The Fu House — Restaurant in Melbourne

Edited: Booked a table for a big group and booking over the phone was a big hassle. I understand staff doesnt speak English well but I don’t get why booking which was a simple process of mentioning the date, the time and how many people can be so difficult. After the phone call which I thought was done, their boss called and texted to ask again of the details of the booking. Rather perplexed with how complicated it was to book. On the day itself we got a massive table instead of broken into two tables, it was rather quiet, I think only 2 other tables filled on a Sunday lunch time which was rather sad I thought. Overall the foods are nice, except the chicken feet which people said it’s not good. But their chinese broccoli was big in portion and tasted nice. Wide rice noodles fried with beef was very nice too. Tried two other noodles but the flat wide rice noodles were the best tasting. Because our group had some Cantonese speaking people, it was a good experience and good service. Menu wise it’s rather limited but food quality is pretty good. Went on a Sunday lunch time without any booking, managed to get a table (it wasn’t busy when we came about 11.45am) but the guy said we have to be out before 1 and that’s fine. I have to say he was quite scary, the staff dont smile and look grumpy. There was the paper menu you have to tick, and I would say eventhough some things are in English, some aren’t, I had to use translator app to read the menu. Also staff talked to me in Chinese which unfortunately I can’t speak despite looking Chinese. Their English I would say is a limited, and they seem friendlier to guests who can speak the language. The place itself is nice, has quite a few parking spots, the room is spacey with high ceiling, quite bright. Also on the table next to the window has pot of hot water which is connected to a gallon and hot water system which is cool, so you can refill your own teapot. After ordering, a staff actually went around offering deep fried pork thing, I was quite surprised because I thought everything has to be ordered. Tried it anyway and it was nice. Tried a few things like siu mai, prawn dumplings, Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, sticky rice. Cant fault the foods, i think they are good quality and cooked well. Unfortunately their chili oil was so bland, no taste at all, so had to ask for soy sauce too. Also strange that they forgot the chili oil after we asked like twice. Overall ok meal, but service could be better and I would say not very Caucasian people friendly, or anyone who cant speak Chinese. Spent slightly over...

tdlr: overall, food was edible but nothing really special and i felt like we could get better elsewhere. if anyone wants to hear a bad service story, keep reading cuz its a doozy. (food review) we ordered the 佛跳牆 which is like a hotpot with lots of types of meat including abalone, prawns, scallop, chicken feet and pork stomach. it was alright but my parents were saying that the traditional ones apparently have a few different things in it. we also got the lobster noodles set menu which was a bit disappointing as the lobster noodles were below average, and everything else was just average at best. ok now story time for those who are reading. (service review) throughout the dinner, i was getting weird vibes from the staff, who were slow, unresponsive and didnt look like they wanted to be there. brushed it off cuz hey we're trying to have a good time here. but here's the thing. i brought a cake in for my mum's birthday which we handed over to a waiter and maybe 3/4 through our meal we hear birthday music and see our cake come out. a little early but ok. the cake goes past our table. oh so it's not ours, wow what a coincidence the table behind ordered the exact same cake! u guys see where this is going right? yes it could be a one time mistake but it's one of thsoe mistakes no restaurant would ever want to make. there are so many things that could have been in place to prevent the issue from happening. why didn't the waiter notice? why did the staff bring the cake out if the customers didnt specifically tell them "we're ready for our cake"? why didn't the customers say they didn't order cake or express their gratitude for a "free" cake? please be more careful and if the staff don't actually want to be there, maybe it's time to...

The restaurant is very spacious, and there is plenty of room between tables.

I have been to this restaurant several times, but it was under different names and ownership.

Only a quarter of the restaurant was occupied, but less than half an hour later, it was three quarters full.

The noise level was high and resembled a fish market, Some customers were talking on top of their voice.

Service was slow. In my opinion, the waiting staff were not well trained. After waited for more than 10 minutes, a waitress push a cart with the Yum Cha items.

There were no fried items, so settled for Prawn Dumpling and Beef Tendon pieces.

My wife and I suspected the dumplings were frozen commercial product. They were shaped very nicely. The translucent skin was rather thick. The filling was far from satisfactory - it was a lump of minced meat with a small prawn.

The Beef Tendon pieces were well cooked and soft in texture.

There was at least another 10 minutes wait before the cart went passed. We ordered Chicken Feet and Soya Been Sheet Roll.

The taste of the Chicken Feet was flavorsome, but they failed in the cooking test, because they were not tender inside the deep fried skin.

The Soya Been Sheet Roll was a disappointment. The quality of the sheet was questionable, because not all the three rolls were softened. The filling was too firm indicating that the meat was minced too fine.

The Char Siew Bao was definitely hand made rather than machine made. The two buns were not identical in size. The buns had big split in the dough, indicating excessive sugar was present.

The Chive Dumplings were passable in terms of taste and texture.

I could detect the generous use of MSG in the items, and I drank a lot tea during...