Hop Bo Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in West Melbourne

Hop Bo Chinese Restaurant ~ 2 145 Palm Bay Rd NE # 109, West Melbourne, FL 32904.

"The Valve"

Here we are with another spot on the boarders of Palm Bay, technically West Melbourne, FL.

Felt like deja vu pulling up to this place. Just like every other Chinese takeout place scattered across these badlands. Just yesterday I can remember being a kid kicking and screaming in one of these dingy lit places with the hazy tinted menus that look like something Wish would sell today. Outdated to put it nicely.

As I was trying to google what Hop Bo meant in English I walked inside what seemed to be a traditional Chinese takeout joint. Nothing different going on here at first glance, or second, or third.

They happen to have a few tables and chairs to sit down at so I grabbed a menu and started scouring what appeared to be a math exam with all the numbered choices. I ordered an orange chicken combination platter(egg roll and fried rice included), beef teriyaki on a stick, and crab rangoon.

Now as I was waiting for my food, I started observing my surroundings in detail. Really taking it all in in there. The table tops were clean, but besides that, place didn't look like it'd been deep cleaned in awhile. Giant mirror with dust all over it. Dead flies scattered all over the ground in the corners. (Shown in pictures) Walls scuffed up and the look as if it's been 12 different establishments before this one.

They opened in 2002 according to the pictures hanging on their wall. Also they're trying to flex some awards from 2007 and 2008 as shown in pictures lol. Which is prly the last time those flies were swept up, but who knows. Didn't bother with the bathroom I had seen enough. Couple of young kids running around in the kitchen. One came up to me to say hi and lingered directly behind me for a bit. A young girl helping answering the phone and a girl about my age also taking phone orders in front.

Now once my food was ready they put all items in a small box as if you just left Sam's Club with a few things. Not the worst idea on that part. But once I sat down trying to get pictures I realized I had no plates to start pulling things out so I had to improvise at that point. Also tried to buy a bottle of water after the fact and they wouldn't do any Apple Pay or debit card transactions under 5 dollars which is what lead me to leaving and eating this one at home.

Orange chicken was just like every other overly breaded orange chicken you find almost anywhere. Dark meat overpowered by orange breading. The flavor on the orange wasn't bad, but I could just feel the sodium hitting my blood stream within a few bites. The fried rice wasn't anything special either. The beef teriyaki didn't smell good to me, chewed on a corner for a minute and threw the rest away. Egg roll also didn't smell good. I'm not a big fan of this type of food, sodium city one could say. The best part of the meal was actually the crab rangoons. Which is the only thing I kept eating.

I did notice they had a diet section and vegetarian section on their menu. They got a few points for that part.

Anyways nothing crazy here. The flies and sodium kind of did it for me, so I'm gonna go drink roughly 8 green juices and take my blood pressure medication now and just end this one here. Wouldn't go back myself, they can have it. See y'all on...

My stir-fried noodle craving went horribly unfulfilled when I ordered vegetable chow mein ("mein" are wheat noodles, by the way). The woman on the phone told me the vegetable chow mein was just vegetables, so we went back and forth for a while until she assured me there would be fried noodles on the side. Also, our order came with a choice of three free sides (soup, egg rolls, and I forgot the other one); we chose egg rolls.

When my boyfriend brought the food home, lo and behold, there were neither noodles nor egg rolls. The vegetables weren't even stir-fried--I assume they were steamed--and covered in a large quantity of white sauce. I gave it a shot and tried it. Literally the first bite had a fish bone in it. I called the restaurant again and spoke to the same woman, who said she forgot about the noodles. Again, chow mein is a noodle dish. It is literally right there in the name.

The woman on the phone said she'd fix it, and asked me how many noodles I wanted. Uh, I don't know, a hundred? Those things are like spaghetti, I never bothered to count them before. No, she said, the noodles she was referring to are the deep-fried, crispy noodles that normally come with soup. Wrong noodles! I asked if I could just get some stir-fried noodles, she offered lo mein. Well, getting closer, but I didn't want all the sauce that lo mein comes with, and chow mein has more of a fried texture to the noodles. The lady said she'd make me what I wanted.

Well, the food just came back. We did get the egg rolls, but the noodles are just regular (albeit greasy) lo mein. I did find a piece of chicken in there, so I guess that's interesting. We won't be ordering food from Hop Bo again. Not being able to prepare basic American Chinese takeout dishes and major cross-contamination issues are...

I think the reviews are fake ...really. I remember when this place opened they had the BEST Chinese food in the area....than around 2006 the food went way down hill...I remember trying several more times and said never again and have not been back since 2006. They are still open and MANY positive reviews so I figured I would try them again. I have been a MAJOR fan of good Chinese food my whole life. I always have a simple way to test Chinese food....soup, egg rolls, and pork fried rice. I ordered these and had to throw the food away because it was disgusting. The egg rolls were mushy with fry oil pouring out, the wonton soup had no scallions and no flavor...it actually stunk like a metallic odor. The wonton were half hard like they were not fully cooked. The pork fried rice truly smelled bad and had way too much oil in it. I get one or two of these having a bad night but all three? So sad because we just do not have good Chinese food in south Brevard. Great Wall in Viera is still the closet that has good ole fashion GREAT Chinese food....just too far away. I may be nuts but wonder if these joints are a front....how can they serve such bad food for years and years and stay in...