I should come up to Brum for Chinese food more often. This stuff gives London's Chinatown a run for its money!
Ken Ho reminds me a lot of the Chinese restaurants my family used to go to when we lived in suburban Ohio. Options were limited, but the places that we frequented (all two or three that I can recall) shared common attributes: big open rooms with lots of tables, table linens, polite and bustling staff, and reliably decent food. This place fit that mould.
I do wish I could properly read Chinese characters instead of picking out a recognisable one here and there - I was offered three different menus upon being seated: a tri-fold with English words, one with both English and Chinese and a lot of pretty pictures of dishes, and one entirely written in Chinese that was sadly unintelligible to me. I really want to know if there are secret dishes on the third one that I would have liked to order!
Regardless, my beef ho fun was as authentic as I've had in recent recollection, and although the dou miu were tougher than I'd hoped, considering my server reported that they were quite fresh, they were cooked as expected - simply sautéed with some garlic (suan rong). And at first, I thought the prices were pretty comparable to London's until the dishes came out: the portions were massive. I was only able to make it through about a third of each dish before having to give up and box the rest up for takeaway.
If you're in the market for some traditional oriental cuisine in a casual setting, you can't go wrong with Ken Ho. If I lived in Brum, I'd be here on the regular, for sure. read more