KONG: 25 YEARS OLD AND GOING STRONG

Mr Kong
21 Lisle Street
London
WC2H 7BA
020 7437 7341
Monday to Saturday: noon to 3am
Sunday: noon to 2am
CAPTION: external view
Chinatown, London. It’s a must visit and a great place to be but, as a tourist, your eye line is bombarded with lights, sounds and restaurant signs.
Just where do you go to eat? OK, you look at menus posted outside various establishments.
You can salivate at the array of duck in one and also view at the various testimonials in the windows of others.
But, sadly, that’s not guaranteed to provide a mouth-watering winner.
Sometimes, glitz is not best. I’ve tried several establishments in Chinatown on business trips and the quality of food has varied.
Word-of-mouth works in business and it was spot-on with Mr Kong. We loved it.
If you want a quiet meal, forget it. If you want top drawer service, Forget it. If you want good cooking, atmosphere and a piping hot food then Mr Kong is the place for you.
The menu has something for everybody, from plain, to vegetarian to exotic. We chewed over steamed razor clam with glass noodles and garlic of fried cuttlefish garlic sprout and Balechan sauce.
However, the consensus was to go for crispy aromatic Szechuan duck as a starter. It was cooked in its own marinade and then crispy fried. It arrived with wheaten pancakes, spring onion and cucumber accompanied by hoy sin sauce. The meat was tender and the food came piping hot. A great choice.
I’m not a lover of sweet and sour pork, but Jennifer is. The sauce was packed with flavour but not overpowering of the meat. I pinched a bit and enjoyed it.
Sath and I plumped for crispy chilli beef. The beef was beautifully cooked and the sauce was just right.
A steaming bowl of rice accompanied the dish and nothing was left over.
The place was packed on a midweek night. And, judging by the noise, and the happy faces, we weren’t the only ones to have enjoyed a great night.
It’s the second time that Jen and Sath have been to Mr King’s. They’re just back from a trip to Hong Kong and Thailand so they have some experience of traditional Chinese cooking in the Far East.
They enjoy Mr Kong. Trust me, it will be up there when we consider meeting in Central London.