HO LEE FOOK, BATMAN, THAT WAS GREAT!

I must admit I didn’t know what to expect, but at the end of the dinner, all the pieces joined together to create one delicious whole.

After all, here was a restaurant in Lower Elgin Street, and in a venue said by some to be “cursed” as no business opened there has ever succeeded.

This alone, gave me the creeps.

Then there was the street itself- dull, tired, and seemingly hanging in there with a smattering of bars and restaurants in free fall- and in the middle of which is the “subtly” named Ho Lee Fook- a name, courtesy from my friends at g.o.d, who also designed the startling graphics that blend with the stark, concrete-designed, yet inviting interior by Sean Dix whose work can also be seen at Yardbird, Chom Chom etc.

It’s a “cosy cool” interior to what is a Chinese restaurant specializing in the creative culinary cuisine of Jowett Yu, below, who Sydneysiders might know for his restaurants Down Under- Mr Wong and Ms G.

Don’t let the “celebrity chef” tag put you off and think this is yet another of Hong Kong’s plastic fantastic imports of culinary hype over substance. Uh uh. Jowett Yu can cook, is creative, he’s hands-on and he delivers.

He’s not some glorified PR man disguised as a chef.

Q&A with Mr Wong’s Jowett Yu – DAILY LIFE

Stairs at street level, lead down to the basement restaurant where the atmosphere is uber cool without being pretentious, and despite the rich looking interior, the very good menu selection is extremely reasonably priced compared to the far more precious prices of many other neighboring restaurants for what are very average dishes.

Ho Lee Fook doesn’t have average dishes. They are exceptional.

And when having one of your most critical friends for company who takes no prisoners when service is below par, or dishes ordered miss the mark, turns and say, “This is very good, this is very good”, about everything tasted, it MUST be very good.

The traditional Barbecued Chicken in Soya Sauce, a Spicy Shredded Chicken Salad With Cabbage, even simple Spring Rolls and a Taiwanese Brown Rice dish together with an unassuming Chilean Pinot Noire was the perfect dinner for the four of us- delicious, healthy, and served in a comfortable atmosphere.

Now, if only we didn’t decide to walk over to Peel Fresco and listen to an AWFUL make-shift band playing there as part of its Open Mic night- terrible music, police hassling the operators at midnight about “the noise” and a way over-the-top panicky manager.

Holy fuck, Batman, who needs to pay for a night of bad music and a drama queen?

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