Lee Ho Fook: Restaurant review

You're faced with a choice: ascend the stairs to Lee Ho Fook or settle into the neon-lit surrounds of Good Luck Bar. Upstairs, amid raw brick walls and exposed wooden beams, the atmosphere is refined but the food is electrically flavoured: an entrée of chicken crackling, done Chongqing style, is chewy, crisp, salty and pleasingly heavy on mouth-numbing Sichuan pepper; a larger dish comprising slippery potato threads, tender enoki mushrooms and slivers of fennel is strewn with dried Sichuan chilli and doused in pungent garlic oil; and a heady mix of fried garlic, coriander, and sil-gochu chilli threads does extraordinary things to tofu. For all the excitement on the plate, both kitchen and waitstaff can be slow-moving – the better bet might be the downstairs bar where the menu is smaller but the service is astute, and a bowl of lo-mein noodles served with pitch-perfect vegan XO sauce is as good as anything on offer on the upper level. And if you're missing Lee Ho Fook's signature crisp eggplant, just ask nicely – they're happy to send a plate down.

Phone:
(03) 9077 6261

Bookings:
Bookings recommended

Chef(s):
Victor Liong