Mei Kun is a place you want to go when you must please a wide range of palates.
Touted as a fine dining experience, the food and service is however more family-style: you wouldn’t feel uncomfortable choosing a spoon and fork over chopsticks, and the large bowls of rice and noodles that make up the ‘bulk’ of any Indian meal, taste of a sophisticated version of the kind of Chinese food with which most of us grew up.
Would I drive 25 km for it? Unlikely. Would I drop by if I’m in the vicinity? Possibly.
The vibe: What Mei Kun has going for it, is its large space and picture windows that look out onto trees — they help you ignore the somewhat outdated greige interiors.
Despite being in The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel, you can picture a large joint family come and while an afternoon away here. There’s no painfully loud music and no pretentiousness.
The lotus stem starter, and (above) the white fungi coconut soup
Do try: The white fungi coconut soup, which is really a meal by itself and takes good care of change-of-season colds.
The bao, which looked and tasted like a cloud; the succulent kung pao chicken. The star though, was a lotus stem ‘starter’, with a sweet-salty coating of oats. It’s the sort of taste and texture you want to keep nibbling on. The date pancake, though a tad sweet, had a crispy casing and soft heart.
Skip: The dimsums, which had too-thick ‘skins’ that overpowered the stuffing; the Singapore Crab that came in some red gravy, obscuring the sweet flesh of the crustacean.
Go with: Extended family.
Space bar: 42 covers
How much? ₹3,000 for two, sans alcohol
Reach: Mei Kun at The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel, 1 CBD, Maharaj Surajmal Road, near Yamuna Sports Complex; drive or cab it.
