King Of Koshary — Restaurant in Virginia

Wow...just wow. Words can hardly describe how spectacular this place is! King of Koshary may not look like much from the outside (you might even question whether you have the right address after driving past the sixth residential street with no other businesses in sight), but I promise you, it is 100% worth the leap of faith to come in and take a seat. I didn't get a chance to try their koshary, but everything that I and the friends I came with did try was absolutely amazing.

I ordered their grilled branzino, which was genuinely one of the best things I've ever eaten. I've always been a huge fan of branzino, but I rarely have the opportunity to order an entire fish, but King of Koshary delivered, tail and head and all...and bones -- so if you've never eaten a whole fish, that is something to watch out for. But I promise that the flavor is worth the trouble! Plus, branzino has relatively large bones, so they're super easy to remove and avoid, so don't let the prospect of eating an entire fish intimidate you ^.^! The skin of the fish is blackened to perfection, providing the perfect charred, smoky flavor and crispy texture to balance out the subtle, tender flesh of the fish. Add a squeeze of lime over top to add a touch of brightness and zing, and you have yourself a pretty perfect entree. But King of Koshary takes everything a step further by stuffing the beautiful branzino with the most incredible mix of sauteed vegetables. It seems so basic, with just carrots, bell peppers, and onions, but it is spectacularly flavorful and beautifully rounds out the entire dish. The branzino also comes with a side of brown rice, a tahini-based sauce, and a small side salad with lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes. All around, it's a wonderfully balanced and super satisfying dish, with the branzino packing a huge flavor punch, paired with a light, crunchy, super fresh salad to lighten things up and cleanse the palate, and enough rice to feed a village.

While the food was undeniably amazing, what really sold this place for me was the service. Our server (I believe his name was Marwan? But I admit I'm not the best with names) was one of the kindest, warmest, and most friendly people I've ever met in my life. He was super welcoming and upbeat, and just genuinely seemed so happy to be there and to support us. He gave fantastic recommendations and helped us each choose our dishes, and he was just so eager to share his culture and cuisine with us. I'm so incredibly grateful for the little taste of Egypt that I was able to experience from King of Koshary, both from the food itself and my snippets of conversation with Marwan. I can't wait to make my way here to try out the rest of their menu (they even have three branzino dishes!!! This place is every...

Service:

After having my appetizer, I asked for new plates to have my main course, the server was surprised and explicitly told me “this is gonna be your last clean dish, It doesn’t make sense for me to serve you a clean plate every-time I serve a new dish”, I am supposed to eat feeter, then mossakaa then fish in the same plate? Not to mention that the attitude is crazy.

Food:

Feteer Meshaltet: the appetizer version came as one layer, “meshaltet” translates to “layered”, to send it out of the kitchen as one thin layer of flaky dough is basically insane, doesn’t come close to the original thing.

When asked about the reason, the server said passive aggressively “well I can make a special order of 16 inch proper one, would you actually like that?!”

Again, insane.

Moussaka was excellent.

Molokhia didn’t have signature flavor of garlic and coriander, but it was still okay.

Cinjari fish was great, same as salad. The rice that came with it was COLD!! And a day old chewy rice, weird.

Om Ali was nothing like a proper one.

Atmosphere: the place is okay. Nothing fancy. Bathroom clean.

Time:

It took the restaurant around 1/2 hour for fish to come, and 20 mins from Om Ali?

Once again fellow Egyptians we are disappointed with the status quo of Egyptian restaurant oversees, I call for any business man, to seize the opportunity to introduce a chain of high end Egyptian restaurants!

I feel sad, and disappointed for inviting my friend and making him drive for 1/2 hour...

Brought my mom here on a rare Monday we were both off from work, after hearing great things about this place. Our experience was lackluster, sadly! The good: prices are reasonable for the food portion size, service was polite, and I enjoyed the warm bread & baba ganoush starter, lemon mint drink, as well as the side salad that came with the good-sized grilled branzino, and the Arabic music.

We found the flavors to be a let down on the branzino and the koshary, which were both just okay. The tomato vinegar sauce that goes on the koshary had no real flavor or tang to it on its own - we had to use the lemon garlic and hot sauce condiments liberally to give our bowls some taste, and the fried onions weren't very crispy. The rice which came with the branzino tasted old. Service was polite but not especially attentive - our food was brought to us, but that was it. A couple of nearby tables clearly had been used before we got there but had not been properly wiped down so there were still crumbs (lentils, a bit of fish) on them, which doesn't make for a super appetizing environment.

If we lived closer, I would probably give this place another try in case this was just an off Monday, but we came from 70 mins away and for us, it is not worth...