Lee Ho Fook
Lee Ho Fook in January 2008
Restaurant information
Closed2008
Street address15–16 Gerrard Street
CityLondon
Postal/ZIP CodeW1D 6JE
CountryUnited Kingdom
Coordinates51°30′42″N 0°07′53″W / 51.5117°N 0.1314°W / 51.5117; -0.1314

Lee Ho Fook was a Chinese restaurant located in Chinatown, London at 15–16 Gerrard Street.[1] It was originally located at 4 Macclesfield Street and continued to operate out of that site, known as Lee Ho Fook II, as well as Gerard Street, for several decades.[2] In 1974, it became the first Chinese restaurant in the United Kingdom to be awarded a Michelin Star.[3] The restaurant was referenced in the lyrics of 1978 song "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon.[4]

Lee Ho Fook closed in 2008, being replaced by another restaurant called Golden Harvest. That was then replaced by Dumplings' Legend, which specialises in soup-filled dumplings.

Reviews

A 1968 review of Lee Ho Fook in The Times described it as "undoubtedly one of the best new Cantonese restaurants in London". One of the three owners of the restaurant, Vincent Tsui told The Times that initially they had not expected their cooking to appeal to English people but found that they had come regularly and that "We're not going to make any concessions". A small card with the Chinese names of dishes to present to waiters was given to customers who only spoke English.[5] The 1969 edition of The Good Food Guide praised Lee Ho Fook's "strikingly individual cooking" as "the work of an artist".[6]

William F. Heintz called it "one of the top places to dine in all of London" in a review for The Chinese-American News Magazine in 1974.[7]

A 1978 review for the New York Times stated that the food was "quite good … though it should be characterized as Chinese food for Westerners" and praised the "sweet and sour pork, beef stir‐fried with peppers and onions, chicken soup with egg drops" and "Cantonese staple" crabmeat soup with corn. The decor was described as "a mishmash of Chinese restaurant clichés—panels embossed with dragons, lanterns, woven bamboo, and with rather cramped seating". The waiting service was described as "virtually non-existent".[8]

In culture

In the book Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA Robert Ji-Song Ku wrote that Zevon's reference to Lee Ho Fook in the song "Werewolves of London" was emblematic of his perception of the ubiquity of Chinese food in the daily life of British people.[9] The writer and novelist Will Self wrote that he was a fan of Lee Ho Fook for the fact that it was mentioned in Zevon's song.[10] The comedian and writer Rich Hall imagined dining at the restaurant as a werewolf in his 2010 short story collection Magnificent Bastards.[11] The record producer Joe Boyd recounts that in the summer of 1966 his ritual for visiting music dignitaries was to take them to dinner at Lee Ho Fook before walking up Wardour Street to see The Move at the Marquee.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "Go to Lee Ho Fook's, get a big dish of beef chow mein". Bob Cromwell: Travel, Linux, Cybersecurity.
  2. ↑ "Lee Ho Fook". Evening Standard. 10 April 2012.
  3. ↑ Rachel Dixon (7 August 2008). "Nibbles". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  4. ↑ "Story Of The Song: Werewolves of London, Warren Zevon (1978)". The Independent. 11 July 2008.
  5. ↑ "Care with Cantonese". The Times. No. 57142. 6 January 1968. p. 20. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  6. ↑ Turnbull, Tony (19 April 2008). "Back to the Future". The Times. No. 69302. p. 20. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  7. ↑ East West: The Chinese-American News Magazine. 1974. p. 4.
  8. ↑ "...And Rating Restaurants in Soho's New 'China'". The New York Times. 7 August 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  9. ↑ Robert Ji-Song Ku (31 December 2013). Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA. University of Hawaii Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-8248-3921-5.
  10. ↑ Will Self (26 September 2002). Feeding Frenzy. Penguin Books. pp. 437–. ISBN 978-0-14-192131-0.
  11. ↑ Rich Hall (4 March 2010). Magnificent Bastards. Little, Brown Book Group. pp. 43–. ISBN 978-0-7481-1873-1.
  12. ↑ Boyd, Joe (2017). White Bicycles (Classics ed.). London: Serpent's Tail. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-78125-794-4.
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