Behind Ho Lee Fook’s playful name and flamboyant setting lies a kitchen firmly grounded in Cantonese tradition. The SoHo restaurant, part of Black Sheep Restaurants and Michelin-recommended for four consecutive years, has built its identity around familiar Hong Kong flavors reworked with a contemporary sensibility.
At its helm is head chef ArChan Chan, a comparatively rare female presence at the top of a high-end Chinese kitchen. After spending 13 years cooking in Melbourne and Singapore, Chan returned to Hong Kong with an approach that draws on her overseas experience without losing sight of the food she grew up with.
Now leading Ho Lee Fook into her sixth year, she continues to explore how classic Cantonese techniques and flavors can be given fresh expression.
That balance between familiarity and invention runs through the restaurant’s latest dishes.
The crispy shiitake mushroom “eel” is an immediate example. Sliced mushrooms are fried until their curled shape resembles eel, with a delicate crunch giving way to a tender center. A glossy black vinegar glaze adds a sweet-and-sour edge associated with classic Cantonese preparations, turning a humble ingredient into something playful yet recognizable.
More unexpected is the icy beef broth with five-spiced local beef shin. Drawing partly on the memory of Hong Kong-style beef brisket noodles, the dish combines meltingly tender beef with konjac noodles and an intensely savory beef broth served in granita-like form. There are hints of Vietnamese pho and Korean cold noodles in its construction, yet the flavors remain grounded in the familiar richness of Cantonese braised beef.
Acidity also plays a starring role in the steamed star snapper with salted lemon and tomato. Rather than relying on the usual soy sauce accompaniment, the fish is paired with preserved Hong Kong-style salted lemon, whose sharp, fermented character lifts the natural sweetness of the flesh. Tomato brings another layer of freshness, giving the dish greater brightness and dimension without overwhelming the fish.
For diners looking for deeper, richer flavors, several Ho Lee Fook signatures remain firmly in place. The charcoal-grilled Kurobuta pork char siu arrives lacquered with honey, balancing smoky edges with tender, juicy meat.
Its roast duck, another longstanding favorite, undergoes a three-day preparation process, resulting in crisp skin, rendered fat and succulent breast meat. A mala beef sauce adds an unconventional accent while keeping the focus on the precision of the roast itself.
The meal reaches one of its strongest points with the local lobster and XO spring onion noodles. Sweet lobster is matched with chewy noodles tossed in the restaurant’s house-made XO sauce and scallion oil. Here, technique matters as much as the ingredients: the noodles carry the unmistakable fragrance of wok hei, while the savory XO sauce amplifies rather than masks the lobster’s natural sweetness. It is generous, deeply flavored and unmistakably Cantonese at heart.
Ho Lee Fook’s willingness to experiment becomes particularly apparent at dessert. Green bean soup is one of Hong Kong’s most familiar sweet endings, but here it is reconstructed as green bean ice cream with kombu, rue and winter melon granita. The herbal character recalls traditional green bean soup cooked with rue, while the winter melon granita keeps the finish clean and refreshing. It feels new, yet its reference point remains instantly familiar.
That balance between tradition and reinvention extends beyond the plate. The dining room is dressed in gold, with lucky cats, mahjong motifs and a soundtrack of 1980s Cantopop shaping a lively interpretation of Hong Kong.
Rather than recreating an old teahouse or leaning entirely on nostalgia, the space feels theatrical and contemporary, reflecting the restaurant’s broader view of the city as energetic, irreverent and constantly evolving.
This is also why describing Ho Lee Fook simply as a fusion restaurant misses the point. There may be influences from Vietnam, Korea and the West, and there is no shortage of playful presentation, but the foundations remain Cantonese — from steaming and roasting to charcoal grilling and the pursuit of proper wok hei.
Under Chan, those foundations are treated with both respect and confidence. Familiar flavors are not discarded, but reconsidered through new textures, techniques and combinations. At Ho Lee Fook, Cantonese cuisine is not preserved as something fixed in time. It is allowed to move, adapt and have a little fun.
marco.lam@singtaonewscorp.com
