lee ho fook

we appreciate goodserviceand our waiter last night was spot-on - attentive, friendly, well-mannered. you'd think this would be a given for hospitality staff but no. the waitress couldn't be bothered to be there and spilled quite a bit of water on a mobile and didn’t care. never mind, we had the waiter dude we chose to stick with.

we had the crispy vinegar eggplant, pork belly, sour kale, chinizza and lots of chilli. everything went so well together! reading the descriptions doesn’t quite do the flavours justice. when you’re eating them, the layer upon layer you’re tasting….sigh…. the pickled fennel from the pork belly went well with the crispy eggplant and the fermented chilli from the sour kale. not like your good old chinese place, i mean there’s always a time and place for supper inn, but that’s the whole point.  one of us, who apparently didn't like eggplant, and yet...we had to stop her from licking the plate from the crispy eggplant dish.  lhf did well in her eyes :)  out of all our desserts my faves were the burnt caramel custard (which should be bigger, but that could be because we devoured it) and the baked chocolate mousse.

superb. had dinner there tonight and we were blown away by the food andservice.. don't go if your expecting a local greasy spoon chinese meal .. this is something absolutely special and i can't wait to return ..

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 goodservicebut 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 many dishes to 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 which dishes are 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 theserviceexperience.

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 8 dishes ( 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

food = amazingservice= meh. dined here for lunch today. after communicating with someone from the restaurant via e-mail and specifying that there would be one vegetarian diner, the first course comes out - tea eggs with fish roe. umm, roe is not vegetarian? the staff seemed quite confused at the beginning and we ended up having to ask a third staff if they knew what we were after (both banquets - one from the mothers day menu and one veggo one). thereafter though, theservicewas alright. despite being given the impression that vegetarian was "weird" by the waiter, holysmokes the food was amazing. highlight was the eggplant dish - i would go back just for that. all in all, food is definitely worth going for if you're willing to be super patient with the staff.

absolutely delicious! fave dishes would 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. friendlyserviceand great food, would definitely return.

not worth the price. the meal was advertised as 12 courses however in the end there were only 10 courses for the same price. in addition to this there was water dripping from the ceiling and theservicewas ridiculously slow. food was okay but definitely overpriced.

restaurant location is very hidden, not easy to find. on the left side of the door is the bar, meals upstairs. the decoration is simple, but very stylish. the counter is connected with the wine cabinet decoration and looks very comfortable.serviceis not good, perhaps the staff is not enough, the food is very general, taste is not very good

really enjoyed a business lunch here today.serviceand food was fantastic. standouts for me were the eggplant chips (twice cooked) and the wagyu tartare and of course the desserts. will be back.

we came for a friend’s birthday celebration. we had the table for 2 hrs and were reminded constantly that they needed the table back at a certain time. we had the banquet. the food was delicious and creative and we were pleased that the restaurant was able to cater to all of our dietary requirements. theservicewas efficient. halfway through the meal we had a small request to put a candle on my friend’s dessert for his birthday. the waiter forgot and we didn’t get it. dessert was a hit and miss - the guava sorbet was delicious but the miso chocolate was too salty and the osmanthus creme caramel was too bitter. all in all a pretty good night.

lee ho fook is a restaurant that serves modern chinese food.  came here for work dinner with colleagues and clients ( 7 people in total). i had heard about this restaurant but never had the chance to try it. i really wasn't sure what to expect but excited to find out.

🔆location🔆
located in a cbd warehouse in a laneway, it's virtually hidden away. but that is what makes melbourne so special. eateries in laneways.
  the decor of the restaurant is simple yet sophisticated.

🔆service🔆
impeccable service. the minute we walked in, the waiter asked for our coats, and seated us promptly. menu was provided and water was served very fast. definitely received 5 starserviceand nothing to fault at all. the waiters were well dressed and smiling throughout our dinner.

🔆menu🔆
as i am allergic to chilli, unfortunately the menu options was not in my favour. i was very disappointed. i asked the waiter for assistance and if any of them could be made without chilli. he went away to ask the chef and came back and was very apologetic and provided some suggestions.
as everyone else ordered food to share, i was the only odd person to have separate food.

🔆food🔆
the food that i ate were as follows:
 
entree: 
warm hervey bay scallops, silken tofu and soy brown butter, $10.00

main: 
lee ho fook roast duck, star anise and cinnamon sauce (half size), $36.00
lee ho fook special fried rice with prawns and lup cheong, $15.00

🔆price🔆
the price for the menu items were very reasonable priced. if you come in a large group and order food to share, it's affordable. 

🔆verdict🔆
i was particularly impressed with scallops, was cooked well and had alot of flavour. the duck was succulent and juicy but way too oily. the fried rice was nothing special at all. 
all in all my meal was average. if only they had more food options that didnt have chilli in it then perhaps my rating and review would have been different. i can't comment on my colleagues and clients food. the presentation was very nice but because everything was either spicy or had chilli in it i wasnt able to try.  my review and rating is for the food that i ate.

very nice little place - in the middle of little alley, i have reviewed this place recently and it got deleted by zomato for no reason. cosy interior, the roast duck + eggplant are definitely my best meal there! i love their food andserviceby micky was great! thank you.

came here on a weeknight with high expectations and the food did not disappoint. we started off with the smoked eel and two textures of tofu. the smoked eel and foie gras were well balanced. the tofu dish came with deep fried tofu and silken tofu covered in fragrant fried garlic. i enjoyed this as well although the dish was fairly simple. my favourite dish of the night was the crispy eggplant. the exterior was crisp and the inside was soft and fluffy. the sauce was absolutely amazing as well. for mains, we had the maltose glazed duck, porcini infused mushrooms along with a serve of rice. the duck was perfectly cooked but i wished that it had a little twist to it.servicewas a little slow as they were understaffed.

i usually don't write reviews however tonight is an exception. i don't like speaking poorly of places however tonight was disappointing. we've been wanting to try this place for a while; food was ok,servicewas poor - one of the staff members poured soy sauce of the chinese broccoli all over my sisters hair, jacket and bag. she rushed off and tried to clean it but there was no sincere apology or the effort to rectify the situation. instead they quickly gave us our bill as if they were trying to get us to leave the restaurant . my sister walked out smelling like soy sauce all over her hair and her duck down puffer jacket. left us quite upset and disappointed in theservicethat was offered and not offered .

highly recommend the crispy eggplant, absolutely delicious and would have ordered a second helping if i wasn't so full at the end! nice atmosphere, attentiveserviceand good wine selection.

to sum up: appallingservice, staff were rude, underwhelming experience. i would not recommend anyone going to melbourne to dine at this restaurant and certainly not celebrate a bday here. maybe you earned a 1.0 rating for the food.

we made a reservation way in advanced and we arrived on time. the host was rude and we had to wait 20 minutes for the table to be ready. it was a bday celebration and we had brought a cake. the host told us in an unwelcoming tone that they were in the business of serving food and not other people's food and cannot accomodate byo cakes. totally fine if you have that restaurant policy, but could have been managed in a better way. it was unnecessary for him to raise his voice and get upset at us for inconveniencing him with a cake.

after being seated it was just continued awful service. it took 20 minutes+ for the waiter to take the wine order and 30 minutes+ to give us the food menu.servicewas very slow throughout the night.

after settling the bill, they came back to ask us for more money for "cakeage" while we were leaving the restaurant.

some positives that didn't really make up for the overall bad experience were the ambience of the restaurant and the food was elegant and delicious.