Kong's NQ — Restaurant in Manchester

Best chicken burger around!

Having indulged in the excellence of Kong's Signature Sandwich a couple of years back I've been meaning to go back for another fix for a while. It is practically faultless from the hefty crisp and tasty chicken thigh, to the sweet pickles and and fresh lettuce trimmings. Perfect amount of burger sauce, soft sweet bun, chicken skin crackling for added crunch and an addition of a hash brown (my recommended extra!). I'd say I enjoyed the burger more last time but that was because it was a new experience and more so because I doubled the chicken! I didn't on this occasion to leave room for some wings. I had the Tito Pizza ones which were nice and crisp still even with the generous covering of marinara style sauce. Plenty of pepperoni and salami bits too. Really enjoyable. The place is hugely popular and for good reason! Staff were a delight to add further to a fantastic eating experience.

Latest visit: I've been blown away by Kong's chicken burgers a few times before but I was excited to try some new additions to their menu.

I went for ribs and chicken strips. The Vimto sauce on the ribs was tasty and despite being fairly subtle I did pick up a blackcurrant flavour. I think I'd have preferred the BBQ sauce though because that's my goto choice. The meat was beautifully tender and paired nicely with the refreshing sriracha slaw.

I upgraded my fries to Parmesan & Basil mayo ones. The flavours were great but the fries were mostly cold. I should have said something I guess but I was starving from the fairly lengthy wait and fries can't really be heated up effectively anyway.

I had the strips with the Bombay topping. The sauces were delicious and just as I hoped they'd taste. The chicken pieces were very big and cooked nicely. The coating could've been crispier. It had parts that were super crisp but most of it was quite tough to bite through. The coating also didn't really have any seasoning so I'm glad there was plenty of sauce covering them. I enjoyed these but I've had much better in Manchester.

Everything was enjoyable and a fun mess to eat too but didn't meet the levels my previous visits. Quite pricey too but probably not much different to similar places in fairness. The service was stellar though and the place is pleasant.

1st visit (Dog Bowl): Unbelievable chicken burger. The signature sandwich was an absolute banger! Huge juicy thigh in the most deliciously seasoned crispy coating. Doubling up was a brilliant decision. Fries were bog standard but were salted well and crispy. Taken me a while to try Kongs out and I'm delighted I finally have! The staff were a real...

Food My husband and I both ordered burgers and fries, but unfortunately, the experience was disappointing. The fries were overly salty, and while I had the flavored version, the sauce was far too overpowering and salty. The burger buns lacked flavor, and the burgers themselves were overwhelmed by an excessive amount of burger sauce—death by salty sauce. A little sauce would have been nice, but this was just too much. The veggie burger patty seemed to be an unbrand version —certainly not Beyond Meat or any of the popular alternatives, maybe something like Tesco’s own. The BBQ corn followed the same pattern: far too salty and drenched in sauce. By the time we left, we were both incredibly thirsty.

It would be much better if they offered a DIY approach with plain fries, red salt, and sauces available on the table to add as you like, rather than drowning everything in sauce and salt. The drinks, however, were enjoyable.

Service The service was decent; staff asked if we liked the food, but we weren’t sure how to respond at the time. We managed to get through about half of our meals before feeling completely dried out. While the staff had a trendy vibe, the place didn’t seem very organized. We were given conflicting information and had to repeat ourselves a few times. There didn’t seem to be a clear workflow or routine. Additionally, they added a service charge to our bill, which we weren’t expecting.

Atmosphere The atmosphere was trendy, with shared tables that can feel a little awkward depending on who you’re seated with. The décor looks great, with wall art and stylish lighting, but the space is limited, and there’s only one toilet.

Overall While the vibe and drinks were good, the food was overly salty and saucy, and the organization could use improvement. There’s potential, but we left feeling underwhelmed and...

My bf has been ranting and raving about Kongs bottomless wing Wednesdays, so naturally we had to go.

We were welcomed in by a really lovely guy, I didn’t get his name but I remember he was wearing a nice nail varnish shade, he took our drink and food order & also bought our drinks over quite fast. he is the only positive thing about the whole encounter

We received our order 5 mins after, which was very fast. The wings are fried in a batter, then covered in whatever sauce of your choosing. I found this weird as the coating didn’t stick to the wings so it just fell apart… they were huge drumsticks, nowadays wings are so thin and small but these were big and abnormal looking. I felt off about them.

The portions can range from about 3 - 4 chicken wings (based on what we received)

The wing flavours are bbq, hot and spicy, Korean, ceaser and buffalo - in my opinion they were all mid

We got 3 rounds of wings, purely because we found them quite disappointing and also, service was slow after the first round. The other members of staff would look directly at the empty plates and walk right off. My bf also removed the service charge due to this.

The chefs don’t wear hairnets or beard nets, their hair and beards are very long. I saw the shorter chef get sauce stuck in his beard…

We wouldn’t come back & we also wouldn’t...