Hong Kong - Ho Lee Fook

Ho Lee Fook - dinner on August 30, 2017

Yes, you read the name right. Sound it out if you wonder why we got a chuckle when our Hong Kong host brought us here. But supposedly it means “good fortune for your mouth”. Apparently, this is locally famous and well-known for its beef ribs. It didn’t matter. Our Hong Kong host(ess) hadn’t steered us wrong yet so I was a willing lemming to follow her lead.

We entered the restaurant at street level, saw a bunch of mounted cat clocks (see pic, I’m not kidding) at the top of the stairs and took the stairs down into a darkened room that had a definite clubby feel. This is not a place where you take your sweetie so you can whisper sweet nothings to each other. This is good for group dinners, small and large, when you want a high energy, dancy vibe. Awesome 80s music the whole time we were there so it made me feel right at home.

Once again I cannot tell you what exactly we ate so this isn’t going to really be a restaurant review but more like a food porn post with some words. And some of my pictures didn’t really turn out because the lighting was so dark and I did not have the luxury of making fussy lighting adjustments with my phone before the dishes were passed around and spoons gouged out servings. So it’s more about “hey, here’s one of the places we ate at in Hong Kong”.

By now, I was a veteran of our team meals and had learned to pace myself. No matter how good something was, I knew enough to only take a small portion or else I was going to be hopelessly full too soon and would miss out on possibly the best dish(es).

Two dishes did stand out though. One was fried chicken wings that were crisp and amazingly flavorful. They were spicy; you know I don’t normally go for the spicy but these were really good, not burn-your-mouth-spicy but wake-up-and-say-hello-flavorful-spicy. At first I couldn’t recognize them, not just because of the poor lighting but because they were literally buried under a pile of crisply toasted chili peppers. At least that’s what I assume they were. I don’t know if anyone ate the chilis “straight” but the chicken wings were soon gone and the platter only contained crispy peppers.

The other dish that stood out in my memory came out last (see, this is why I save room) and were the famous ribs. I had gotten used to thinking of American-style ribs like baby back ribs but these were dinosaur-sized (okay, I exaggerate) ribs with generous slices of beef arranged around the bone. The outer edges were almost charred but only served as a nice contrast to the tenderness of the beef ribs inside. Very yum.

I miscalculated my pacing though and ran out of room for dessert. Which was some kind of ice cream or yogurt with some sort of fruit, served in bowls meant to be shared by 2-3 people. I cried uncle by then and didn’t get to take a picture so you’ll have to just imagine it. Another great dinner, another fun night in Hong Kong.

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