Restaurant Review : Kung Food, Bandra East

The best treasures are often unearthed in the most unlikely of places. Bandra East is like the poor country cousin of its stylish twin suburb of Bandra West - not just in terms of the glamour quotient, but also when it comes to epicurean adventures . While in Bandra West you'll find a cosy/swish/wacky/fine dining/ethnic/exotic eatery/bakery/patisserie/pub at every corner you turn, Bandra East is bare, except for the once-famous Aaram Kutchhi Thali restaurant and a few restaurants by the Western Express Highway.

In this barren culinary landscape, Kung Food shines like beacon of taste and value for money. Located bang opposite the erstwhile culinary landmark Aaram, Kung Food is a small, but not stiflingly-so Sino-Ludhianwi (aka Indian Chinese) restaurant, with 4-5 tables (of 4-6) on the ground floor and 3-4 on the mezzanine. The walls are a cool grey stone, with lit-up recesses recesses and a textured silver wall. The tables, though are a contrast from the sober sophistication of walls - they are a glitzy granite with sparkly particles embedded in them - the glow-in-the-dark types. :D A cute feature that caught the eye was the use of hand-painted glass bottles with metal caps - kind of like old-fashioned milk bottles blown up and decorated. :)

This was our second visit to Kung Food, and we were keen to see if it lived up to the promise it had shown in our first visit here. We shared a few soups (Tofu, Seafood Combination soup and Chicken Tom Yum) - all were nice (except that the seafood was lacking in prawn/fish flavour) but the Tom Yum was divine. Fragrant and spicy, it was the perfect appetiser to start the meal. And especially awesome that I and Agent J (whose choice it was) were the ones who bagged the winning soup! :P

Starters were ordered in two rounds as we waited for a few colleagues to join us for lunch. In all, we sampled Mustard Chicken, Chicken Momos, some other chicken starter whose-name-I-dont-remember-but-which-was-recommended-by-our-server, Crispy Vegetables and Crunchy Potato with Chilli and Garlic. While everything was tasty, the clear standouts were Mustard Chicken (divinely sweet and spicy with just the perfect pungent kick of mustard) and the Crunchy Potato (Crunchy batons of fried potato drenched with a tangy sauce). The momos, much remembered from our last visit to Kung Food, while having perfect toothsome-yet-soft-and-slippery skins and the right taste of the filling (boiled chicken mildly-spiced with ginger and chilly), somehow faded in the face of the strong flavours and tastes of the other starters.

Crispy Vegetables


The chicken starter whose name I don't remember :P



Crunchy Potato


Chicken Momo (The Mustard Chicken got polished off before I could photograph it! :P )

The mains included our beloved Burnt Chilli Garlic Rice (the inspiration for my take on the dish), Chicken Woolly, Potato Chilly Spring Onion and a Chicken Red Thai curry. The rice was as delicious as the last time and the Thai curry stood out too - a tad sweeter than necessary, perhaps, but fragrant with coconut and very tasty indeed.

Burnt Chilli Garlic Rice and Chicken Thai Red Curry

The other mains were nice too, but such a variety of goodness on the table meant that some dishes were etched in memory as "Wow!" while others were just stomach-fillers. :)

Dessert was the usual honey-tossed noodles with ice cream - except that there was some dry fruit (dried fig, I think) ice cream rather than the standard-issue vanilla. Crunchy deep-fried flat noodles bubbled to a crisp, drizzled with honey, and the cooling creamy ice cream - a match made in gastronomic heaven! Another nice touch was the small pool of honey on top of the small ice-cream mountain. :)

From all the above ramblings, I think I have made it clear that I find the food at Kung Food very tasty. :D But an equally compelling reason to visit are the very reasonable prices. Starters are around INR 150, Veg Mains are INR 150, Non Veg mains are 170. Together with the great food, nice ambience and convenient location (from all the offices at BKC, AND the highway), Kung Food is a sure-shot winner for large gatherings, office parties and general catch-ups with friends.

Kung Food,
Opposite Aaram Restaurant,
Government Colony,
Bandra East,
Mumbai
Tel No - 022 - 26452484