Ho Mei

This was the best meal start to finish we’ve had in our 6 months in Sydney. We’ve eaten at some of the most highly rated restaurants, but they’ve all dropped the ball somewhere. Everything here was presented beautiful and all of the flavors well-​balanced.
Since my vegetarian daughter was dining with us, we sampled a lot of their vegetarian fare and it was wonderful to find that there was so much from which to choose.
We had:
Scallion pancake — crispy and not at all oily
Duck pancakes — how can you go wrong?
Chicken and mushroom shu mai
Vegetarian lettuce wraps — filled with a surprisingly fresh combination of vegetables, including corn, my daughter’s favorite thing
Black pepper beef — very tender
Fish fillet with ginger — again perfectly cooked
Salt and pepper tofu — yum
Seasonal green vegetables — delightfully gingery
Black sesame dumplings with lychee ice cream and an added scoop of tonight’s special ginger ice cream — I’ll be dreaming about these.
Service was friendly and the space was cheery, but a bit noisy.
Lucky for us, this is just around the corner from our house. I’m not sure why it’s taken us so long to eat here, but I guarantee it won’t be the last.

Last night I had an amazing meal in Surry Hills.
Full disclosure, I came here on one of those 50% off food deals that everyone seems to delete from their inbox. For that reason, I wasn’t sure what to expect from ho mei.
As we approached the tiny one-​room restaurant, the door was opened for us and we were quickly ushered to a seat. There was only one other table at the time, but it was early on a Tuesday night. A few others came and went during our stay, but the place was pretty quiet overall.
Ho mei serves up a selection of Asian tapas. We started with the crispy chicken wontons, which came with the best sweet chili sauce I have ever had. I’m not usually a fan of sweet chili, but this was more chili than sweet and one I would happily eat with a spoon. I can’t fault anything about the wontons, beautiful filling, perfectly crisp, I just wish there had been more.
Next came the lamb pancakes, a delicious DIY dish. A part of me would have liked a sauce to dip these in. Not for a lack of flavour, but just because they felt like something that should be dipped.
In order to get our veggie intake we ordered the shallow fried eggplant. Wow. This may be one of the best things I have ever eaten. The eggplant was dipped and lightly fried in a tempura batter, perfectly seasoned, and set atop a subtly spiced noodle salad with an amazing dipping sauce on the side.
Then came the meat platter. The crispy chicken had the lightest skin I’ve ever consumed, the beef was beautifully marinated and fell apart as I bit in, and the pork belly was gorgeous– thin slices of a meaty chunk of belly, with minimal fat except for a thin layer of crackling. Again, it had been marinated in something beautiful. The duck was good, but couldn’t stand up against the other meats. There were two dipping sauces with the platter, a plum and a soy/​vinegar option. Both were lovely, but I found myself not using them as much as I normally would, simply because the meat was fantastic on its own.
We opted for dessert simply because we were so happy with everything else we had eaten, and settled on the fried ice cream– a huge scoop of ice cream, battered and fried and served with seasonal fruit (today it was grapes and honeydew). Another hit.
Service was impeccable without being overbearing. Dishes were cleared quickly and quietly and our water glasses were never empty. The two wait staff were able to communicate with head nods and gestures that would have been unnoticeable if I wasn’t watching.
Prices are reasonable for a nice meal and they have some wonderful looking banquet menus that are worth checking out.
Overall a wonderful experience and fantastic food. We’ll be back.

Nice Asian tapas full of surprise!
Cocktails are awesome & love our host Romi at Ho Mei!

Such tasty food. Asian tapas — gotta love it… Next — the beef brisket!