Kowloon

http://www.kowloonrestaurant.com/

The Kowloon is a famous Asian restaurant on Rt 1 in Saugus, MA. It is advertised and talked about on The Phantom Gourmet quite regularly. My husband and I used to drive by it frequently on our commute to his home from where we went for undergrad. He had eaten there a few times, but we had never been together. We discussed that we could go there after the Red Sox game on 4/20/08 since we would be down that way anyways. Boy was that a HUGE mistake and waste of gas!

You are greeted by a very busy lobby area. There are posters signed by famous people who have eaten there, including the local WWE champ John Cena, who has several posters signed in the lobby. We were quickly escorted through several themed dining rooms to our booth facing Rt1. The decor was tacky, not delightfully tacky, gross tacky. There were dirty dishes right next to our booth in two locations, just sitting on trays. There was a busy take out area near us as well. The restaurant was extremely noisy and dirty. I was scared to use the restroom because the door was a fire exit door with a ladies sticker on it that lead to a sketchy back room through 2 different doors to the extremely unclean bathroom. I needed to wash my hands after being at Fenway, but there were probably more germs in the bathroom there than in all of Fenway Park. It was so disgusting, I will spare you the details. The plates, cups, forks, etc were extremely old and not clean. We probably should have left at that point, but we were tired and hungry (and it gets such rave reviews) so we stayed.

The menu is enormous, every Asian culture is represented. The bar menu looked good, but with everything on the menu being overpriced I decided to hold off. Their poo poo platter selection was disappointing. We decided to give it a try anyways. When the young waitress (somewhat resembling Daisy from ROL2, but with black hair) finally came over to take our order we ordered the Peninsula Pu Pu Platter with Egg Roll, Spare Ribs, Chicken Wings, Fried Shrimp, Pork Strips and Crispy Wontons and beef teriyaki for 23.95 (way over priced!) with fried rice. I ordered Avocado Mongo Maki and the House Veggie Roll (Spinach, Kampyo, Oshinko, Avocado, Cucumber) for an appetizer. We also ordered tea and coke. My husbands coke was so small for 1.95. The tea was scalding hot and took forever to cool down. The little cups to put the tea in were well worn and sketchy.

The sushi came out first. The waitress brought over the little bowl for the soy sauce, but there was no soy sauce in sight. She said something like I will be right back to fill that, but never returned while I was eating the sushi. The sushi was blah, nothing special. It didn't taste fresh or good. The presentation lacked pizazz. It wasn't worth ordering.

The poo poo platter and rice came out next. The fire in the pot in the middle of the platter was enormous. My husband was actually scared about it burning him because of the way the air was pushing the 8 inch flame towards his face while he ate. The platter was on an old sectioned tray that was brown and clearly from the 60's or 70's. It had a nice coating of decades old grease on it. I'm not even sure how they would clean it?? It had 1 egg roll in it filled with finely diced veggies. It was cut into 4 pieces so it was not easy to get out of the platter. There were these round donut looking things in one section. We figured out quickly that it was the shrimp. The shrimp was ok, probably the best part of the poo poo platter. The shrimp wasn't too fishy smelling or tasting. The teriyaki was bland. It lacked that tangy flavor that most places have. The wontons were nothing special, they should have been crab rangoons. The pork was ok, it wasn't dry, but it was kind of bland. The chicken wings were crispy and tasted good. The rice had little flavor, it mostly tasted like onion. It didn't seem fresh either.

We will NEVER EVER eat there again. It gets NO stars!!!!!! I don't know what the fascination is with the place, but it's an over priced joke! Nothing was fresh, the decor was hideous, and the disgusting dishes and bathroom were horrifying. I have had better Asian food at the mall and even China Pacific. If you are looking for a place to eat while on Rt 1 go to Kelly's Roastbeaf, Polcari's, The Hilltop Steakhouse, anywhere besides Kowloon. If you want good Asian food go to Chen Lang Li in Bow, NH.