Easy to forget, this established eatery still packs a tasty punch
Editor's note: After a year of eating his way through Warsaw, Nick Conrad has headed off for some French delicacies and is determined to introduce golonka to the Parisian dining scene. For the next two issues, some of Nick's dining pals will fill in and our new reviewer will start critiquing the good, the bad and the spicy in early 2000.
Perhaps it's because the Mekong Dumpling House has been such an institution on Warsaw's restaurant scene that it receives less attention these days as an eatery to behold. A word to the wise: If you're new to the city or just haven't tried it in a while, Mekong is one of those rare places that routinely delivers on the big three quality of the chow, friendly and competent service, and downright reasonable prices. What's more, its nifty location just off the intersection of ulica Marszalkowska and Aleje Jerozolimskie makes it nearly impossible to eat anywhere more central, unless of course your idea of dinner is to munch a zapiekanka in front of the Palace of Culture and Science.
On a recent Saturday night, my companion Zosia a self-professed Mekong maven who claims to have visited the place about 20 times over the past few years and I trudged through a freshly fallen snow to make our 7 p.m. dinner reservation. Upon arriving, a courteous young fellow immediately offered to take our coats while the maitre 'd, positioned near a spiral staircase, asked whether we preferred to sit upstairs or downstairs. After announcing that we had a reservation, he responded with a warm "witam" and led us swiftly past the bar to a waitress who was busy cleaning up the splattered remains of a jar of chili sauce. Recovering quickly, she stood up, smiled, and directed us to our table by the window.
"So how many times have you been here?" I asked Zosia as we sat down.
"I don't know, 20 times maybe, I used to come here a lot when I was a student. I knew a couple of people who worked here, and we liked to eat or just sit at the bar and talk," she replied.
As we chatted, our cheerful waitress brought us a couple of menus (Polish-English) and asked whether we would like to start with something to drink. Zosia ordered a Tsing Tao beer (zl. 9) while I chose an EB (zl. 8.5). Returning with them a moment later, the waitress also brought a porcelain dish stacked with styrofoam-like shrimp crackers for us to nibble on while we considered the menu.
"Dim-Sum in Mekong is prepared for you by Jing Hao of Shanghai," boasts the listing's first page, but with about two dozen dumplings to choose from, the best option seemed to be one of the combination platters containing two pieces each of five to six different appetizers (zl. 28-zl. 36).
This turned out to be a wise choice, as our selection included dumplings with eggplant, shrimp, a "four treasures" version, and a few fried won tons and spring rolls. The eggplant was hands down the tastiest of the bunch, with a sweet, almost plum-like flavor that was so good I could have kept gobbling them up had there been more. The won tons were also tasty, though not as hot as they should have been. The fancy "four treasures" number was clearly the most creative of this dumpling gang, but also the most difficult to discern what was inside. The shrimp dumplings were a bit salty.
Of the four soups available, Zosia was quick to recommend the hot and sour soup (zl. 9), while she would try the won ton (zl. 8). Both were more than I could have hoped for. What had I been expecting? Thin, brothy substitutes for the real thing that most Chinese restaurants pass off en route to the main course. Instead, my mouth-puckering hot and sour soup was loaded with egg, which helped to buffer its spicier side. A great soup, and thick enough to deserve the porcelain "ladle" I slurped it up with. Zosia's won-ton soup was equally impressive, loaded with several surprisingly large and fresh, chewy won tons. If it hadn't been for the prospect of an entree, I could have eaten a second bowl of each.
Mekong's selection of mains, like the rest of its menu, is neither limited nor too large to be considered overwhelming. Included as one of three "dinners for two" (zl. 52-zl. 69) is the option to grill your own meat, vegetables or seafood at your table. The catch is that the tableside grills are only available downstairs, which though stark is pleasant enough, but not as exciting as dining in the richly colored, Chinese-motif upstairs area.
Individual entrees, on the other hand, start at zl. 20 for the sweet and sour fish, Zosia's all-time favorite. But when she asked for it the waitress politely encouraged her to try one of the chef's seafood specials instead fried calamari (zl. 39) or garlic gulf shrimp (zl. 40). Perhaps she knew something we didn't. Among Mekong's 18 mains are trout with red peppers and leeks (zl. 25), chicken with oyster sauce and mushrooms (zl. 24), Szechuan-style duck (zl. 27), and sweet and sour deep-fried shrimp (zl. 38). For those looking to feed their offspring, the children's menu also sounded tempting: velvet corn soup (zl. 6), chicken in coconut pastry (zl. 12), and fried beef strips with carrots (zl. 12).
In the end, Zosia had the yu-zhou chicken in sweet and sour sauce (zl. 24) while I opted for the fried calamari special. These arrived displayed on a convenient Lazy-Susan serving tray with both white and fried rice (zl. 3 and zl. 5). Although we were nearly full from the soup and appetizers, we still managed to polish off all of Zosia's chicken, which was pleasantly spicy and thankfully not too sweet, and most of my calamari. While the calamari was quite good, I would have enjoyed it more had the batter been lighter and crispier.
At this point in the evening, Zosia could have rolled me home even without the added indulgance of dessert, but who was I to pass up sampling Mekong's hot caramel apples (zl. 10) and fried bananas with ice cream (zl. 8)? The apples arrived first, along with a small bowl of iced water in which to dip them and "cure" the hot caramel. I preferred the banana though, or should I admit, the ice cream, which provided a comforting cap to an already exquisite meal. Our bill came to zl. 170 ($40) without tip.
