lee ho fook

devine crispy eggplant and much more. what an experience!!! a warm ambience has been achieved by the restaurant layout and the round tables are a smart move for groups of 6. my absolute favourite dish was the crispy eggplant but the rest was delicious too. i always love a restaurant where you can share thedishesand with the 7disheswe selected,, i was underwhelmed by none. so many different flavours and interesting takes on asian cuisine. all in all, it all made for a fabulous night on a cold winters night.

keeps us coming back. love this place, the food is to die for and the staff are excellent, great wine list too. i'm glad to see the menu slowly growing but it leaves us unable to try alldishesso we keep coming back but end up having our favourites again! scallop and tofu starter is beautiful, duck and mandarin pancakes are amazing as is the eggplant, can't not order it! our new favourites are the barramundi, it is so beautifully cooked and the sauce is perfect balance for the fish. we are also addicted to the moreton bay bug tails, they are so tender i've never eaten them like this before, the fried rice is so beautiful and fluffy we never have room for anything else! we been going at least fortnightly since they opened and just love it more each time. if you love good quality chinese food then you must try lee ho fook. well done guys!


-----11 oct, 2013-----

great thoughtful chinese!. attended lee ho fook on there 3rd night open and whilst still in soft opening mode with a limited menu there was still plenty to choose from. we loved all ourdishesfrom king prawns with a marmaldy mayonnaise, fabulous crispy eggplant, gorgeous sashimi, delicate steamed snapper and a lovely lamb belly dish, we thoroughly enjoyed our night. looking forward to returning to sample the full menu which starts next week.

posted on may 10, 2015 by fabulousandtasty leave a comment lee ho fook is the new kid to open on smith street this year. a simple refurb of a tight 45-seat restaurant, the bar taking up a significant slice of the floor action. the front window is deceptive with a panda etched on to the smoked-glass front window, and a swirly two-tone charcoal and white paint job that suggests the restaurant is under development. the menus reflects a modern chinese restaurant with charcoal walls and a softly and subtle yin yang paint job. a solitary golden cat waves the air in this funky restaurant, the waitresses wander around the tables always attentive and the restaurants hums with an air of excitement all on its own. this is the first head chef gig for victor liong, and the pressure is on. thedisheshitting tables tell the full story of liong’s love of chinese flavours, his rigorous training in classical french technique and science unite.dishesare small and so a wide variety is recommended by the staff. we started with entrees of raw kingfish with leeks radish and mushroom bathed in burnt garlic and ginger white soy cream and a plate of crispy eggplant with spiced red vinegar and a dish of spiced wagyu tartare on puffed rice soon followed. warm scallops and silken tofu with soy butter and a huge twice braised cooked pork belly then landed on our table. be warned the pork belly could easily feed four people

i love the concept of doing something different with food but this was a pricey night out and none of thedishesblew my mind. don't order the sorbet it is an absolute joke.

overall, it's a pretty good place to just chill with wine and snacks. mainly serve chinese fusion with a little of other asian (japanese) influence. reasonably good service but could be better.

food (3.5): delicious but on the salty side if you intend not to have rice. suited for lots of drinking .
portion also relatively small - need manydishesto be filling as a main meal.
ambience (3.0): the bar area is nice to hang out while waiting for your table and the seats in the restaurant are reasonably comfy. not a lot of deco as pointed out by other reviewers
service (3.5): friendly, but just a tad lacking in attentiveness. (head) waiter knew the menu, introduces carefully before we order and made sure we know whichdishesare hot or not ( temperature). the waiter and waitresses also took care to introduce the dish name as they set them down, but not a single person ask how is everything throughout the whole meal. bizarre. not even when the plates were taken away. almost like we were circled by keen waiters and waitresses that are keen to clear plates to serve us the next dish.

that's it for the rating. you may wish to stop here if you are not after the story of the service experience.

overall i would have given it a higher rating if not for the fact that we booked, and have had to wait 30 minutes for our table. as ours was the later session, i wasn't sure if diners were advised of the need to return the table for the next round. in fact, 15 minutes into our booking we were advised our table's diners' havering their dessert...
i get that this joint is popular, but i am not queuing up for food, i booked. we were constantly reminded that they are moving the diners on. it was especially bad as we already had drinks (we arrived early ) and are starving for our dinner.

the food came relatively quickly after we ordered, nicely presented and on the small portion side. as we ordered 8dishes( mix of different sections on the menu) to share, that came out to be just enough for 4.

dessert was the most impressive, or it's because we ordered the two that looked most interesting.
the custard was made to perfection and the taste was amazing. tea-ramisu came amazingly big portion, unexpectedly.

all in all, a not too bad experience. will i be back? maybe not if i am super hungry

every dish was beautifully made and i don't know how to do the food justice in words. this review is a little under six months coming but definitely visit if you were ever wondering.
every element was packed with flavour and definitely striking in flavour. serving size is obviously a little smaller than the usual, so do bring a group along if you'd like to try a fewdishesbut definitely be ready to spend just a little bit extra.
jasmine infused custard and wagyu beef tartare was one of my favourites, as well as the tea egg.
could've done without fried rice as it tasted generic and nothing too special, just not as oily as the cheaper restaurants. booking is definitely essential, or visit during non-peak hours.

this place just keeps getting better. we just love this place - have been the last couple of sundays, just wandered in and eaten loads of really beautiful food. not like anywhere else we go. staff are really lovely. in fact it feels quite homely. there are certaindisheswe can't resist every time - the fried prawns are just amazing. we're suckers for the eggplant too (great hangover pickmeup!).


-----06 mar, 2014-----

fantastic. love this place, been 3 times now - the crispy eggplant is irresistible and if they have a tomato salad with smoked tofu, make sure you have it.

absolutely delicious! favedisheswould have to be the eggplant, duck and barramundi. desserts were small and sweet, perfect. one of the best restaurants within an already awesome food district. friendly service and great food, would definitely return.

the menu is broken up into "small", "entrees" and "mains"dishesalthough sharing of alldishesis recommended. the ubiquitous pork belly bun ($6 each) takes pole position on the menu but there are other intriguingdishesyou wouldn't expect to see too, like pimento de padron that's been asian-ised with the addition of miso and sichuan peppers.

all in all a good meal, especially with the liven deal. the prawn noodles was fantastic, white peach dessert was divine. the entreedisheswere also all good.

the peking duck was not so impressive especially for the price point. and the pork jowl also average.

a new style chinese cuisine, lee ho fook. heard so much about them but never dined there. so we took advantage of the melbourne stage 4 lockdown, to try their cook “at home” dish. sussing out what they are all about! there were so many variety of at homedishesto select from, but because i’m pregnant, i was very cautious of what to order. so it came to trying their dan dan noodles for two, $30!

so glad we got 2 servings of the fried, crispy eggplant! they were delicious. the fujian crab and scallop rice was a hybrid of rice and congee - it was fantastic especially on a cold day. we also had the char siu pork jowl and lamb ribs - bothdisheswere very salty.

the crispy eggplant dish is worth coming into town for … and getting off the metaphorical high horse when it comes to westernised asian food. impossibly crispy crust with the perfect balance of sweet, savoury and umami-ness, this dish was by far the standout. shared between 3, it disappeared all too quickly and left us contemplating a second serving even before the rest of thedisheshad arrived.

ordered the crispy eggplant and it is the best eggplant i have ever had in my life. there for the vegandishesand all of them were exquisitely flavored.

friday 01.09.17 at 6.30pm.
set on duckboard place off flinders lane the place has a real melbourne, hip, sleek and simple feel, a really nice atmosphere.
the seating is a little tight in the restaurant with neighbouring tables only the bare minimum apart to get to the bench seating. it could definitely do with removing a few tables.

the staff were friendly and attentive, but when things got really busy it became difficult to get their attention.

we opted for the chef selection menu.
the array of foods was excellent, i think we may have been provided with thirteendishesto sample. at the time of eating most were really tasty and i believed i would be providing a far superior review rating;
- however, after leaving the extreme levels of salt became obvious. i spent the night drinking water to deal with what i had eaten.
unfortunately, i will not be recommending this venue. 😔