Kung Fu Biting

Mamagoto
53 Khan Market, First Floor, Middle Lane
New Delhi-110 003
Meal for two : Rs 1,500

The animated film Kung Fu Panda tells the story of Po, an overweight Chinese panda who works in his father’s noodle shop, but desperately wants to become a kung fu fighter. When you walk into Mamagoto, it is like being on the sets of the film. The walls are clad in Japanese-style pop art. The menu has funny faces. Chopsticks come with instructions on how to use them to eat, and imitate a walrus. The only difference between the film and the pan-Asian restaurant is that the chefs here seem to really like making their noodles. We decided to span the continent and started with the Japanese Prawns Tempura that was crunchy enough to be crispy-perfect. The Beijing Seafood Soup left us with a plentiful taste of fish that was never overwhelming. The Hawker’s Noodles Phad Thai arrived with the sprouts and chilli kept outside the dish itself. This gesture of consideration, however, couldn’t compensate for the fact that the meat in the Traditional Crispy Lamb was too hard to bite. We tasted the chocolate in the brownie with the second spoonful, and by the time we remembered that Kung Fu Panda urgently needed to lose weight, we were far too satisfied to correlate.