for lee ho fook?. victor liong: we wanted to create a cool, new style chinese restaurant and we had a great little space on smith street in collingwood. the concept of the restaurant was to cook a new brand style of chinese food, in a vibrant and exciting dining room, with food that drew inspiration from all over china.

it's always a nice surprise when you go to a new restaurant and it's exceeds your expectations. the food had amazing presentation and tasted great. a stand out dish was the egg plant chips but the rest weren't far behind. tucked away in a laneway off flinders lane gives it that extra special vibe. some of the best asian food i have tried in melbourne .

after being blown away by the collingwood venue, i was pretty excited to try the cbd venue - i booked online via zomato and was pretty disappointed to hear that when my dearest friend turned up before me he was handled pretty poorly - apparently the waitress was quite short and advised that they were completely booked - this certainly was not the case as the restaurant had a handful of tables that dined for lunch. it could have been better handled with a we don't seem to have a booking but it's no problem

we opted for the express lunch option which are a few of their most popular dishes, starting with a soup, this had crab and was delicious

then we had poached pork belly which was an interesting dish,

the highlight for me was the sticky eggplant absolutely as i remembered it -sticky with spiced red vinegar and hot and delicious

then the white poached chicken, which was melt in the mouth tender and delicately flavoured

beautiful sweet to end, some sort of brûlée it was the perfect portion !

drank a bottle of italian pinot grigio and an outstanding french rose, service improved and the waitress was cheeky and attentive after getting over the no reservation glitch - spoke with danielle and figured out the glitch i obviously had a senior moment and booked the wrong day as she called to confirm for today, all in all a good restaurant, good food