Two-hatted Melbourne Chinese restaurant is bringing its cult eggplant to Sydney

A near carbon copy of chefs’ hatted Melbourne restaurant Lee Ho Fook will open in Sydney next month, its arrival coinciding with a mini boom in Chinese restaurants in the Harbour City.

The two-hatted Lee Ho Fook will land at Castlereagh Street in the Sydney CBD, hot on the heels of Grandfather’s, a late-night Chinese restaurant near Martin Place from the team behind Clam Bar, and Potts Point’s Young’s Palace, which both open this week.

It’ll be something of a homecoming for Lee Ho Fook’s owner-chef, Victor Liong, who grew up in Sydney before opening the award-winning Lee Ho Fook in 2013. The Homebush-raised chef said he knew he’d found Lee Ho Fook’s Sydney home when he walked into the Dixson & Sons restaurant at Porter House.

“We’re in an old wool store in Melbourne, the building in Sydney [a heritage listed former tobacco factory] was built around the same time, there’s the same exposed brick,” Liong said.

The chef confirmed his menu will move north. When the restaurant opens on September 17, Sydneysiders will be able to tuck into prawn toast with sea urchin, duck with quince hoisin and Glacier 51 Toothfish with silken tofu. Lee Ho Fook’s signature dish, Four Dances of the Sea, will also feature.

“It might be a Sydney version, depending on what I can get. But I love that idea of four different types of seafood done four ways,” Liong said.

The Age’s chief restaurant critic, Besha Rodell, listed it as a go-to dish in a 16/20 review, praising Liong’s gift for big flavours: “even when you’re experiencing his umami-bomb flair, the main impression is one of exactitude, of careful consideration for texture and balance and contrast.”

Liong has teamed with Trippas White Group, the same hospitality giant which recently lured chef Mark Best out of Sydney restaurant retirement, opening revolving restaurant Infinity by Mark Best.

Trippas is overseeing the food and beverage operations across the Porter House Hotel Precinct. Liong described his deal as a partnership, rather than a consultancy. “It’s too expensive to open a restaurant on your own now,” he said.

This latest move isn’t Liong’s first foray back to Sydney. He was briefly involved at Chuuka restaurant in Pyrmont, which saw him team with Japanese-American chef Chase Kojima to deliver a hybrid Chinese-Japanese menu. Liong said the restaurant wasn’t helped by its timing, closing during the pandemic in 2021.

One advantage of opening a restaurant in his hometown is being able to tap into an existing network. Liong’s sister, Nianci Liong (ex-Momofuku Seiobo, King Clarence), will step in as restaurant manager, while Brad Guest (ex-Shell House, Sixpenny) will be the head chef.

Victor Liong is bullish about the influx of new Chinese restaurants in Sydney, which follows a period of closures.

“These things happen in weird cycles, but it (Chinese) is one of the world’s great cuisines,” Liong said. “Lee Ho Fook in Sydney will continue to respect the foundations of Chinese cooking, while presenting them through a contemporary Australian lens.”