Munch

A feed for fuck-all

KC Cafe

What: Cantonese 

Price: $7.00 - $16.00

When: 11:00am – 11:30pm, Sunday – Thursday, and till 1:30am on Friday and Saturday. 

One of Wellington’s best, even  for those on a budget. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Of all of the iconic jewels studded in the grubby yet glittering tiara that is Courtenay Place, KC Cafe & Takeaway deserves top billing. Not as glittery as St. James or The Library, but it is bursting with charm and prowess. Nick Iles, of Two Bear Sandwich Club fame, writes a fierce ode to this place: its rich wood panelling and 60s-chic interior design, the glittering meats that hang in the kitchen window and the behemoth of a menu that wraps around the walls. And that’s before he gets to the food. KC Cafe is a beautiful place that never ever disappoints, and I will always stand against any presumptive, colonial insinuations that this restaurant, by its cuisine, is at all cheap or dismissable. 

So then, why is it featuring in your feed-for-fuck-all column, Guy? Right, yes. Thankfully, KC’s legendary status is not exclusionary. While most of the menu does look upwards from the $20 mark, there are a handful of excellent dishes for those with a bit less to dish out. For these we turn to the section ‘Soups/Starters/Congees’ (numbers 30. through 53. on the menu). 

Working our way backwards, the Fish Congee is the easiest to review: not very good on its own. This rice porridge would, I imagine, be a comfort food for many, but the kind that you have to grow up with to like. Unfamiliar, I found the congee to have an unpleasant texture: too watery to try and chew, but too lumpy to spoon like soup. I was surprised by the flavour of the light, salty broth and ginger, but the combination of white rice and white chunks of fish made for a big bowl of $10 plain.

The same could not be more false to say about the Wu Xi Pork Ribs. Equally priced but infused  with flavour, this starter is a thing of beauty. Dripping with a syrupy red braising, they’re almost caramelised but with a deeper, spiced umami. As you bring each piece to your mouth (with chopsticks or fingers; you’d be forgiven for using your hands to pick every last piece off) you can smell the orange oils and the ginger in the glaze that cut through what could otherwise become sickly and cloying. These tender, flaky ribs are like the refined older cousin of the sticky ribs from the gastropub down the way, but just as moreish. It’s not a big enough plate to call it a meal by any standard, but with a side of rice and some choy sum it could go a long way. Honestly, it’s good enough to order as a side regardless. 

What does suffice as a meal are the soups, which max out at $14. Everyone at the table let out a ‘woah!’ when my bowl was set down, a bowl I could wrap my arms around and cradle as the steam warmed my face. I picked the Roast Duck, Gai Choy, and Tofu soup, which was a whole meal for $12. The tofu was silky and soaked up lots of the savoury broth, as did the leafy parts of the gai choy, while the stalks remained crunchy and burst between my teeth. The thick-cut roast duck breast, sliced from one of the golden birds hanging on display, was tender and gamey. It was a little impractical to eat; I ended up pulling the meat off the little bones with my fingers in the end—so worth it. The seared skin went soggy in the soup, but still a deliciously salty fried addition. This is genuinely one of the best meal deals I’ve found so far, for its size, quality and nutrition. I could come back to this for days on end. 

KC Cafe’s menu is so extensive, there’s enough under budget to explore for another column. I, for one, won’t be complaining. I have so much love and respect for this institution; it’s no surprise the restaurant is coming up to its 30th birthday in a few years. If the menu is still daunting, check out Nick Iles’ articles at @twobearsandwich, as well as the icons at @kc_review who are eating their way through that phonebook of dishes and living my dream. Or head down with a random number generator, it’s very hard to go wrong. I’ll probably see you there! 

Am I talking shit? Do you wildly disagree, or want to feed my ego by telling me I’m so right? Or have I overlooked a place so far that readers really need to know about? Send me something to chew on at: guy@salient.org.nz.