Chef Philip Ho

After I wrote this review, I read in Miami New Times that this restaurant quietly closed a few weeks ago!!!
I usually come here for my Dim Sum fix.
I find the dim sum items rather tasty. I have not tried the regular menu.
If you arrive when they first open on a Sunday, expect to wait for the food tor roll out. Be careful ordering side dishes, I ordered a side of Chinese broccoli and paid 11 bucks for a plate of vegetables.

no…

We had the WORST Chinese dinner we’ve ever had in our life! The hot and sour soup arrived cold, and once reheated for us, it was nothing more than brown cornstarch and water. Inedible. Then the other dishes arrived – lo mein, mu shu chicken, pad Thai, fried rice – and they were even worse. No one even wanted to take home any leftovers. When does that ever happen? Our friends had to stop at a fast food rest on their way back home because no one could eat their food.
To be fair, we have been there on Sunday mornings for their dim sum and it was good – not «great» as the Miami Herald would have you believe.
We will never return to this restaurant.
When is So FL going to get a good Sezhuan Chinese rest like we had in NJ/​PA??? We don’t get it. We’re not asking for a «Mr. Or Phillippe Chow» level rest – just an affordable, family rest with traditional offerings.

We stopped going here because the service & the food started going downhill. It had been awhile since we had visited & decided to give Chef Ho’s another try. We went in for an early lunch on the weekend. The service was excellent but the dim sum was awful. It tasted like the frozen stuff you buy at the Asian markets. We weren’t wiling to eat it & so got the check and left. We definitely will not be giving it another chance.

I liked this place. Easily the best Chinese take-​out I have had in the Miami area so far. The general tso’s chicken was actually prepared the way I am used to seeing it. Hot peppers, broccoli, and small chicken chunks… and that’s it. Not the best version ever, but at least they were in the ballpark. The Mongolian beef was quite tasty as well. Good fried rice and the egg rolls were just fine. The prices were maybe a little high, but I will pay for above average food and this is above average (especially by Miami standards). Do not order the hot and sour soup here… it is no good. Would definitely get this food again though.

This is my special secret on my days off… I get the spa pedicure and manicure and then run next door to scarf as many dumplings as I can! Truly tho the dumplings are the best I ever had… yes the service is not on par because it seems not much of the staff speaks English… that being said, pointing and the little write in menu they have is helpful.
I love the green tea, pork., soup dumpling and many more… the food is also standard Miami Chinese fare… I also noted the service seems much better when dimmer is served compared to the lunch crowd… anyway grab so, e dumpling and eat them while you get a pedi at AZN nails…

This is my Sunday Dim Sum place. Almost close to the real deal and the experience!
Just a few fine tuning with service and hospitality, I’ve found another place I can call home for comfort food or good enough.

This place is such a sad excuse for dim sum. This is what turns people away from ethnic cuisine.
The manager kept pushing the fruit smoothie drinks, maybe because we’re a young couple. But I save those calories for durian shakes — a flavor they don’t offer, of course. (Rant — is it hard to keep frozen fruit on hand to blend into a frozen drink for people willing to give you money for it?!)
They also didn’t offer crepes on this Tuesday morning. No crepes, at dim sum? Annoying. The shrimp dumplings fell outta the wrapper as it’s lifted from the steamer. The siu mai pork dumplings aren’t decorated — no carrots or peas on top– which is a detail that is surprisingly important to me; they are supposed to be little treasure chests with decorations on top.
The staff was complaining (in Canto) how people come in and don’t know what they want. Mr. Manager, how are we supposed to order from your forlorn black and white lists? Gimme some carts! List me some classics! Interestingly, I heard him listing dim sum dishes in Cantonese to a table of Vietnamese speakers. How did that work out for you?
On the way out, I noticed they DO HAVE the photo menus of dim sum. They must be saving that for people who are really, really upset. Not the tables of people who are kinda upset, like us.
Also, our waiter didn’t speak English or Canto. Apparently, baked pork buns are not common enough to know that they are not available.
This place is spacious, but every chair is covered in tacky taffeta fabric. It’s like being at a cheap banquet hall.

My first visit. Two friends asked me to go with them to this restaurant. The last time I had been there was when the building was occupied by Emerald Coast, a restaurant I used to enjoy going to. I had the wanton soup which was good, although I didn’t like the hard noodles that were served with it. I had vegetable lo mein, which was okay. One of my friends ordered the pepper steak with brown rice. The other ordered the Mongolian beef with brown rice. They both hated their food. They said the beef was chewy, the vegetables were limp, there was way to many onions, and the whole dish was awful. They said the brown rice was dry and tasteless. I didn’t try their food, so I’m reporting on what my friends said about their meals.
The service was good.

For me probably Miami’s best Dim Sum but then, without a car, I’m unable to traverse the various Chinese restaurants throughout the county. More than a reincarnation of the Emerald Buffet (but sharing the same geography), for me this really was a new take on oriental cuisine. I adored the sweet buns (tried the duck and the scrumptious «egg lava» dessert ones — a real hit!) but my favorite was their gentle take on local conch with leeks and bamboo sprouts — very nice. In short, I will return to sample more fresh menu items and update here on Unilocal.

In my opinion, not the best dim sum in Miami, but probably in North Miami.
I was meeting up with my Canadian friend who was down to escape the horrors of Canadian Winter for the 80 degree beaches of Sunny Isles. I had to look up some places and it was between Chef Phillip Ho or Yakko San’s. Considering the size and location, we went with Chef Phillip Ho.
This used to be Emerald Coast buffet, which I reviewed and was unimpressed. The interior is pretty much the same, but the menu is far better. As this was a late lunch/​early dinner/​linner situation, we only ordered a few dim sum: Steamed Shrimp Dumpling, Deep Fried Meat and Shrimp Dumpling, Steamed Shanghai Soup Dumpling, and Sesame Balls.
All were tasty, and food-​wise, I’d give this place a 4. But the service was slow in both ordering, getting water, and getting our bill.
Note: I would return for a full meal if I found myself in Sunny Isles, and this was much better than Emerald Coast. But I’m still partial to Kon Chau if you are available to travel to west Miami.

This was my 5^th visit to CPH, and I’ve enjoyed and recommended the restaurant for dim sum to several friends. On my latest visit the dim sum was still top notch, the service was still friendly but spotty (getting the bill, ordering off menu to supplement carts, getting water), but my experience, and my likelihood of recommending CPH in the future, was really soured when I opened the menu to page 1.
There, at the top of the list of «soups», was Shark Fin Soup.
I’m a pretty open-​minded diner. Veal and Foie Gras are controversial, but in those instances the animals are raised (humanely or not is a matter of opinion) for the express purpose of human consumption. Eating those and similar items do not disrupt the food chain.
Contrast this with Shark finning. Not many people get AXS tv, but that is where Dan Rather ended up after CBS, where he continues to do top-​notch 60-​minutes-​style reporting. On a 2012 episode of his «Dan Rather Reports» he investigated the practice of pulling sharks onto a boat, hacking off their fins, and dumping the living carcass back into the ocean where it continues to live immobilized until it starves to death. It is a practice of staggering international scale (73 MILLION sharks are killed in this manner each YEAR), and because the shark is a top predator in the ocean, it is having a profound affect on the health of earth’s oceans.
After knowing all this, seeing that entry on the top of the first page of the menu really made me queasy, and the dim sum just wasn’t the same after that (obviously I wasn’t ordering the shark fin soup, but just patronizing a restaurant that traffics in them really change my perceptions).
4 States have now banned the sale of Shark fin: Washington, Hawaii, Oregon, California and Illinois. There is a petition on
that I won’t link to here (because I’m unsure if it’s permitted), but I encourage you to seek it out and join the effort to end the practice of finning off Florida shores.
To complete the food portion of this review, I will point out that there is little to complain about in the dumpling department: the Shrimp is a difficult one to get right and they do here. The duck, scallop and soup dumplings are also favorites. The hand-​pulled hong kong noodle is what I order from the menu to supplement (which is why I had the menu at all), and the tea is complementary, as is typical in a Dim Sum setup.

Decided to go with the family after the shopping on Black Friday. The restaurant was not busy at all.
Service: ³⁄₅. Sat down for more than 15 minutes and they haven’t add an extra seat with an extra plate and cup. Poor service to start with. However, the waiter was very apologetic. After we ordered a few dishes, we werent informed that they were missing alot dishes and the waiter once again apologetic. I am surprised the owners did not do anything about this.
Food: Very disappointed that I ordered 12 dishes and 4 dishes were not available. Then I added two new different dishes and they came back to let us know that those new dishes were not available. I felt bad for the waiter that came back to let us know that they did not have certain dishes. He admitted If it is not your typical Sunday for dim sum; they will not have a lot dishes. They will only have certain popular ones. However, the dishes that came were shrimp dumplings, shanghai dumpling, roast pork bun — steamed and baked were just okay. It seemed to be left over from the prior two or three days. Just poor quality.
The roast pork paste noddle and beef paste noddle was pretty decent though. Overall — ²⁄₅
Atmosphere: it is a very big place. Beautiful entrance and bar. Well decorated but there was a corner near the kitchen, located outside of the kitchen, where it displayed every mess and disorganized contents. ³⁄₅
Apparently the headchef is out for the day or out for the month. Overall, it was very sad to see a restaurant who just released a written article on the newspaper a day ago as an advertisement. It ends up producing such a poor performance in service, food selection, and qualitY. Just because the place is not busy, the place doesn’t bother preparing for a regular business day in restocking in inventory or prep the necessary dishes. Poor management, poor forecasting in inventory and poor training in service in the kitchen and dining room. Overall — jsut a poor experience.

Been here twice. The 1^st time was with my Puerto Rican father and his girlfriend. The service was subpar. It wasn’t a very busy night and it took a long time to order, and I believe they forgot one of our dishes because when I asked about it they did the whole wide-​eye «I’ll go check on it» response and it came soon after.
We ordered the typical Americans-​Eating-​At-​Chinese-​Restaurant dishes: Beef with Broccoli, Special Fried Rice, Spring Rolls & Duck.
Food was pretty good, I enjoyed the dishes and just wished the overall experience was better.
Last night, came here with my Taiwanese mother. Now, I don’t want to seem prejudice or biased but service was WAY better. We were the only «native» chinese at the restaurant and the service was impeccable. They told us that if we wanted a dish that wasn’t seen on the menu that we could enjoy it anyways. Glasses & tea were constantly refilled. Food came very quickly. Truly treated us like family.
Not much of dim sum options (reason why we came) but we did enjoy all the dishes very much. Pan Fried Dumplings. Vegetarian Spring Rolls. Green Tea Duck Dumplings (A MUST) and the Singapore Noodles was one of the best I’ve had.
I thought it was funny that they provide every table their usual fortune cookies with your check and instead they gave us oranges. They know me too well haha.

GET TAKEOUT. The food is good, but the service and atmosphere are abysmal.
The inside of the restaurant looks like a meeting room in a convention center. When we were seated, we were each given menus and a dim sum order form. When the waiter returned to take our order, he informed us that an entire section of the menu was unavailable because it was Memorial Day. Seriously. And naturally we had both decided to have something from the off-​limits section.
A while later someone else came to drop off food. She had brought one of our meals, «tofu with special house sauce,» but not the other. It was a big lavish platter of really nice vegetables and tofu, but she hadn’t brought any rice. We also didn’t have any napkins. Eventually she returned with the rice and the other dish. We grabbed napkins from a nearby table.
The food was very good. The special house sauce was yummy. My companion knows more about Chinese food than I do, and she though it was excellent. Still, I can’t recommend this place as a great dining experience. Would be fantastic for takeout.

This place comes off like an amateur haircut: uneven, despite good intentions.
I was attracted to it by some thoughtfully placed articles and reviews, which I read in some local magazines (Ocean Drive). Given the beautiful photos of the dishes, I actually went to Chef Ho’s expecting a high end restaurant, along lines of Café Sambal in the Mandarin, or even Hakkasan.
Chef Ho’s reality couldn’t be further removed from that impression.
We went on a Sunday afternoon, presumably «prime time» for dim sum. Chef Ho may have needed more kitchen help; things just didn’t hum as I envisioned.
Apart from cheesy décor (think Cracker Barrel meets tropical Florida strip mall, with an aquarium and odd Asian design elements thrown in, too.) foremost in my mind was timing and table placement. Basically, you need to be there at the right time to catch the best rotation of dim sum.
But by the the time the dishes we wanted finally came by, we had already tanked up on noodles and dumplings.
Service was uneven and not the most attentive I’ve experienced. I felt «on the fringe» instead of «in the center,» and I think we suffered for it.
Oh yes. the food: the dim sum was passable at best – a bit greasy in some cases (duck), but broadly acceptable given that we’re in Florida.
For those of you who’ve eaten dim sum in San Francisco, Monterey Park, Manhattan’s Chinatown, etc. – this is not in the same league, but is a passable local alternative.
In no rush to return, but not a bad place.

Dimsum is very good here. There isn’t a large selection but they have the basics. It’s a place i would go to if i wanted somewhere close. Their shrimp dumplings are pretty good. The Siu Mai, I’ve had better.
However, the speed the food came out was definitely an issue. We ordered 14 small dishes as a family of 5 but we only received 11 of them and it took a while for each dish to come out as if they didn’t expect the 11 AM — 1 PM rush for dimsum. We got full after the 8^th dish came out because we waited so long for the rest to come out. We ended up leaving after waiting almost 20 minutes for the last 3 dishes to come out. It was like they forgot our order.
The waiters kept our tea pot hot and were always around, however I think they might need to hire more chefs or find a way to be more organized because the table next to us we’re also waiting for their remaining dishes.
So their service was eh, but the dimsum was really good, so I guess that kind of made up for it?
Location is by the beach so convenient to head to the beach after. As well as a Marshalls.

I will start this with a bit of a warning: the service is SLOW.
I’ve come here twice by myself for lunch and service was pretty good. but I think that’s because I sort of stand out in my work clothes.
When I’ve come with friends service was totally different.
I think the key here is to be assertive and get the attention of the wait staff.
I still give this place 4 stars because the dim sum here is really good.
Some of the items that stick out in my mind is the dishes with truffles like the Black Truffle Egg Custard Tart and the Deep Fried Lava Ball (I think that was the name)
the quality is almost on par with places I’ve been in California, only a lot more expensive.
Like most ethnic food establishments in Miami, the prices are very high when compared to any other city with a decently large Asian population.
I won’t get into that rant here though.
Other things to note:
They do cart service on weekends, up to 3pm.
Dim Sum is offered all day, but the dinner menu has much less to offer in Dim Sum options.
If you’re looking for good Dim Sum, it’s certainly worth a visit at least once.

Waited 15 minutes for a waiter to acknowledge us after being seated. He takes my order and notices that my tea cup is dirty and leaves without bringing me back another one.
Another 15 minutes pass by and I flag down someone to ask for a teacup. 45 minutes after placing the order, we’re served 3 dumplings.
Another 20 minutes later we are served another 4 dumplings. The waiter is rude. He only pays attention to the white families that are seated.
It makes me mad that I drove an hour with my son to try their soup dumplings. I can’t believe that they call that a soup dumpling. The frozen ones I buy are better than that!
They never came to check on our tea. I ended up canceling the rest of the items I was waiting for. They gave me 20% off my bill and we left. It sucks that this was a day my son and I were spending time together just the two of us and since soup dumplings are his favorite food in the world, I was willing to drive far to find them. What a disappointment! I will never eat here again.

This is clearly the best Dim Sum I’ve had in South Florida in a very long time. To order, you sit down and fill out the order menu with a pencil. The menu lists the Dim Sum by number. We stared with some Pork Buns, Steamed Dumpling with Scallops and Black Truffles, Shrimp Dumpling, and Pan Fried Pork Dumpling and Sesame Balls (very sweet).
My favorite item at a Chinese Restaurant is the rice and the Fried Rice with Chicken and Pork was simply the best I’ve ever had in South Florida. It had high quality tender pieces of pork, chicken breast and was perfectly cooked, just the way I like it. The manger said his favorite is scallops with egg whites — I’m certainly going to try that next time. We also had Barbecue Spare Ribs and Chicken Vermecelli Rice Noodles.
Chef Philip Ho was the Master Chef at Kon Chau on Bird Road.
This is an Authentic Hong Kong Chinese restaurant, the kind you would find in Chinatown in NYC or San Francisco. They have just about everything on their menu and will allow you to special order items.
There is a large parking lot in the Strip Mall. It’s the last mall going South before 163^rd Street.