Ng Fook Funeral Services

This place is good, but I felt they have some areas that can be improved upon. Starting with what I liked: The facilities seem to have been renovated in the last ten years or so (if you wander the other funeral homes nearby, it may seem that renovations are quite wanting). The bathroom even has motion sensing faucets! The area is bright and clean.
They run a standard funeral service, and as I haven’t arranged a funeral here, I can’t say how they interact with immediate family. However, I did come to pick up documents from a funeral that happened there many years ago, and they were polite and obliging. In attending a funeral here, I felt that they did not pay enough attention. When we walked in, they led us to the book to sign, but I had to remind them we were grandchildren, and it took a while for them to bring us the blue yarn. Also, as a grandchild, I was disappointed to see my set of flowers placed far away with «friends,» and I wonder if it is because I did not order my flowers directly from them.

It is expensive, but you get exceptional, professional service.
Older Chinese people are very superstitious. A slight misstep and you could bring bad luck to everyone involved. My mother was a nervous wreck over not fulfilling her duty to my father and bringing shame to the family. The funeral director calmed and reassured her several times. The staff patiently guided us step by step through each ceremony.
The burning of joss paper silver & gold is very important to the older generations. We were given an entire box of joss paper (about two dozen packs) to fold & burn. It sounds silly, but this made my mother & aunts very happy, and that meant a lot to us.
Ng Fook arranged everything from the reservations for the white dinners, to transportation to the cemetery, to filling out the forms for social security benefits. Whatever additional requests we had were immediately handled.
My mother wanted to pay the balance on the day of the wake. The funeral director told her not to worry. She should be with her family & friends at this time; we could take of business at a later time.
There are no hidden costs. Everything is itemized. You know exactly what you’re paying for & can refuse any extra items, such as burial blankets.
I would recommend this funeral home to other Chinese families especially those with traditional, elderly family members.

Expensive but I don’t know if there is a «cheap» funeral service that did the same job as Ng Fook. Everything was done on professional level. Grieving family need not to worry on anything, they will take care of it.
We dealt with Mr. Alex Lee, business like but this is a business after all. He is very accommodating, knowledgeable on customs, has patient to answer questions. They did an excellent makeup job on my mother, she was beautiful at the service (not that she was ugly to begin with), the entire service was done with dignity and respect.
Tip — If you have time to plan (we don’t), save yourself some money by buying an urn ahead of time from somewhere else. Their stone one is about $ 250, I saw some online for much less than half of their price.

During an extremely difficult and grief stricken time, Ng Fook, specifically Alex Lee was amazing. He did EVERYTHING for us and many times exceeded my expectations. Several times, I had changed my mind on certain services, saying one day that I didn’t need something, then the next day saying I did — and he was able to make it all happen, all over a weekend.
My mother had died unexpectedly and suddenly. I definitely was not in a good state of mind when planning her wake and funeral. Alex gently guided me through the traditions, preparations, costs, made restaurant reservations, secured cars and so much more. He reminded me of what to do, he dealt with indecisiveness on my part and everything was above and beyond. The service was beautiful and full of dignity. The chapel was very tasteful. I was never rushed. Everyone was very professional. They knew when to be there when you have a question and they know when to stand quietly unobtrusively aside.
If you are Chinese, Chinese American — and need to plan a wake and funeral — do it here with Alex and Ng Fook.

I found the service very professional and catered well to the Chinese culture. They guided us the whole time — what to do, how to bow, kept us on schedule, and their make up was great. My late Grandmother looked really good. The place was clean and well kept.

My grandma used to shield our eyes whenever a funeral procession of grieving family and friends walked after a casket with pall bearers during our play time across the street at Columbus Park. Like any curious child, I stared whenever grandma wasn’t watching. Many years later, Columbus Park bears little resemblance to what it used to be, and I became one one of those mourners to exit the doors of Ng Fook.
It was a welcomed comfort that they translated from Chinese to English, so that my familial generational cohorts and I had no need to rely on an elder to tell us what was going on. The staff guided us on when to kneel, when to bow, when to burn incense, how to fold and burn paper offerings, etc. The wake on Mulberry Street was set up on a different day from the burial in Robinsville, NJ. We had our ‘white meal’ at the same restaurant each day.
This was the first funeral I’ve ever been to in my life, so I don’t have anything to compare Ng Fook to. As Albert W. has mentioned, the gentlemen here are very professional. They were certainly there to guide those of us that are not familiar with traditions and procedures. To me, everything seemed to have been done with proper respect, and no one else seem to have any issues with the service.
We miss you, Gung-​Gung…

I wouldn’t call this 5-​star review «Woohoo! As good as it gets!» but I was pleased with the professional service they provided for my friend.
I spoke to one of the family members after the funeral and she said because we are a certain generation of Chinese Americans some traditions are followed and some are not. Paper money of gold and silver was folded and burned as with paper mache house, suits, and other things to make his life in hell more comfortable.
The hosts are fairly mechanical as I would prefer as well as gracious and helpful in terms of what proper ettiquitte and customs to respect. Nobody wants to be told how they should* feel in any situation.
During the ceremony, two monks performed some sort of ritual (s) chanting in old sanscrit, they sounded as if they have a whole monastery behind them. They also guided the sibling of my deceased friend on when to bow and whatnot.
Their drivers are also very tuned into getting through traffic and you feel somewhat «presidential» going to the cemetary. Their current Lincoln town cars apparently have heated seats as well.

It seems odd to be rating a funeral home enthusiastically, but I feel Unilocal should be helpful not only in helping to choose a fun place to go, but businesses that help with some of the less pleasant aspects of life. I’ve been told by my elders that Ng Fook is one of the older funeral homes in Chinatown, and they definitely have an eye towards tradition.
The home is relatively small, with but it’s large enough to hold several funerals at a time. The interior of each room has enough to fit a few dozen people and it is clean with nice wood trim. The walls are lines with moldings designed to allow flowers to hang off the walls. Appropriate music is chosen to play in the background, usually in the form of chanting and while everything was timely and professional, at no point did I feel the family and friends were being rushed to stay on schedule.
I also appreciated the fact that instructions to mourners were provided in English and Chinese. It was also helpful to have funeral home workers guiding some less traditionally attuned mourners through the various ceremonies such as incense lighting and bowing.
Honestly I could not find any fault with the service or facilities of this home. I am very grateful for the respectful manner my friend’s services were held.