Ho Mei, Surry Hills

Ho Mei, is a modern Chinese Restaurant in Surry Hills. Parking around the area can be quite challenging and limited often limited to 1 hour. 

Setting:
The décor a this restaurant is very warm and inviting. It would be best described as modern oriental mixed with industrial. One side of the wall is wall-papered with a red lantern motif, bright red lanterns hang from the wall and couch is decorated bright red cushions - giving the oriental feel. And the there are more industrial looking lights hanging over the tables and heavy wood bench-tables giving the industrial impression.There are high ceilings giving the restaurant a open and spacious feeling even when the tables are rather cramped together. 

We visited the restaurant in early spring, the doors were wide open, making the restaurant was rather cold (temperature).


Menu:
There were two menus, a Tapas set-menu for $39 per person or ala carte. We went for the Tapas set-menu. Drinks were not included. There was a bar - however drink prices were pretty steep. It was surprising that we couldn't find traditional Chinese tea here.

Tapas Menu - Click to Enlarge

Drink Menu - Click to Enlarge

Food:
Crispy Handmade Won-ton with Chicken, Water Chestnut, served with Sweet Chilli Sauce. Very hot won-tons served straight from the pan! I personally thought the filling of the won-ton was average, didn't really stand out.

Crispy Handmade Wan-ton

Steamed Butterfly Buns with Roast Pork and Homemade Apple Sauce. The apple sauce was fantastic, but I wish they were more generous with it. The pork was cold, but the rind was crunchy.

Duck Pancakes with Cucumber and Leek in Homemade Hoi Sin Sauce. This sauce again was very complex and yummy, however the duck was cold.



Salt and Pepper Calamari and Sweet Potato Tossed with Shallots and Chili. The calamari was cooked perfectly, soft and juicy (not rubbery at all!). 

Shandong Chicken - Crispy skin chicken served with Shandong sauce and Steamed Rice. 
This chicken really was really not crispy and was served lukewarm. Only 1 bowl of rice was provided for 2 people too.


Deep Fried Ice-cream with Homemade Sauce and seasonal fruits, to be shared between 2. The dish was very asthetically pleasing, and that's about the last thing pleasing about this dish. The crumbed coating of the ice-cream was very hard, and took us quite alot of effort to get to the ice-cream. The ice-cream wasn't the soft, fluffy or silky as one would expect. It was hard, grainy and had weird nuts blended within which really didn't go together with the fruits nor the home-made sauce.


Overall:
The service at this place is fantastic. Our water was always topped up. Service was prompt and polite. However, unless you are after lukewarm food, this place is pretty disappointing. The quality or the amount of food definitely did not match up with the price. I personally wouldn't return to the place.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COVID-19 Stay-at-home Day 6: Kimchi Pork Stew Recipe

Image
Hi guys! It's day 6 of our COVID-19 stay-at-home plan. I've decided to resurrect my blog by sharing our meals with you guys. Tonight on the menu is my version of a Kimchi Pork Stew. It's super easy to make and you don't have to follow the vegetable recommendations strictly here. You can use whatever veggies you like. So here's it! It's best served with rice. Ingredients 200g Pork - Best cuts are belly if not shoulder or leg is fine. 1 tablespoon Oil 1 cup Kimchi 1 tablespoon Korean spicy red pepper paste (Gochujang) 3 cups water Your choice of mushrooms and vegetables. 1 packet of spicy Korean instant noodles 300g Medium tofu sliced (Optional) Spring onion to garnish Marinade Mixture 2 tablespoon of wine - Chinese cooking wine, Mirin/ cooking sake, or sherry 1 tablespoon of soy sauce 1 teaspoon of black pepper Method 1) Cut pork into thin slices. I have around 200g of pork shoulder here, but pork belly would be even better. It's bes...
Read more

COVID-19 Stay at Home Day 7: Crispy Rice Cakes Recipe

Image
Hey guys! Just sharing a quick analogy about numbers and COVID-19 and why you should avoid the disease before I post my recipe of the day. Imagine you have a packet of M&Ms with 100 little chocolates in it. Now you're being told between 2-6 pieces in that packet has cyanide in it, and there are a few that will give you violent diahorrea what would you do?  1) Throw the whole packet away 2) Eat it cause I won't die from diahorrea 3) Eat it cause what's the risk of dying, it's just 2-6%?! 4) Eat it and share it with all your friends and family and even your doggy! Personally, the most logical answer for me is to throw the whole packet away. It's the same reason why I'm staying at home to help stop the spread of COVID-19. I guess it's really food for thought! That said, here's my recipe for today! I've had some leftover rice from last night and NO WAY, not wasting any rice as it's super hard to find rice out there. I've turn my lef...
Read more

How to pick your notebook for Bullet Journal

Image
The bullet journal is a "back-to-traditional" organisational tool. It has won many fans not only from those who like being organised with to-do lists, but also from many craft and stationary enthusiast. If you've not heard of bullet journalling (or bujo for short), it is a system using a combination of long term and short term to-do lists, coupled with calendars to keep organised. Variations include meal prep lists, shopping lists, goals, etc. Many craft lovers also use their bujos for variations of paper crafts (like scrapbooking) and calligraphy. There are a good variety of different types and styles of notebooks available on the market. One of the most common dilemmas most newbies to bullet journalling have is what type of notebook to use. It might seem quite trivial for those who have never stepped into the bullet journalling world, but in fact the different types of notebook are used quite differently. To pick your first bullet journal, I've tried to catego...
Read more