Dined at the Lee How Fook Restaurant tonight. Now I know you are probably making all sorts of jokes about the name, so kindly settle, and let me tell you how impressive this little, suburban Chinese is.
Linda is the matriach of this family-owned and run business, and she is the main front of house person. She runs the place like clockwork. She is unpretentious, efficient, friendly, happy and knows exactly what's going on both in the kitchen and restaurant.
The food is fantastic. I can't speak more highly of it, and I'm a bit reluctant to tell you this here, in case it means that it'll get harder to get a car parking spot right outside the door, and a table without booking whenever you want one.
But - in the interests of helping Linda pay for her son's educations, I must be honest and report back on yet another spot-on Chinese meal there.
Tonight we dined on Duck in Plum Sauce ($21) and Singapore Noodles ($14). Bloody delicious.
They're open 6 days per week (closed Mondays). They do lunches Wed - Fri, and dinners Tue - Sun. They do take-aways (6243 0039) too. You could do what I do, and order by phone then traipse over from South Hobart (bypassing 16 million Chinese restaurants on the way!!!) to collect it.
Believe me, it's worth it. I sure as hell wouldn't do it if it wasn't!
Thursday, 3 May 2007
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23 comments:
are you serious?
certainly a well-kept secret.
Yes Nellie - it IS a well kept secret, and make sure you don't go blabbing it all round town!
I was told of this place by a friend from Rose Bay, Rita, years ago.
Guess what? Me and the missus went over for lunch on a closed day.
And you thought my Lotus misadventure was a one-off!
From now on I am phoning first.
Cheers, Sir Grumpy.
You can't take a trick, can you Sir G?
Why are you lunching out on Mon & Tuesdays?
I like to brighten the dark days of the week with an adventure into munching, Rita.
Cheer, Sir Grumpy.
Yeah Rita, thanks a lot for blowing the cover of a great little family restaurant. I suggest that you and your obviously western shore friends stay away from our restaurant in future. We don't hold with bloggers in Lindisfarne.
Sorry curly lasagna. It's called "life"! We live it and love it. Food is an integral part of that. Good Chinese food.
And I do think you're being a bit unkind on poor Linda. After all, she DOES have bills to pay.
PS curly lasagna - be proud of the fact that in little old Lindisfarne you possess a local restaurant that is brilliant.
Don't be resentful of us poor deprived westerners coming across the bridge to sample your wares, rape and pillage your womenfolk, burn down your castles etc
Talk about the three billy goats gruff!
That's funny. There's been a Lee How Fook in Adelaide for about 25 years! I've never eaten there, but perhaps I should...
rita........ i hate to say it, but having eaten at lee how fook tonight for the second time, i can safely say it is the worst chinese i have ever eaten.i thought a second chance would be fair,but alas, it failed again.it's even worse than the chinese i ate in croatia! i was really hoping to enjoy a nice simple chinese meal,but unfortunately it was really bad.
we had vege chow mein, bbq pork. both were cloying, heavy and extremely sweet. the pork was dry and noodles were stale. linda was running around like a chook with no head, as was her son and she even had to run home to get spring rolls out of the freezer (definitely not home made) to keep a table of 7 happy whilst their food took quite some while.
also it's really expensive for the quality of ingredients used. it's a shame, because i know that they'd probably like to serve authentic regional chinese,but they are currently serving extremely poor food.
they seemed like nice people and i'd like to support them,but i'd never recommend this place,
not based on the last two experiences.
beware to those who enter!
Oh anon - that's awful. I'm SO sorry. I'm definitely going to toddle along back there this week & check it out again. I was told yesterday that Sunday nights are really flat out there, because of the yachties from the local marina returning from their weekend away on the boat, then going to Lee How Fook for dinner.
Was that maybe the problem?
No matter - I'm feeling suitably embarrassed for so highly recommending them just days ago, then you getting such crap food & service.
I won't condemn them just yet as I have to date found them great. Watch this space for a followup report.
Nice one Anon. I wish I'd of thought of submitting a damning review like yours. That should keep those Western shoreites away from one of my favourite restaurants.
When I last checked, this is Tassie. Last bastion of caring, sharing people. You are obviously not there with us, curly lasagna.
Glad LHF is your favourite restaurant. It's one of mine too. Eastern or Western shore? I didn't know that mattered. Thank god I don't use it as my yardstick for behaviour.
By the way - I spoke tonight to 2 friends (chefs) who ate at LHF on Sunday night, the same night as unhappy anon of 6 may 9.33pm. They assured me food was great, & service fine. They said it WAS busy, and the raucous table were indeed noisy, but no dramas.
Well Anon, I too ate at the Lee How Fook on Sunday 6 May. However my experience was quite different.
We were only a table of 3 but we did order a lot of food (5 entrees, 4 mains + rice). I thought the food was great (especially the chilli chicken and the duck in plum suace) and my companions (both chefs), certainly weren't complaining.
Nor did I notice anything wrong with the service (although I am often accused of being oblivious - not getting my food fast enough is something I definitely notice!) - the food came thick & fast. However, I was thankfully oblivious to the whole spring roll fiasco.
All in all I had a brilliant night (the company helped) and for $65 I'd say a pretty cheap one.
Amazing how 2 people can be in the same place at the same time and experience it completely differently - oh well, each to their own....
I'd recommend this place, no worries.
wow for such a small dining room almost everyone is linked to this blog. it's a shame my husband and myself didn't have quite same experience as the other diners on the same night.
for us it wasn't a factor of time, ambience or service asi said before it was the quality of the food or lack of it. from your review rita, i was expecting something fairly different and interesting.
it's by no means your fault, so don't take offense.
we all have different tastes and opinions, but i found the flavours MSG laden and synthetic.
i asked the waiter for some XO chilli on the side and he replyed that they'd used it all up in a sauce, after which he also said that all their sauces come in bottles. now i'd expect soy sauce, oyster sauce, black vineger etc to be in bottles, but any good chinese restaurant makes it's own char sui or plum sauce, even little suburban ones. we too had duck and plum sauce on our first visit and it was impossible to finish because it was so sweet.
i won't be going back, but that doesn't really matter as it looks like a popular place and alot of people seem to love it, so wish them good luck and many happy meals. one thing i will say though is that it actually does get alot better than that and
i hope a few readers do get to experience it one day, you'll really enjoy it!
fiona
There's your key Fiona. If you read my post about not liking wine, you'll have picked up that I'm a pretty big sweet tooth.
I found the duck in plum sauce gorgeous BECAUSE it was so sweet. You didn't like it for that same reason.
Interesting.
Thnaks for getting back to me too. Appreciate your sentiments.
Caff - thanks for popping in & commenting. Love to hear from you again. x
pleasure rita!
happy blogging,
fiona
Sorry Fiona, but if you think little Chinese restaurants make their own char sui, plum or hoisin sauce etc. then I'd say you were having a lend of yourself.
Most of it is caterers size from wholesalers.
Black bean and chilli too.
A wok-tossing Sir Grumpy.
PS get into Wing and Co in Sandy Bay and you'll see them all waiting for you to investigate and incorporate.
sir grumpy,
i actually worked in one that did make it's own sauces, yes we purchased some sauces, but char sui,
master stocks, xo chilli and others were made on site and we were located in rural victoria. i know for a fact we weren't the only ones doing it either.
as for wing and co, 50% of the bottled and canned liquids are for these sauces.
so unless you've worked in such an establishment, what qualified opinion do you have? an assumption? a generalisation?
the reason i went to LHF was see if these guys did the same, but i guess i was having a lend of myself?
p.s waiting for sarcastic reply, maybe a riddle?
fiona the optimist
Sorry Fiona,
I just thought you were being a bit optimistic and trusting.
I know someone who worked two places who passed that on to me.
Lots of the sauces were assemblies of bottled sauces, given a tweak by the chef.
If the end result is okay, then fine.
But from what I've tasted round Hobart, plus my investigation of dozend of sauces from Wing and Co, I'd say most just give the customer what they expect.
That is often far too sweet and gloopy for me.
No sarcasm, or riddles from me, you must be mistaking me for some other bastard!
PS Your experience was in Victoria, too. Lots of spillover of asian cooks from Melbourne who know their stuff.
Sir Grumpy.
PPS Do you know Gobbler?!
OK, I know this post is a year old now, but I found you on a google search. I am relatively new to Lindisfarne, so I read with interest.
I ordered the Singapore noodles, and sweet and sour chicken. From that experience, my perception of reality would lie somewhere between the author of this blog and Anonymous from May 6. The Singapore Noodles were passable, but the sweet and sour sauce provided (on the side, thank goodness)was straight out of a bottle, thin and lame.
So it was good enough for a second visit, where I ordered another chef's special, bbq spare ribs and then got really disappointed. Now I do not expect much from a suburban Hobart Chinese food restaurant (sorry, don't mean to sound patronising), but this standard dish did not even resemble any version I have had previously. They were not barbecued, were in a pedestrian sweet sauce that did not resemble bbq sauce and were pretty much crap. Definitely not worth the $15.80(!) It should have been called 'wet chunks of pork in characterless, oily sauce with capsicum, onion and carrot"
Sorry, but it's really not that hard to make decent food!
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