Lee Ho Fook

After a wonderful day in London, we remembered having been to Lee Ho Fook's many years ago. Queues outside many other rastaurants, but not this one, should have been a warning. The large interior is totally without atmosphere and the food without character. The selection of starters were greasy and the chilli dipping sauce no more than coloured liquid. The Peking Duck, disected by a young uninterested waiter, was greasy and the pancakes cold. Further courses were flavourless, covered in thick gloopy sauce and generally of a very poor standard. The ingredients are not bad, just the cooking of them. How very sad, but we do not seem to be the only ones to have had this experience. Warning: always check reviews before visiting a restaurant!
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Mrs D. Rumsam
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

We went there after remembering reading somewhere that it's a Michelin star restaurant (not sure if it's true). But once inside, the atmosphere is so dead but we thought probably cos it's a Sunday afternoon. The food arrived and it's disgusting! All the dishes are bland and roughly cooked, with gluey cornstarch lumps in some dishes! We think the best thing we had is the Chinese tea!

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! Even the rude Wong Kei is better than this!
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Ephram Brown
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, July 14, 2008

I was in London many years ago. In fact I was in Soho and it was raining. I was hungry and really fancied a Beef Chow Mein. I had my dinner in Lee Ho Fooks and it was very nice. No one stared at me which is unusual, and i would go back there tomorrow!

One of the Werewolves of London.
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Olly
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, May 03, 2008

Avoid this restaurant!

My husband and I went there on the Thursay night before the long Easter weekend and they tired to overcharge us by over £40! When we looked at the bill, we found that the food for the next table along had been added to to our bill. A mistake? Well, we though so, until I read the other reviews here where it has happened at least twice before!

I am tempted to go to the police station and report it as goodness knows, they probably try it on every chance they get.

As for the food, generic crispy duck came with manky looking cucumber and stale pancakes. The staff were uninterested and the service was very poor.

This used to be quite a good reastaurant but it has obviously changed hands. Now it's very very bad.
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Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, March 22, 2008

On Saturday night, my boyfriend and I had a craving for Chinese and made our way to China Town. When we arrived there, we remembered how lovely Lee Ho Fook used to be and made a beeline for the retaurant. Lesson number one - never dwell in the past. The restaurant was shabby and dirty and the toilets were absolutely disgusting - bins overflowing with used tissues!! The staff were wearing stained uniforms and no one seemed to speak English. The starter arrived and contained a teaspoon of seaweed, two burnt and boney spare ribs, two dodgy looking pieces of chicken and the greasiest spring rolls you could ever imagine. It was at that stage that we noticed numerous complaints coming from the other tables in the restaurant, all of which were met with a glazed look and much arm waving. The duck arrived and was served by a boy who had quite clearly lost the will to live and who became more surly as each course arrived, The egg fried rice had quite obviously been reheated (which is incredibly unhealthy) and there was no sign of any egg, just a couple of greyish peas. Once the food was laid out on the table, we took one look at it and decided to leave. We asked for the bill and it was duly delivered but with an extra £20 on it! A lengthy discussion with the waiter proved to be most painful and was once again met with the glaze expression. Eventually the bill was corrected and we left. Once outside, we saw people being handed leaflets telling them to venture inside for the meal of a lifetime, so I walked down the queue and told them all not to bother going in!!!! Somehow that made me feel so much better!
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, March 10, 2008

This restaurant used to be one of the best in the area, but now it's apparently under new management, and it shows.

As we sat down we heard two lots of people complaining that they'd been waiting an hour for their food. We heard similar complaints over the next two hours. We arrived at 7.15 and by 8.50 our main course still hadn't appeared. During this wait other people who'd arrived after us got served before us (though, overhearing conversations, often with the wrong food). One of our main courses finally arrived, a runny-looking chicken curry, but without the noodles or other main courses. Ten minutes later a skimpy plate of noodles arrived, but by that time we'd decided to leave. Our bill for starters (overcooked spring rolls; hot and sour soup marked as vegetarian but with scraps of chicken and prawn in it) and drinks (a glass of wine & two bottles of Tsing Tao) came to £18.70 with nothing knocked off it and no real apology.

I'd advise people to avoid this restaurant.
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James Mitchum
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Singapore Noodles with piles of dry, completely uncooked curry powder in it.

Peking Duck, freezing cold, fatty, slimy shoe leather, served with ancient yellowed spring onions and cold pancakes with the consistency of yet more shoe leather. Hoisin Sauce? I don't think so: An imposter that might have once bumped into a member of the Hoisin family in a factory and then gone out and bought itself a fake label.

Revolting disgusting rip-off wine.

Dreadfull service by pitiable staff who don't speak any English.

Don't go...even if you're starving.

Just sling your money through the door of Lee Ho Fook and run away very fast whilst thanking your lucky stars that as well as throwing your money away you didn't have to put any of their 'food' in your mouth.
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CMR
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, February 13, 2008

I felt compelled to write a review about this restaurant and only wish I had read the reviews on here before wasting my money!

Service was terrible, our drinks arrived when we were on our second course.

The food was horrific - the starters caked in fat, the duck was dry and the and hoisin sauce had a film of grease over it. The mains were even worse - poor quality meat in gloopy sauces! The best dish was the vegetables in oyster sauce!
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, February 03, 2008

I returned to the restaurant a couple of days ago and I can honestly say that it has definitely improved! I've been going there a lot recently: lunch/dinner.

You really cannot miss the restaurant for starters- it looks AMAZING.

The atmosphere is brilliant and at times when it was busy, we were shown to a table quickly.

The staff there are very friendly- they do not badger you constantly and they don't ignore you either. Your drinks are taken soon after you have settled down and you're allowed time to order.

It's great to see that they have introduced the dim sum menu at last! The dim sum menu offers a fantastic variety of chinese specialised dishes- something definitely worth trying at the restaurant.

Dinner at the restaurant is great too- cannot stress enough the great atmosphere and feeling there. It does get very busy, yet service is still good and food does come quickly.

You should definitely try ths place out. Not quite sure why the negative comments, but from personal experience, they are extremely accomodating and the food is really delicious! Good selection of chinese dishes and catered westernised ones too! Great experiences. Great for large parties!
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erica
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Friday, January 11, 2008

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