The 1-star rating is not because of a diminishment in terms of quality, but because the restaurant doesn't exist anymore, at least not in the Hoboken location. When the Lunchbox Mafia (a "cute" description by a former co-worker of how our "team" at work tended to pay more attention to what we were ordering than what we were working on) formerly existed in Hoboken, Lo Fatt Chow was our go-to Chinese restaurant for several years. The prices were reasonable, the food was always fresh and plentiful, and tasty. At some point, the (old) Godfather of Lunch and I decided that we needed to stop ordering take-out and start dieting. Hopefully shed some pounds, save some money, add a few more minutes to our allotted life span, and...oh yeah...focus more attentively on that which earned us the "big money" we use to order take-out so frequently. Not that Lo Fatt Chow cuisine was unhealthy-- quite the opposite, in fact. But we made the decision across the board to drastically reduce our tendency to order take-out. So... bottom line is that it has been a long time since we ordered anything, whether it's Lo Fatt Chow or Fiore's or Mr. Wraps.
Just this past weekend, though, seemingly out of the blue, the Godfather said, "Wanna order?" I held steadfastly to my principles for all of 2 seconds before saying, "What?" "How about Lo Fatt Chow?" I was in.
As I went on-line to check out the menu, I noticed before clicking onto the website a column by someone known as "Hoboken Girl," indicating that Lo Fatt Chow was going to close, and close in a matter of days. The Godfather (Chuck) and I were horrified. We called and were able to place an order but learned that...yes...in just a few days they were going to close. They were going to open restaurants in Tenafly and Morris Plains, but that didn't help us in Hoboken. Chuck commented to the person on the phone how much we had liked them over the years and how much we were going to miss them.
We will.
My "last meal" with them was Wonton Soup with hot mustard, Sesame Chicken, and vegetable-fried rice, finished off with a fortune cookie that offered a blandly upbeat platitude (I've often thought that to make fortune cookies REALLY interesting, they should occasionally slip in a fortune reading, "You have just 2 hours to live. Cherish those hours." Then again, maybe not.)
Chuck was right. Good luck to them in their new endeavors, but, in Hoboken, they will definitely be missed. read more