Ka Ka Lok

Oh, I can’t believe I haven’t written a review for Ka Ka Lok! I swear, it’s probably one of my fav places for some chinese food!
Recently went over with Gian for dinner and boy was I craving some good spicy seafood. Was properly eyeing all the Malaysian style dishes on the menu immediately after sitting down at our table! Fyi, they have 2 menus. The «English» and the «Chinese» menu (both to cater to the different taste palettes). I recommend you throw away the English one and stick to the Chinese menu yeah. ;-)
We ordered the salt and chilli squid, Squid with long beans in belacan (a Malaysian spicy prawn paste), and king prawns in egg sauce served with fried rice. And of course, an endless pot of tea! YUMMMM were those dishes absolutely delightful! I love the smell of belacan … hits close to home! Delicious!
Staff members were also very friendly and accommodating. Like 3 waiters/​waitresses kept checking up on us and asking if everything was ok. They kept coming to the table to check on our tea too. Super service ey!
We were also given free oranges for dessert! I remember them usually giving fruits but I suppose the oranges were for the CNY celebrations. Ain’t complainin!
Anyway, it came up to 16.50quid between the two of us, which wasn’t too bad because I was STUFFED with delicious food! We even dapau (take away) like a quatre of the king prawn because there was just so much! Yay, leftovers for lunch! Haha.
So, would def recommend Ka Ka Lok to those who want good Chinese (sorta Malaysian) food. I’m definitely heading back, and bringing my friends along with me!

My husband and I ordered takeaway from here so I cannot comment on the ambiance or service. The food was decent Chinese food at best. (We lived in San Francisco before this so our standards are quite high.) He ordered spicy beef and I ordered chicken with vegetables and spring rolls. The spicy beef was not spicy and my chicken with vegetables was extremely bland. The spring rolls were good though!
If you’re hungry and don’t have the highest expectations in the world, give Ka Ka Lok a try.

When your (chinese) parents refuse to go elsewhere you know it’s going to be good food!
I love their lamb clay pot. Brought to the table to continue stewing on a butane cooker it is my ultimate comfort dish. My guilty pleasure here is the salt and chilli pork — I would eat the whole dish to myself.
Service isn’t perfect but when your mum knows the staff and the lingo it’s never a problem. Sightly embarrassing but it means we always get what we need or want.
It’s not fancy but the food makes up for it. Parking isn’t great until after 6pm but be careful when parking on West Princes Street, it’s still paid up to 10pm.

I am vegetarian but still give KaKaLok 5 stars as it was a wonderful eating experience. The buzz of a busy (but intimate) restaurant, with a «non standard’ menu to choose from was fantastic.
The BYOB is useful as you can save yourself a little money, but they also have wine on the in house drinks list now (some previous reviews suggested it was only BYOB, perhaps this is a recent change?). The staff will also keep refilling the tap water which they offer you to accompany your meal.
We ordered vegetable spring rolls (had hopes for dumplings, but they were only available in meat), tung-​choi vegetables with chilli and preserved tofu and pakchoi with garlic (with noodles and rice). The staff were happy to ‘decode’ the menu where we had queries and also advised of any dish which contained fish or could be personalised to make it vegetarian friendly. The noodles contained a sprinkling of bean sprouts which made them crunchy but not overpowering, the rice smelt truly delicious even though it was simple and plain. Every now and then the waiting staff would come over and offer to serve you more noodles or rice, very attentive.
I am surprised that I can give 5 stars for somewhere which has a fairly limited vegetarian menu, but the whole experience left us feeling well looked after and full, and happy!

Since KaKaLok opened, I have been hearing incredible things about their food. Granted it’s perhaps not the most appealing place from the outside and inside isn’t really that much to write home about — the food, however, is INCREDIBLE!
The best way to describe the décor at KaKalok is cheap and cheerful. The furniture is pretty basic, simple and clean but i’d be lying if I said anything really jumped out at me décor wise.
The staff were okayish… we had to call them over to order drinks, then again to order food. They weren’t rude but they weren’t friendly either.
The menu is MASSIVE. You are presented with 2 menus when you arrive and English and a Chinese… the English one is packed with all the usual dishes you would expect to find on a ‘British’ Chinese menu. The Chinese menu is full of dishes which are a little more adventurous (aka authentic).
Given that we were there for Dumpling Day, we started with a round of delicious pan-​fried dumplings which were perfect. They were crammed full of tasty filling and the outside was every so slightly crunchy.
Along with our dumplings, I also tried some Salt & Chilli Squid and Salt & Chilli Spare Ribs. Both of these dishes were incredibly moreish. if I had to pick one though, it would probably be the squid, which had a light crispy coating and was just spicy enough for my taste.
For my mains, I shared my dishes again with my buddies TrudieM and AustenM and so I got to try loads. Here goes:
Chicken with Ginger and Spring onion — this was my least favourite dish, I found it sort of boring and with no real taste to it. I think that was because the other 3 dishes were so incredibly flavoursome that I felt this one was lacking.
Duck Ho Fan was my favourite dish — the duck was gorgeous and tasted like a little aromatic piece of heaven. The portion of noodles was huge and super tasty.
CharSui and Fried Rice — The Char Sui was beautiful, it was so flavoursome and I couldn’t get enough of this. The fried rice was… well it was fried rice, but it tasted good.
Double Cooked Pork — This was probably my third favourite dish. It was tasty but quite fatty. I know this is to be expected with double cooked pork but I don’t really like it that much. I did enjoy the dish but I didn’t eat loads of it the way I did with the Duck and Char Sui.
Lastly, we also ordered a portion of battered Salt and Chilli Chips which were exactly as good as they sound and were easily one of my favourite dishes… in all honesty I so did not want to share these, I did — but grudgingly :-P
Whilst it may not hit all the boxes when it comes to décor and staff it more than exceeded my expectation when it came to food and price (I only paid £20 for my share of our meal). This is a spot that I will 100% definitely be back to soon. I had a beautiful meal which beautiful people — what’s not to love?!?

We stopped by here for a Saturday night dinner around 6:45 and they were able to accommodate us easily to a lovely window table. It was quite secluded and although it was close to the entrance I wasn’t distracted by guests coming in at all. The main dining area looked slightly more bustling and noisy, but not unpleasant.
They have two menus, one with traditional Chinese dishes, and another with those more common for Western establishments. We ordered a half duck from the English style menu as we wanted the sauce, but all our other choices were from the Chinese menu. The duck itself was amazing, a tangy-​sweet, not too rich plum sauce, fresh cucumber and spring onion, perfect wee pancakes and so much meat! This and a side dish really would have been enough for two, but we were starving and massively over ordered!
We also got the spicy spare ribs which fell right off the bone (despite an unnervingly bright red colour!) and some pak choy with garlic which came in a massive portion, as well as some fried rice! Nothing was fancy on presentation but all of it was really light and flavorful– it was one of the first times I’ve not felt overstuffed after Chinese but just perfectly satisfied.
They give you free prawn crackers, free tea, and free watermelon after your meal which I thought was just such a nice touch! Our bill came to about £30 which I found very reasonable for all the food we got! We ended up getting some to takeaway and they were very obliging and friendly. The only complaint I have is that they didn’t include the plum sauce in our takeaway, which is obviously the best bit of the duck dish!
I would be keen to go back and try some more dishes! Ka Ka Lok has really impressed me, despite the questionable name!

We are on a one man and woman mission to find Glasgow’s best soft shell crab. We have found an early leader!
First impressions were exactly what we hoped, no frills, quick, friendly and efficient staff filled with an eclectic mix of people. It was actually fantastic to see different cultures coming together as there was a large table of Chinese family and friends and the kids appeared to have invited their friends who were Scottish and watching the kids teach their pals how to use chopsticks and educate them on the food was great to see and great advert for cultures coming together. (people watching and social working, even when we are out for food — we really should take some time off!
So we Sat down, opened a beer and Amanda opened her wine (it’s BYOB) with no corkage! And my clumsy wife to be spilled over my drink within seconds! Staff responded promptly but they must’ve been thinking we were a couple of steamers as some of the beer managed to scale half the wall.
I digress — onto the food.
We ordered between us two soft shell crab, a portion of dumplings, a portion of salt and chilli ribs, fried rice and two roast char sui duck. All from the authentic menu.
The soft shell crab was divine, light crisp batter on outside, soft and fluffy crab in the middle with a nice kick of dried chilli spice. A must if you ask us.
The dumplings were a positive assault on the taste buds, crisp yet soft and gooey these reminded us some of our favourite meals in Vietnam! The fillings inside we so tasty!
The salt and chilli ribs, had tender meat with a nice little kick.
The two roast duck isn’t something we would normally order but given we stuck to the ‘authentic’ menu we wanted to try something different, the duck was crisp on outside with the skin suitably roasted the fat and meat underneath was moist and juicy. Really really nice.
The only minor let down was the fried rice was a little oily but that can’t detract from my 5 stars. Portions are generous and all that food cost a mere £31. See you soon ka ka lock!

Time for an update!
4 stars does not do this place justice, it’s a 5 star venue, for sure. It’s not a flashy restaurant in any way, but I really like that about the place. The focus is completely on the food and on that front they hit the spot 100%.
On our last visit there was a big party of us so I was lucky and got to share a lot of dishes. The portions are huge so be careful how much you order as I actually felt like I ended up with double the food I needed. Still I did the right thing and ploughed through it.
Highlights were the duck dish which was exceptionally tasty. The beautiful dumplings, the tasty salt and pepper squid, the spicy double cooked pork and just about everything else I that I got to snatch a try of.
It’s still Byob, but who cares as the food is exceptional and the value for money is immense. If you ain’t been yet you should try it very soon! Casual, authentic and tasty dining. You are going to love it,

My first taster of Ka Ka Lok came as part of the revised DD3. Shortly after I’d discovered KKL, I wanted to try it as it seemed fairly authentic & far from the chow mein & msg options you normally find at most Chinese food outlets.
The restaurant itself is fairly bare, but it’s full most nights I’ve been past. There’s little in the way of heirs and graces, but that’s the way a good restaurant should be.
The veggie (mostly vegan) options can be found on the English menu (although the Buddha’s delight features on both menus). What I have to say about the menu is that it’s pretty bare for veggies, given that there are 40+ options for omnivores, it seems a little sad that vegans/​veggies are restricted to such a limited menu.
The food that I ordered (veggie spring rolls & Buddha’s delight) was great. Really simple, but full of flavour & well cooked. The reason that this is a 4* star review is that for plethora of fish & meat options, the veggie menu seemed a little bare & somewhat of an after thought

After the last Dumpling Day at Sichuan House, I didn’t think another Chinese restaurant could top it, but KaKa Lok was strong competition!
It’s BYOB which immediately cuts down your costs, and the food is authentic and delicious! There are two different menus; a Chinese menu which features more traditional dishes, and an English menu, which has most dishes you would find on your average Chinese takeaway menu. I decided to be good and order from the Chinese menu.
We started off by ordering a few portions of dumplings for the table. Once again, I figured the Sichuan House ones wouldn’t be beaten, but they were really delicious. The filling was (I think) pork and prawn, and the dumpling pastry was smooth and crisp where it had been pan fried.
Sam ordered an extra starter of salt and chilli squid which was absolutely gorgeous — super crisp and lots of salt and chilli. For main, I ordered Char Sui pork and shared some egg fried rice. The pork was succelent and full of that classic, slightly sweet char sui flavour. The portion was pretty generous so I couldn’t finish it all, but I would have if I could!
The meal for 2 of us came to around £40, which I thought was pretty decent, and because the food was authentic and really tasty. I’m really annoyed at myself for not going to Kaka Lok sooner, because it’s literally 2 minutes away from me — I will definitely be going back though!

Ka Ka Lok isn’t fancy, the service isn’t perfect but the food is wonderful and very reasonably priced, so it’s a 5-​star from me.
Last time we ate in I gave it 4 stars due to a couple of little issues (it being cold inside and the dumplings taking ages and getting burnt). This time we didn’t have any problems and they dealt with our really large table of 14 really well. We did have to give them some nudges from time to time to order food & drinks but it was a pretty bustling place on a Saturday night.
I’m kind of embarrassed to say I ordered the exact same dishes as the first time I ate here — dumplings, soft shell crab and aubergine with salt fish as a main. I seriously love all these dished and seeing as it was Dumpling Day (thanks Austen M for organising it!) I had to get dumplings. A few people didn’t have them so I even managed to scoff 4 which was a plus. The soft shell crab is really spicy so if you have delicate tastebuds, it won’t be for you. The batter is nice and light and you can see the juicy crab meat inside. It’s a little pricey at £4 per portion but it’s worth it. And the salt fish & aubergine is a really unusual dish but one worth trying if you like aubergine.
They are still BYOB so I’m not sure they’re ever getting their own alcohol licence. There’s a wee shop just along the road which isn’t bad and you can grab some wine or beers from there.

One of the best Chinese restaurants in Glasgow. Customer service is the most impressive thing in this restaurant. Various kinds of authentic food and reasonable price were served for retreating ourselves in Friday evening.

So finally decided to try Ka Ka Lok last evening with my best friend. We have been wanting to try this restaurant for sometime after reading Briony’s review and because we love Chinese food and still haven’t found a place which offers good food and service is great. Apologies the food was so yummy that didn’t click any pictures, promise on my next visit I will do just that.
Arrived around 6ish on a Friday evening, the restaurant had a few tables occupied, we were seated by a lovely Chinese guy and handed two menus — European and Chinese, we quickly opted for the Chinese menu and ordered a soft shell crab and pan fried dumplings to start. We were offered a complimentary basket of prawn crackers (never offered them free in any restaurant in Glasgow as far as I can tell) and a pot of lovely Chinese tea also complimentary, now thats what I call excellent customer service. So many restaurants now charge for crackers, popadoms etc so it was lovely change.
The soft shell crabs were divine and came is friend onions and chillies. The pan fried dumplings were so fresh and yummy that we devoured them in no time. You can ask for chilli oil which offers a nice touch of spice to the dumplings. For the mains, having seen our fellow diners portions we opted for a clay pot which was beef flank and mooli, which according to the waiter is cooked for hours and some steamed rice. We also wanted to order other dishes but decided not tone greedy as is always the case for food lovers.
The Beef with mooli was a huge pot which we couldn’t finish and was amazingly the most tender beef with yummy sauce and delicious mooli (which I assume is chinese radish) I have eaten in a very long time. At the end of our meal we offered an orange which surprisingly was such a lovely way to end the meal.
We paid for our meal and were about to leave a tip when we were informed by our waiter that they are not allowed tips, which we found very strange. He told us that the owners don’t allow the staff to get any tips, is this a normal practice across restaurants in Glasgow? We felt bad that after such a wonderful meal with such great service it was a real shame not to be able to leave a tip.

Probably my favourite Chinese restaurant in Glasgow. The food is really authentic and each time I’ve been there the owner has been on hand, busy chatting and ensuring all diners are well looked after. The owner insists we treat his restaurant like his own home! He is very proud of the reviews he’s been given in the local papers! Décor wise it is nothing fancy but the food is great for small or big groups. My favourite has to be their sweet and sour pork chops and salt and chilli squid. Parking is a little difficult as it’s on a busy main road but other than that I always look forward to dining here!

Finally got round to trying this place out. I am quite fussy when it comes to chinese food and i’ve yet to find a decent chinese restaurant that comes close to the food I have tasted in Hong Kong.
The décor of this place is pretty basic, not over the top designs or furniture which is fine. The staff appeared quite friendly and checked on us a few times to make sure that the food etc is ok and if we needed anything.
The food was actually quite enjoyable. We started of with some soup which was very flavoursome and not too salty — which is my pet hate in soups! I ordered my favourite dish sweet and sour chicken and it was lovely — almost finished the plate myself! The rest was seafood which I don’t enjoy so I never tried those. We finished with some watermelon as dessert, the watermelon was very tasty however the serving was waaaay too small for 4 people — we had about 2 pieces each, extra small pieces!
However I can’t deny that the food was better than I had expected. I think i’ll be back?!

We had a fantastic takeaway from here on Saturday night. For some reason we have found there is a dearth of Chinese takeaways in the west end and we hadn’t quite found one that we were 100% happy with. This place changes that! Must admit we weren’t very adventurous and went for Western Chinese dishes this time, but the Chinese, Chinese dishes look really interesting and we are keen to try again soon.
To summarise the food: meat was good quality, portion sizes were good, price was good value and flavour was mwah!
We shall be back soon!

Chinese or English!
When entering take a good look at the specials because it’s the last time you are going to see them.
Big massive family style tables packed with family’s. Sat right at the back of the restaurant we had a full view of everything, the kitchen, the staff and the punters! Loving the family feel to the place.
On being seated given 2 menus one English and one Chinese. Of course we are eating from the the Chinese one. Starters we had the salt and chili squid. Now often this can get over cooked in the deep fat fryer! This had not one drop of fat or over cooked-​ness on this! Too delicious! Next up on starters steamed dumplings. Not sure what was in these bad boys but oh my. TASTY!!!
Watching how everyone else was eating the going deal was get your bowl of rice and order a couple of big dishes and every one tucks in and shares!
We ordered fried rice and boiled rice (take note one is enough to share between 2) with braised beef flank curry and sizzling steak with onion and mushrooms. The beef was so tender it just melted in my mouth! The steak was whole but cooked too perfectly.
The staff are friendly, however little English is spoken. They are still waiting on the alcohol license however I would not even let this damper the wonderful-​ness of this little gem!

The first time I noticed Ka Ka Lok was on my way to dine at Asia Style. It was busy so prompted a brief look at the menu in the window. It took a number of months later to visit and happy to say that they didn’t disappoint. The food was delicious and definitely rivals Asia Style. The service was slightly chaotic as they were busy and kitchen appeared to be struggling but based on the quality of the food, this is something that I was wiling to overlook.

Strangely, there seems to be a distinct lack of quality Chinese restaurants in Glasgow, either that or I’ve had my head buried under the sand for the past 10 years or so that I’ve lived in the city.
When Ka Ka Lok appeared next to long standing Chinese /​Malaysian restaurant Asia Style with its bright red signage and funky Chinese style cartoon logo I thought to myself, «ooft that’s brave opening up next to a Glasgow institution». But, to my delight, this place more than stood up for itself.
Although the restaurant is rather big and sparse looking, it was busy and loud enough, with a regular turnover of local Chinese customers to give the place a good vibe. We were warmly greeted on arrival and taken to our table. The waitress promptly gave us two menus to look over, one an ‘English’ menu and the other a ‘Chinese’ one.
The English menu contained your typical Black Bean /​Sichuan /​Sweet & Sour type dishes, probably curated for the westerners. Not Fish & Chips and Chicken Pies as I had originally imagined being on an ‘English’ menu. The Chinese menu was a Hong Kong style fare, with more traditional dishes such as Clay Pot stews, seafood/​fish dishes, roasts etc. Needless to say we all ordered from the Chinese menu and the staff were ever so friendly in helping us to make our decisions. In fact the owner was key to helping us have a great meal as he picked out some great dished for us.
We opted for a dozen dumplings to nibble on as an appetiser, which were delicious. Then a feast of Clay Pot dishes arrived, including aubergine and salt fish, XO Seafood, an outstanding and tender beef stew, three kind roast containing pork belly /​char sui /​duck, Singapore style noodles and a giant vat of rice. It has to be said the quality of the food and ingredients was second to none and the portions were hugely generous.
Again the owner and his staff made us feel incredibly welcome and they kept checking up on us to make sure we were happy with the food.
Although they don’t have a drinks license, we were treated to endless supplies of refreshing jasmine tea. Furthermore they have a great tasting Aloe juice, which I think I may now be addicted too.
To summarise Ka Ka Lok, weird name, amazing food and cheap as chips!