You Asked Us

What exactly is MSG, and why do you make such a big deal
out of “No MSG”?

Let us start by stating that Ho-Lee-Chow ^® does not add MSG to any dishes.

MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) is a chemical flavour enhancer. In itself it has no flavour. In effect, it acts like a drug impacting the brain and heightening one’s sense of taste.

Some people have severe reactions to MSG, including headaches, numbness, palpitations, weakness, sleep problems, abdominal cramps, and changes in vision. Some studies have also tracked a supposed relationship between consumption of MSG and certain neurological diseases.

Traditionally many Chinese restaurants have added MSG to their dishes, to the extent that at one time the exhibiting of negative symptoms of MSG was referred to as the “Chinese Restaurant Sickness”.

Ho-Lee-Chow ^® was launched in 1989 with a commitment to adding “NO MSG” to any of our dishes. Further, outside suppliers of food products and ingredients must guarantee that there is no added MSG. In short, we will not have MSG in our stores. That is our commitment to the health and well-being of our customers.

Ho-Lee-Chow ^® makes a point serving food that is “Freshly Cooked to Order”. How is that different from anyone else?

At Ho-Lee-Chow ^® we offer only Delivery and Take-Out. We do not operate any sit-down or buffet-style restaurants. That means we do not have pre-cooked, reheated food sitting in buffet tables under heat lamps, where it has been sitting for who knows how long and picked over by who knows how many people. It means that unlike some restaurants we do not fill delivery orders by simply going and taking that same re-heated food out of the buffet table. And you won’t find any microwave ovens in our stores. In fact, we do not start cooking your food until we get your order, so all of our dishes are freshly-cooked to order. And we don’t hide the cooking behind closed doors. If you walk in to one of our stores you will see the open kitchen with the chef preparing your food right in front of you. With Ho-Lee-Chow ^® you know that you are receiving food that is as hot and tasty as we can make it – just for you!

In a recent ad you talked about food from “Federally Inspected” plants. What’s that all about?

Plants that handle raw food products such as poultry, meat and dairy products that are “Federally Inspected” must adhere to the highest standards of cleanliness and quality control, enforced by an on-premise government inspector. By contrast, “Provincially Inspected” plants are subject to less rigorous standards and only periodic inspection.

Of even greater concern, however, are the "non-inspected" black market purveyors of meat, poultry, eggs and food supplies. Many local restaurant operators will buy from these dealers to save money, disregarding the fact that they are putting their patrons at risk.

At Ho-Lee-Chow ^® we buy fresh products from Federally Inspected plants, because we believe that our customers deserve the peace of mind of knowing that we are helping protect their health and safety.

In one of your menus you talked about dishes made “from scratch”. In reality, don’t you get a lot of your menu items pre-made from outside suppliers, just like other local and chain restaurants?

At Ho-Lee-Chow ^® the vast majority of our dishes are prepared “from scratch” daily by our chefs in each store. You can see them making up our egg rolls, spring rolls, and chicken balls. They can be seen cutting the all-white breast chicken meat into slices, strips and cubes; chopping and dicing the fresh vegetables by hand; oven-roasting the barbecued pork for julienning and slicing. And then they prepare each dish to order using our own unique recipes and our own proprietary sauces and seasonings. That’s why a Ho-Lee-Chow ^® meal offers a taste experience no other Chinese restaurant can match.

Since lots of Chinese restaurants offer delivery, what’s so special about
Ho-Lee-Chow ^®?

There is a difference between offering delivery, and specializing in delivery. Our entire system has been developed to maximize the convenience and service we provide to our home delivery customers.

We offer a central one-number telephone order centre, where trained operators can answer your questions and help with your order. Or you can choose the convenience of ordering on-line on our web site. In either case your order is then dispatched to your closest location (or the location of your choice for pick-up) by our state of the art computer system. Only then do our chefs start to prepare your order to your specifications, so our delivery driver will bring it right to your door while it’s still hot and freshly cooked.

We have so perfected our system that we have actually had complaints from time-to-time that we were too quick – the food arrived too fast!

Caution: be careful when unpacking your order – dishes can be very hot!

When you do delivery the way we do, it’s no wonder we are called “The Orient Express”!

Sometimes I think that my local neighbourhood Chinese restaurant offers better prices than Ho-Lee-Chow ^®. Why is that?

While some local operators may offer slightly cheaper prices, there is an old saying that “you get what you pay for”. Consider the following:

1. We have mentioned buying top quality food product from Federally Inspected plants. Even though we get the best possible pricing through bulk buying these products are still more expensive than the barely-inspected or non-inspected products purchased by many small restaurants.
   
   
2. We invest significant monies in technical and research facilities to develop our own specific recipes and our own proprietary seasonings and sauces, all with “NO MSG”, to ensure our customers the best possible experience.
   
   
3. We ensure that all of our food is freshly-cooked to order. We will not serve old food that has been reheated in a microwave or kept warm in a buffet table.
   
   
4. We spend the money on systems and controls to ensure that the food served by our stores is consistent in recipe, quality and taste, no matter which Ho-Lee-Chow ^® store you visit or order from.
   
   
5. We provide the ultimate in ordering convenience, from our state-of-the-art call centre staffed with trained operators to the fingertip convenience of on-line ordering through our web-site.
   
   
6. As an industry leader we cannot and will not indulge in "shady practices" such as employing friends and family for cash, or doing cash deals with suppliers to evade taxes and withholding fees. Further, there are other “hidden taxes” such as blue box recycling fees that the government levies on companies such as ours.
   
   

Given all of the above factors, we believe that the vast majority of our customers know that the quality, service and integrity we offer more than compensate for a slight price premium from time-to-time.

I noted that Ho-Lee-Chow ^® charges for delivery. What happened to the old practice of free delivery with a minimum order?

It is now standard policy for most major companies in the home delivery business to charge a standard delivery charge. The realities of escalating costs of wages, auto maintenance, fuel, insurance and taxes mean that companies who specialize in home delivery have no choice but to begin to charge for this service.

Some local operators indulge in the practice of effectively charging for delivery when they claim to be offering free delivery. They offer a discount on pick-up orders! To therefore claim that delivery is free is illegal – you are paying the equivalent of the pick-up discount for the “free” delivery!

Other restaurants do not publicize any delivery charge – rather they charge a higher price for items on their delivery menu than they do on their in-store menu, effectively hiding the charge.

At Ho-Lee-Chow ^® we have chosen to be up-front and honest in this matter, and state that we charge for delivery rather than trying to disguise it in some way. The vast majority of our customers have found that the convenience of having your meal delivered hot, fast and freshly-cooked right to your door is worth it. However, you do always have the option of calling in your order and arranging to pick it up at the location of your choice, thereby saving on the delivery charge.

My friends and I sometimes comment on the fact that while we enjoy
take-out or delivery Chinese food, it seems to be expensive. Why is that?

First, let's define "expensive". By using our exclusive “Combo Maker” option, you can feed from two to six or more people for as little as $10.00 per head, plus a small delivery charge. When you consider that that pays for the convenience of having freshly-cooked dishes delivered right to your door, the price does not seem high.

Then consider the fact that unlike other options such as burgers or pizza, an order of Chinese food is really much more of a complete meal with a variety of different dishes. At times it is this great variety on a Chinese menu that causes “self-inflicted cost inflation”, where customers see so many appealing dishes that they would like to try that they wind up ordering more food than they had initially planned. There is, however, a very practical benefit to this – there is usually enough leftover food for another meal the next day, so maybe the price paid for the delicious variety of Chinese food is, in reality, a bargain!

Recently I have heard a lot about trans-fats in foods being unhealthy. How has Ho-Lee-Chow ® responded to this?

In response to the health concerns regarding trans-fats in the diet, Ho-Lee-Chow ^® has moved to doing all of our stir-frying and deep-frying in 100% Canola oil that is trans-fat free.

Ho-Lee-Chow ^® welcomes your questions. Please address them to You Asked Us @holeechow.com and we will endeavour to answer them to the best of our ability.