Kongs Restaurant
Last Thursday night I found myself back somewhere I have been visiting often of late on my food ventures: the Abergavenny market.
I was last here towards the end of March for the first edition of the Abergavenny Street Food & Craft Night Market, and only a couple of days prior, at K&K Kitchen; a small cafe located at the back of the markets premises that offers traditional Thai food.
Kongs Restaurant can be found down in the Brewery Yard, on Lion Street. They’re known locally as the more expensive take away offering in the town, and the only Chinese which caters for dining in.
They’re able to boast of being named Chinese Restaurant of the Year at the Welsh Restaurant Awards 2022.
I was unaware of the ‘evening banquet’ deal when this table was initially booked, though when it came to light I was intrigued. Kongs seemingly offer an all you can eat Chinese meal (T&Cs included), at a cost of £26.95 per head.
As pictured above, availability of this banquet is:
Thursday & Sunday - 17:30-21:30 - £26.95 pp - 9 years old or younger £13.95.
Friday & Saturday - 17:30-22:00 - £27.95pp - 9 years old or younger £12.95.
(Kongs Restaurant is closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday).
The four of us were slightly confused by the conditions, so I’ve noted the key terms below:
Spread over 3-courses
Once starters are served, a 2-hour timer begins of which you are allotted to eat
First course you can select 5 starters, which all arrive on a platter to share for the table. You can re-order more dishes if you consume what’s on the platter.
Second course is again provided for all the table to share & dishes can be re-ordered once all is consumed.
Third course (mains) consists of 1 main dish, 1 side dish, and 1 sauce per person at a time. Once all food is consumed, more can be ordered.
Some snaps of the full menu are captured below:
We ordered our starters, and strapped ourselves in. A bowl of prawn crackers was brought to the table to warm us up - some dip wouldn’t have gone amiss!
Our platter of five starters arrived in the shape of: Mandarin spare ribs, shredded crispy smoky chicken, spicy salt & pepper squid, mini vegetable spring rolls, and sesame prawn toast.
I couldn’t find fault with any items on the platter.
The spare ribs were cooked nicely in an orange sauce, there were large batons of salt & pepper squid lightly battered & tossed with fierce chillies, chunks of shredded smoky chicken containing a crispy coating & juicy flesh. We barely used the sweet & sour sauce provided, only for dipping our prawn crackers into. The exterior of the vegetable spring rolls possessed crunchy, fried pastry, and a soft vegetable filling, whilst the toast was generous with prawn & sesame, refraining from being greasy or overly-salted.
Honestly a brilliant start to the banquet!
We were asked by staff if we wanted more helpings of starters and opted against this. Instead moving onto our second course of crispy aromatic duck & pancakes (to share between all 4 of us).
The duck was shredded table-side, served with pancakes, hoisin sauce, spring onion, and cucumber.
The duck certainly was crispy. though a touch dry & stark. This was also a small portion to share between 4 of us - we managed to squeeze 2 pancakes each. The spinning plate serving as a centre piece was extremely useful for this course.
When asked if we would like another helping, we again turned it down and pressed on with the third & final course.
Mains: Szechuan king prawns, beef in black bean sauce, chicken chow mein & Szechuan style chicken.
Sides: egg fried rice, beansprout chow mein & chips.
Sauces: sweet & sour, curry, sweet chilli & chilli oil.
The mains served are significantly reduced in size, with comparison to a regular portion. Though this is useful if you plan on re-ordering something different.
Standing out amongst all these plates were the Szechuan king prawns & Szechuan style chicken. This is attributed to the sweet, spicy, garlicky sauce that the dishes were tossed in.
The chicken chow mein (a main dish) and the beansprout chow mein (a side dish), were difficult to differentiate between. They were similar sizes, which is worth noting if you’re looking to get as much bang for your buck.
Beef was chewy, though the umami, salty black bean sauce made up for this.
We ordered a couple more things once we’d polished everything off: pork in yellow bean sauce, sweet & sour chicken balls, plus more egg fried rice & curry sauce.
The pork was my least favourite vessel of the evening. Tiny pieces of pork mince which could barely be tasted, amongst a clumsy mixture of vegetables & sauce.
Chicken balls were odd shapes/sizes, but similarly to the sesame prawn toast, not as greasy as a standard Chinese.
Food was washed down with 5 beers (4 Tiger & 1 Corona). Meaning our bill totalled £127.30 (without tip). Roughly £32 each.
Service & ambience throughout was spot on. We left with our bellies full, feeling extremely content with what we had just paid for a lovely evening.
Without doubt this is worth trying, especially if Chinese food is your vice.