Mega Bite Cafe

Superb Noshing Joint

28 Mar 08, 16:06 Beyond expectations

For comfort food I've found a few no-frills places that are very comforting to the wallet as well as the stomach. Can other chowhounds recommend their favorite, nicely priced nosh pits? I'll be amazed if anyone can come up with one thats cheaper or dishes up better or bigger portions than the Megabite, outside Arsenal Stadium on the Benwell Road entrance. The decor is borderline industrial with no hints of Bauhaus - plastic bucket seats bolted into the ground, red tiled floor, beige tiles livened up with a few mementos of China. In short everything that screams greasy spoon. First impressions can sometimes be the wrong impressions. And the plain outside hides a down home culinary treasure. The grub is superb traditional Chinese cooking with no MSG! Just plain and simple home cooking - served up fast with no pretensions ... The first dish I tried was Sea Spice Aubergine with King Prawns and boiled Rice. The Aubergine texture and taste was to die-for. The King Prawns large and plentiful. After I hoovered it up I had to ask the pipe-cleaner thin chef all about it. "I used to cook that for the Queen, she always had it when she came to the Dorchester". I bet the old gal paid more than the £4.50 he was charging near the Holloway Road. After that I came back many, many times to sample some more. The stand-out dishes from the menu for me are Roast Duck with spring onion and boiled rice. Which has an immoral amount of tender roast duck. Louhan or Monks Vegetables - a great vegetarian dish with pickled plum, wood-ear fungus, triangular tofu and boiled rice. The cheapest dish in the place is Mixed Vegetables with boiled rice(£3.20) - surprisingly tasty. Other natty platters are the sweet and hot KoPo Chicken, Mixed Seafood, Chicken with Celery and the fairly spicy Mixed Vegetables with Curry Sauce. Now that the chef has added more regional dishes to the menu - Wow! The lamb in Yellow bean sauce is truly amazing and the sweet and sour fish, with nugget stylee bites of fish is sweet and spectacular.This is a great lunch-time place you can take a date and still have change from a tenner. Clientèle are mixed - sometimes theres a posse of Nigerian Traffic wardens, sometimes a gaggle of students & local appreciative regulars as well as the cheap date squad.