Kings Valley Egyptian Cuisine — Restaurant in Forster

TLDR- horrible food, bad service, overpriced.

Was really looking forward to some great Egyptian food. Upon arrival there was a belly dancer and the place was full, we were excited. We sat and waited for about 20 mins... Slowly I noticed that not many tables had drinks/table water/ menus and staff were walking around looking busy but nothing was happening. Table by table people were getting up and leaving. The belly dancer finished and I thought that maybe service would pick up. I caught the eye of a staff member and asked if we could order drinks and get a menu, we’d been waiting 25 minutes. She obliged and we ordered a beer and a coke. We sat reading the menu, made our selection and waited for someone to take our order. We waited, waited, waited. I observed many more people get up and leave and I wish I’d have done so too upon reflection. We saw our drinks on the bar and thought ok great, now the place is basically empty we should get some service. We were wrong, after waiting another at least 10-15 minutes (we’d been at the place for an hour now) my hubby went up to the bar and said to the manager (who was dealing with another patron complaining) “do I bring these over myself?” The manager said he’d bring them over, hubby requested a fresh beer as that one was warm... our drinks were bought over and we asked if we could please order food, we ordered and thought... if we haven’t received our food (two very simple dishes) in 30 mins we would leave also... (we’d already been there so long and the place was empty so how long could it take?)... 29 mins later our food was plopped in front of us... 3 skewers each, 3 stale store bought pita slices and some raw onion with a tiny dish of (very bland) tahini. I had chicken, hubby had lamb. These dishes were meant to be $30 each?!? They took 30 mins to come out and all that was cooked was the meat?! (3 skewers on each plate, the rest was raw and slopped on). The lamb was like eating leather and the only thing flavoring the chicken was the charcoal... we complained to the manager and he offered us a 10% discount, in good faith we accepted but it wasn’t until after we paid we realised he’d charged us a service charge! DO NOT EAT HERE. It’s not worth it, the service is appalling, it’s hugely overpriced, food does not taste good, very very...

Visiting Forster with our 4 Children. We came across this place and thought it would be a great fun place to take the kids. Upon entering, that is where the fun ended and the disappointment started. Ordered the share entree and the share mixed plate for a main. It was terrible on all counts. And very overpriced, entree consisted of few dips some crazy salty overcooked nuggets they call falafel and marinated vege straight from a jar, dry flat bread which looks and tastes like was purchased from the supermarket two weeks ago. Should have walked out then but were trying to support local business after the tough times past, then the kids meals arrived and our main share plate. The kids meals were a disgrace. 1 x tiny tastless dry chicken skewer and some soggy undercooked salty practically inedible chips for $15. The main share was the same quality as the entree but more expensive $40, consisted of 3 x tiny skewers and the same dips and jar vinegar soaked veg and a so called Mediterranean Salad which was another $20 on top. The patients then ran out we called the owner and made our complaints known, he then became arrogant,rude and unhelpful to try and rectify the issue and offer a solution, he walked away and hid behind his staff to deal with it. We didn't touch the main meal and decided to leave, said we will pay for what we ate and drank but will not pay for the main as we didn't touch it. He insisted we pay the entire bill and started to video us and our children with threats of the police and pushing a phone camera in our face. After much dispute and discussion with his staff not the owner he just stood there with a rude smug arrogant look on his face, we paid as originally said the bill for $214. The owner of this establishment should be ashamed of what he is producing and I highly recommend avoiding this place...

Nice and friendly owner, a somewhat different ambience, but the food was really underwhelming. We were told by the owner that there were many vegan dishes to choose from. That’s not really true if you don’t count the salad and falafel starters. So, we went with Masaa’a - an eggplant dish and Koshari - something that looked and tasted like yesterdays leftover pasta (spaghetti, fussili and macaroni together) with chickpeas and fried onions. Both dishes were rather underwhelming but quite expensive. We did get falafel and tahini for starters and they were ok. But we were kind of tired of falafels being “the vegan option” in all restaurants. Anyways, we expected a lot - exotic flavours, options, variety - and got very little.

In terms of ambience, it was kind of weird. The place has a lot of Egypt-themed statues and decorations. It also has a stage and a floor seating area which is probably cool when a performance is on. Maybe on a busy night we would have really enjoyed it. But we were there on a Tuesday night and we were the only customers in a massive dining room with all the statues around us and repetitive music. It felt very weird, tbh.

To top it off - the toilets were horrendous! In the female toilets there were 2 cubicles, both of them hadn’t been flushed, and I mean the full package. The toilet paper was rolling across the entire floor, and it was just filthy. It was a quiet night, we were the only customers, surely they would have had time to check the toilets. Nobody did.

Not recommending the place and not going...