The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Restaurants
Mr. Kong

Mr. Kong: Asian Concept at Mall of Arabia’s the Park

asian cairo city city life egypt Egyptians film review films food food review Mr. Kong Restaurants review
  • Mall of Arabia, Phase 2, Food Hall.
  • Asian,Fast Food
  • 10:00 - 00:00
reviewed by
Ramy Soliman
rate it
review it
Mr. Kong: Asian Concept at Mall of Arabia’s the Park

There’s always that Americanised Asian restaurant in every food court that serves big portions for low prices. But then there’s the new “food hall” trend popping up in Cairo’s niche malls, like Galleria 40’s Zaitouna Food Hall, and now Mall of Arabia’s The Park; the latter is one spacious food hall, and its Asian venue happens to be Mr. Kong.

Unlike the typical food court experience, Mr. Kong makes the food per order instead of the cafeteria-like readymade food. This is why we felt that it’s worth reviewing.

We started our meal with Bang Bang Shrimp (50 LE) and Vegetable Spring Rolls (25 LE) as starters. The shrimp were well breaded and far from oily, but their version of “dynamite sauce” lacked the spiciness and had too much mayo in it. Meanwhile, the spring rolls had a strong pleasant ginger flavour to them, but they definitely needed way more veggies in the filling. Also, the portion of the sweet chilli dip was too little.

Moving to the mains, you can add 30 LE and get two sides with your main dish. We went with the Orange Chicken (60 LE) with a side of Fried Rice (15 LE) and Rice Noodles with Soy (15 LE), and the Korean Beef (85 LE) with a double portion of Egg Noodles with Sweet Chili (30 LE).

The chicken had a fantastic, fluffy, and light – yet ever so crispy – crust, despite that it was coated with a lot of sauce. However, the sauce was a bit bland and lacked any of the bold flavours that Asian/Americanised-Asian food is known for. The fried rice was also a bit saucy and salty for our taste. As for the rice noodles, they could have used more sauce as they were a bit stiff.

As for the Korean Beef, we honestly don’t know what was Korean about it. It was just slices of slightly dry beef with a lot of soy sauce, shredded veggies, fresh mushrooms, and sesame seeds on top. What really surprised us was the egg noodles; they were perfectly cooked, and the balance of sweet and sour flavours was just spot-on. Not to mention the portion was huge!

Another surprise was the Japanese Cheesecake (35 LE) for dessert. Although the cake looked underwhelming, the light and fluffy texture of the cake with that exquisite cream cheese flavour just wowed us. The dessert was served with a delicious strawberry sauce, but we honestly felt that it was good enough on its own and didn’t need the addition of the sauce.

All in all, we had a good experience at Mr. Kong. We think the brand has great potential and it serves crowd-pleasing products. That being said, they definitely need to work a little bit more on the food to make the experience better, especially that, compared to its competitors, it’s certainly not cheap.

 

360 Tip

Mr. Kong delivers!

Best Bit

The Egg Noodles and the Japanese Cheesecake.

Worst Bit

The Korean Beef.

Write your review

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

recommended