Lee Ho Fook

I’ve never written any sort of restaurant review before but feel compelled to write and tell all that this has to be the WORST Chinese restaurant that I've ever been to in London or in this Universe!!

Having eaten at most of the Chinese restaurants in China Town we decided to give this restaurant a go since I thought most of the Chinese restaurants on Gerard Street are pretty much the same in price, quality and service.

It all went down hill from the very start as no one took our drinks order and when they finally did we had to remind them 3 more times until someone finally brought us a pot of tea – which was luke warm!

We were starving so we ordered four dishes and boiled rice.

Having lived in Beijing the Kung Po Chicken was not what any of us expected when it finally arrived. It was more like badly cooked sweet and sour chicken where the chicken pieces were deep fried with a horrible thick batter, then stir fried with an array of vegetables in a thick and gloppy orange mess! Extremely unpleasing to the eye and even worse on the palate!!

The dish of roast pork served to us was far too fatty and the skin was soggy and chewy. I am still not sure why they felt compelled to drizzle the entire dish with a thick soya based sauce before serving it to us.

The eggplant hot pot dish was also very disappointing with 4 or 5 pieces of deep fried eggplant mixed in with an array of vegetables and once again mixed in a thick and gloppy oyster based sauce!

The boiled rice was cold and had bits of ham, pea and cooked egg throughout. They obviously served us left over rice from the day before which they were also using to make fried rice!

The only dish that was edible was the Kai Lan in Oyster sauce – but this dish is extremely overpriced at £9.50 and it was far from perfection! It is definitely the most I’ve ever had to pay in any of the restaurants in China Town for a dish of Chinese vegetables.

This horrible experience was topped off with them trying to overcharge us! If you must go here make sure you check your bill thoroughly as they also added an extra £25 to a table of 10 next to us! They are cheats!

I’m obviously never going to set foot in that place again and will make sure everyone I know will never have to go through such an awful experience!
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Thursday, December 27, 2007

I thought this place was dreadful. I should have realised really - the huge place was empty, whilst all the surrounding Chinatown restaurants were packed to the giils.

We ordered the 'dim sum platter' for starters, which consisted of a few bits of chicken on sticks, some very dry (and old looking) spare ribs plus the usual spring rolls etc. At £12 for two, this just felt like a rip-off and was sent back.

Crispy duck was completely dry and the pancakes old and leathery, as though they had been microwaved; the last one on the tray even had its plastic wrapping attached to it.

Main courses were OK, but surely it's not unreasonable to expect more than 'OK' in London these days?

Service was surly - which wasn't completely unexpected!
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Brian Duckett
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The food is fantastic and the pina colada cocktails the best in london - only served at lunchtime howvever, as it's too busy in the evening to make them apparently - the only let-down.
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Suzi
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, November 30, 2007

I recently visited London to celebrate my husbands 50th Birthday, we were visiting the British Museum to see the exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors, so decided to have a Chinese Theme to our day out, we went to China Town and were stuck for choice, however my husband remembered the name of the restaurant from a song by Warren Zevon so we decided to give it a try, what a pleasant suprise.

Although initially quiet when we went in we were immediately shown to our table and offered a drink, and left to look over the menu at our leisure, whilst we were doing this a group of approx 40 Japanese students came in. they were obviously expected as the tables had been laid for them.

The lady owner came over to us and asked us if we found it too noisy and would we like to move to a quieter part of the restaurant , we declined as the atmosphere was incredible, it was lively and full of fun, we asked the lady owner to choose some suitable dishes for us and the food was excellent, as for value for money we were expecting to pay a fortune and were pleasantly suprised when we got the bill and in fact we were so please we left more than the recommended tip. We are now considering making a regular trip to London to visit this restaurant for special birthdays and aniversaries.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, November 20, 2007

11/11/07 - Meal excellent - Rec D for variety - staff very pleasant and good service
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Adrian
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Monday, November 12, 2007

This is the worst Chinese food I've ever eaten and the worst service I've ever had. The next time you're in London, give it a miss. Warren Zevon would be very sad to see how badly the restaurant has gone downhill.
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Ben A.
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

My wife and I have eaten Chinese food in more than a dozen countries (including China, Beijing and Hong Kong as well as other cities) in four continents, and this was the worst Chinese food we have ever encountered. We had one of the set dinners for two. The vegetable dish was slimy, the strips of pork so over-cooked that they were tough and chewy, the crispy duck wasn't crisp, the rice had a deeply unpleasant taste, and everything was served lukewarm or cold on ice-cold plates. There were no burners to keep (or make) the food hot in the way that's now routine in most UK Chinese restaurants. The service was incredibly slow, even though the restaurant was half empty. After one interminable wait, I summoned a waiter and told him with some emphasis that we had been waiting long enough and we wanted our food NOW. He grinned sheepishly and disappeared behind a screen; almost immediately a waitress arrived with our next course. It had evidently been sitting there for some time and was stone cold. I removed the service charge from the bill; the waiter didn't challenge this, obviously expecting it. Never again!
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Brian Barder
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Sunday, October 21, 2007

We last ate in this restaurant 27 years ago - only a memory! We had planned to go to another well known restaurant which we discovered had suddenly closed , so out of the blue we tried Lee Ho Fook again. We turned up at six on a (Wednesday ) evening, the place had a fair amount of people in it, but there was a pleasent relaxed atmosphere away from frenetic Gerrard Street itself. After an initially slow start at first getting anybodies attention, the rest of the evening went very smoothly with the very young Chinese waitress(s) giving us a most pleasent and courteous service - even though they spoke very little English. Our crispy duck starter was lovely and crispy but slightly dry, our barbecued belly pork and stir fried squid dishes were gorgeous - side vej were well presented and a nice accompaniment. The rice was absolutely perfect. Our only gripe - (a comment not a complaint) was that the food could have been slightly warmer, and likewise with the red wine that we had - which was a bit cool for our liking. The tea in this restaurant was so good that we had two pots - and no it was not Jasmine!

Compared to some of the downright awful places with their gross standards of service and prices, Lee Ho Fook was a (refound) lovely experience - we will add it alongside our other (single) favourite restaurant in the area (in LIsle Street - normally the best part of Chinatown to eat in - in our estimation). It sounds to us that some of the other reviewers were wanting and expecting Hakkasan - if that's what they want, then they know where it is!!!

Phil & Lin
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Phil & Lin
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Thursday, October 18, 2007

i went to this restaraunt last week for a friends birthday, and the food was delicious, especially the pork and duck. there was a nice atmosphere and the service was good too.
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mia
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Monday, October 08, 2007

I came here for my birthday, i visit this restaurant often usually for dinner but this time i came in the afternoon for some celebrations and tried their new dim sum afternoon menu. it was delicious! A decent varied menu to choose from and the dishes were hot and tasty - i recommend their roast duck and pork!! definitely one of the most authentic places to eat in Chinatown, and i had no problems with the service. Value for money - try it out if your in the area looking for some chinese cuisine!
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Nathan
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Friday, August 31, 2007