Miniscule venue serving mammoth portions
The first thing you notice about the Mongolian Chinese Restaurant is that it’s absolutely tiny. Well, that and the fact that the décor is totally over the top – it’s all secretive little bamboo alcoves, traditional bright red tasselled lamps and so on. There are only about seven tables in the whole place and on a busy, bustling Saturday night they probably turn more people away than actually dine.
For starters we ordered the beef spring rolls and fried prawn wanton. In all honesty we could have stopped there and gone home. Considering they were supposed to be little more than appetisers we were slightly alarmed at the sheer size of the portions. The beef spring rolls resembled two huge logs split into sections and the prawn wantons arrived in a bowl the size of the average human head. The spring rolls were delicious. Packed with tender, succulent beef the pastry was delicate and flaky but not too crispy. The prawn wantons were also an absolute delight. All, roughly, 900 of them! Again they were crispy but the filling was tasty and we did actually manage to clear our plates. After a very brief respite it was the turn of our mains.
Opting for the kungpow chicken and barbecued duck we thought we’d keep it classic and simple. The place reeked of tradition so who were we to rock the boat? First up our steamed and egg fried rice sides were delivered to the table in two separate gargantuan bowls. One portion of either would have been more than enough between two so we were miffed that the staff neglected to inform us when our order was taken. Then it dawned on us – if the rice portions were this big then just how big were the mains likely to be?
First out was the kungpow and it was actually reasonably-sized and looked alluring with its bright red sauce bubbling away nicely. Then the duck arrived in a giant ceramic dish that we could only imagine
had been someone’s bath at some point. Ridiculous. Taste-wise the duck was as we’d hoped: tender, juicy and smothered in a sticky sweet and almost oak-flavoured sauce. The meat was perfectly cooked and packed full of flavour. The kungpow on the other hand was bland. It tasted like it was cooked in a spaghetti sauce and delivered no actual kick whatsoever. The chicken was far too chewy and, again, bore no relation to a traditional kungpow chicken dish at all. Shame.
Given that it’s so cheap and the portions are huge we’d suggest this place as a great option for a quick drop in or even a tasty lunch, but as an evening out there’s much better to be found in the city.
The bill (for two)
Beef spring rolls Dhs10
Prawn fried wanton Dhs14
Kungpow chicken Dhs18
Barbecue duck Dhs45
Steamed rice Dhs6
Egg fried rice Dhs12
Total (excluding service) Dhs105
