Ho Lee Fook celebrates its ten years operating in Hong Kong as a Cantonese restaurant that’s defined modern Hong Kong eating and dining.
Few restaurants in Hong Kong live to enjoy a decade in business, a fact that chef ArChan Chan and Winson Yip of Ho Lee Fook recognise dearly. Celebrating 10 years since the funky Cantonese restaurant opened on Elgin Street in Soho, the two chefs are indebted for having taken over the legacy of one of the city’s top name-brand restaurants.
Before ArChan Chan joined Ho Lee Fook in 2021, the Hong Kong chef cooked Chinese, Korean, and Australian food in Melbourne and Singapore. Winson Yip, ArChan’s right hand dim sum man in the kitchen, has earned himself two decades of dim sum knowledge under Hong Kong’s top Cantonese chefs.
“For me, joining Ho Lee Fook was like two partners finding each other,” ArChan tells of her three-year-long story at the restaurant. “I believe when you work in a place, you have to feed the place and the place has to feed you.”
Ho Lee Fook was born under the leadership of Jowett Yu in the summer of 2014, a restaurant tilted as such to elicit the playfulness and pliability of Cantonese cuisine. Classic Chinese dishes were modernised using Western techniques and more premium Chinese ingredients, a mission still championed today by ArChan and Winson.
The Cantonese restaurant has been uniquely embraced and touched by Western culture in Hong Kong. Menus are in English, French wine is sold, 1970s Cantopop and 2010s Western hits are played on the speakers, and a red rouge interior contrasts the traditional recipes cooked in the upstairs kitchen. “Ho Lee Fook welcomes those who cannot speak Chinese to enjoy real Cantonese food,” she says of a reputation strong with international visitors and expatriate Hong Kongers.
The whole package, complete with quality Black Sheep-style service, a strong drinks programme, luxury interior, top Chinese and European wines, and traditional Cantonese food, is where ArChan finds the restaurant’s success. Few Cantonese restaurants deliver on such a comprehensive service-meets-alcohol-meets-food package in Hong Kong, as Winson puts it.
The dim sum chef has been responsible for reshaping the restaurant’s dim sum offerings in a new light, matching the history of the sub cuisine with modern touches. “Dim sum can be eaten at night here and enjoyed with cocktails or over wine,” he explains to Foodie, where, traditionally, yum cha is a morning and lunch tradition in Hong Kong.
“The beef, pork, and shrimp dim sum we serve make great pairings with our alcohol served at Ho Lee Fook. Seafood can be paired with white wine, red meat with white wine. Serving dim sum at night is a special thing in Hong Kong as few places have taken that chance.”
Three specially-made dim sum are served as starter dishes for dinner service each week, hand-crafted by Winson and the team. Every first Sunday of each month, Ho Lee Fook hosts the Good Fortune Club, exposing a contemporary side of dim sum. Beef balls are infused with a mala chilli puree, prawn toast is hit with an okonomiyaki fusion twist, and taro puffs are packed with cheese and a curry wagyu filling.
To serve dim sum afterdark at the Soho restaurant details a comprehensive experience of Cantonese cuisine, serving the bites alongside soup, seafood, wok-fried, and Chinese barbeque specialities. “It is an experience in itself to enjoy dim sum that you recognise, but also taste something unique and special that we create,” ArChan adds.
On the menu, centrepiece dishes have cemented the restaurant as a fixture in the Soho dining scene. The steamed live razor clams? “Let’s say you eat ten razor clam (dishes) in Hong Kong, this is the best one.” Where their Kurobuta pork char siu is concerned, “people love it. We use quality pork, attention to detail on the marination, and finish in the charcoal.” And as for the signature Ho Lee duck, the meat is served medium, reflecting a western touch to the Beijing dish.
Could Ho Lee Fook thrive for 10 years without the music, service, interior, wine, champagne, and cocktails? Possibly, says ArChan, but it is the full package that has established its strong culinary footing in Soho. “The style and Chinese element of Ho Lee Fook has brought strong appeal for tourists, foreigners, and local Hong Kongers to enjoy Cantonese food, yet it doesn’t feel like a Chinese restaurant when you look at the menu and eat the food.”
This dichotomy has found Ho Lee Fook developing its brand story post-Jowett and following an early 2022 redesign that amped up the grandeur to its now-familiar red and gold interior design. The restaurantss design, food, and service encapsulates Soho, a bubble of western culture inside Hong Kong. “Not many other Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong are this bright and vibrant,” Winson finds. “We provide a special atmosphere with our music, drinking, and food that is rare elsewhere.”
Ten years after Jowett opened the restaurant in June 2014, the chef is returning to host the Ten Years of Good Fortune special dinner for one night only on Oct. 2 with ArChan, Winson, and the team to relive the decade of memories and Chinese decadence.
New and old dishes are to be prepared by Jowett and ArChan, including pork dumplings from 2014, typhoon shelter corn from 2016, and okra and wing bean salad from 2018, with new hits like the stir fry king, prawn goldfish har gow, and steamed chicken landing on the dinner table. “Jowett was and is an important part of Ho Lee Fook. It was a no-brainer that we bring him back for this big milestone of ours,” ArChan says.
“Running a restaurant is not an easy business,” Winson shares at the end of a conversation inside Ho Lee Fook. “For ten years, we have had to persevere with staff coming and going, changes in Hong Kong, and the economy hurting. It has all been worth it.”
Find what makes Ho Lee Fook a legacy restaurant in Hong Kong today by heading there for dinner soon.
