Ho Jiak Melbourne - Junda's Playground — Restaurant in Melbourne

If you want to eat ridiculously priced baby-sized portions and looking for a restaurant that is not baby friendly, this is the one!

A number of things to point out:

We pre-booked for 6 adults and a baby, requesting a high chair which was noted by Ho Jiak staff. However, upon arrival, there was no high chair at the table. We kindly asked the waitress for the high chair so that we could get our baby seated. Waited 10 minutes, still no chair. Asked again, waiter another 5 minutes, then chair came. No apologies were given.

Asked for the bathroom to change our baby's nappy. They said they needed to check if they had such facilities. They came back and said they did not have anywhere to accomodate changing nappies. We had to improvise.

Asked for a microwave to heat up baby food. They said they needed to check if their microwave was working. They came back to tell us it was not working. They said they needed to send the food to a different location to get the food heated.

All the food we ordered came out lukewarm at best. The only dish that was hot when it arrived at our table was the char koay teow (which was a massive let down, more on that later).

After sensing the temperature of the dishes was not right, we raised the issue to the waiter. He said as we had finished the entree (he was referring to the "Ho Jiak signature laksa bombs" at the time) he said there was nothing he can do. What an attitude. Mind you, the waiter explained to us the way to eat the bomb was to put the whole dumpling in our mouths in one go. Not sure if we were expected to spit it back out? We only realized it was not hot after biting into it.

When the mains came, we told the waiter the food was lukewarm/cold again. He checked and agreed, and took the dish back and said he would make a new one. 30 mins later, we received the revised hot dish.

The char koay teow. What a disappointment. $39 (before weekend surcharge) for a very basic stir fry, little wok hei, overly sweet, and cheap ingredients (besides the crab, more on that later). The prawns used are more like shrimps, dull in colour and no bigger than a 10 cent coin. The crab meat was ok, but you only get maybe one spoonful and that's it. The char koay teow at Lulu's or Kakilang use jumbo prawns, fresh ingredients, have wok hei, bigger portion and are a third of the price. Go figure.

Portion size. Not sure why the staff kept referring to certain dishes as "mains" as they clearly should be entrees in terms of size. For example, for the cantonese roast pork with farmers leaves "main", you probably only get 100g (or less) of actual roast pork, the rest is just mixed leaves and a few sauces. That will set you back $48 (before the 10% weekend service surcharge). Lucky for myself, I had a snack before I came so I did not eat much. Would probably need to spend $200+ per person to be full at the these Ho Jiak prices/portions.

Slow service. Service time between each dish was noticeably slow.

If you're still reading, you're probably having second thoughts about this place. Save your money. We all left hungry and our mood was killed. We didn't bother with their desserts. They can not be contacted unless you have made a booking. Their advertised phone line always goes directly to voicemail. You would think that a place that charges a premium price would have some sort of customer service, but nope.

I get that they are fairly new, but it seems like they are using us customers to trial their menu and seeking ways to improve their protocols. It is not fair to charge (and surcharge) customers when you are still in the "trialling stages" and do not have the basic necessities to fully operate.

To clarify, we have nothing against the waiter and waitresses. When we raised issues, they always needed to go check, probably with the manager/supervisor. One of the girls who served us was particularly friendly and looked after us well. It's more a management issue as we felt the floor staff were simply following orders.

Ho Jiak? No, not quite. Just robbed and...

This is where expectations and reality don’t come to life Let's just set the scene here, as found on the about tab “From wok-tossed classics to inventive new creations, every plate is a celebration of flavour, heritage, and imagination. It's not about replicating tradition - it's about reinterpreting it, with no shortcuts and plenty of soul" Is it a soft opening Or a play kitchen for inexperienced restaurateurs? This restaurant that is unsure of its dining status in terms of a glorified Malaysian street food vendor with way over priced menu items or a finer dining establishment that claims to “reinvent and new creations without replicating traditions” just by putting on black truffle on any dish to elevate the senses. (optional extra as per special menu)🤦‍♂️ This dining experience was for 6pax on Saturday night, staff at reception and all FOH were friendly and welcoming. As mentioned from other reviews, some wait staff who all coincidentally had similar names on their name tags as “Trainee” gave an unsettling impression for things to come. Never have I been in a fine establishment with trainee floor staff. Now to the main review of the experience… and this is where Junda’s kindergarten, unravels deeper. 7:10pm orders were placed for 6 individual entreés,1 Laksa Bombs & 4 mains which included the Angus Short Rib, (questionable portion for $58) and the vegetable option of Chinese Broccoli Two Ways, Garlic Oyster Sauce - more on this later. 2 out of the 6 entreés started coming out about 7:25pm in which these weren’t for sharing so 4 other guests were left watching others eat. Remaining 4 entreés came out 7:38, next was the Laksa Bombs. Bomb by name and by nature, this came out as a sharing dish at 8:13pm with 6 adults needing to share 3 wontons dressed up in laksa soup. Interesting to note they have issues in controlling consistency with serving size or portions? Is it 4 or 3 wontons? Clearly (photo attached for reference when we went) their website has 4 wontons but 3 were served. The Main course: We were so hungry by this stage, we would end up eating the curtain or our napkins. 8:34pm a dish is bought out! We were ecstatic, our hunger would be fed… As pictured, a lonely Chinese broccoli cooked two ways sat there with 6 hungry adults waiting for the other mains to come…so we waited and waited… This was when we raised our concerns to the unfortunate trainee waitstaff as it is odd for your vegetable sides to be sitting there with no mains to accompany this carefully curated menu 🤷‍♂️So he said he will try to expedite with the kitchen and if we were happy to have complimentary sorbet to make things right, in which we couldn't care less at this point as it was rather annoying waiting for food - but we accepted this kind gesture. 8:46pm the 1\4 oven roasted duck with pancakes and condiments came out ($78). 8:54pm the Char Koay Toew with Mud Crab followed by the kid portion serve of the short rib at 8:58pm. The restaurant closes by 10pm and there were other tables waiting for food and I felt so bad for the 2 private dining rooms tucked away nearby the toilets who when I walked past were all looking at the infamous broccoli cooked two ways with no mains. The Dessert: Luckily we had our own birthday cake to celebrate and enjoy as the aforementioned sorbet to make it right (for the major delays), never came to fruition but at this point, we were all eager to leave this place and memories behind. Conclusion: As mentioned, the floor staff are still new and by all means not their fault with the poorly managed "bold, nostalgic and full of heart bought to Melbourne by Chef Junda” establishment certainly has left a long and not to be forgotten memories for all the wrong reasons. Lastly “It's not about replicating tradition - it's about reinterpreting it, with no shortcuts and plenty of soul.” Well said Chef Junda and team, clearly not replicating and reinterpreting what a traditional restaurant establishment should be doing such as delivering timely food and basic hospitality right went well on...

Well I feel like not much has improved for this place and I wish I had read the older reviews as I would have canceled my booking. We dined on a Tuesday evening 6.45 booking 4 people, a celebration for one of my team celebrating 15 years with our business.

Arrived to the restaurant and welcomed nicely but it was freezing. And stayed cold the whole evening. Sat a booth table half behind a pole. But it was nice. Restaurant was half empty. We ordered 4 individual bites 4 entrees 3 mains by 7.15 at the latest. I could tell from the order that none of the floor staff had set sections everyone was going everywhere and the bottle of sparkling water was plonked on the table.

Food came in dribs and drabs 2 entrees and one single bite then nothing got 20 min then another single bite then nothing till I asked at 8pm where our food was. I was told that it would be to us soon. Another 15 mins and nothing. Then 2 more single bites and that was it. At 8.30 a table of 3 was seated next to us and their food came out within 5 mins of them seating. They were influencers and had a camera set up. It was the last straw, I got up and asked to speak to the manager. When she came to our table she said the kitchen was getting our food asap. And when I highlighted that the table next to us had been served straight away and how this is unacceptable. She said that was not meant to happen. ????? I asked for compensation for this meal as this was unacceptable at this point. Finally by just before 9pm all our food arrived and we were so hungry we ate so fast. Ir was as mentioned below fine nothing super special for the price with the addition of a few “lux” ingredients but does not justify the price. After our food came out the manager kept coming back to the table to check on us which was as a little too late and she also informed us that the influencer table had pre- Ordered their food and that is why they received it so quickly. Again information we didn’t need and did not make the situation any better. We were given to compensate 1 free entree, 2 free deserts and 4 free cocktail/mocktails and 10% off our total bill. It was appreciated But it was just so disappointing that this happened at such a highly anticipated establishment. Really put a dampener on our celebration. I was not going to write a review but I can’t stop thinking about this meal. If this restaurant is going to survive they need to make some serious changes.

There are too many other wonderful restaurants in Melbourne… I would not...