It was a pleasant surprise when Dilshad from Hungry for Halaal invited me to a blogger meetup in November last year. I would have the opportunity to taste the new Mugg & Bean Summer Menu at Kenilworth Centre before anyone else! Since I had never been to one before, I was slightly anxious but by the end of the evening had so much of fun meeting likeminded women and foodies!

Mugg & Bean Kenilworth Centre

This Mugg & Bean is situated on the upper level in Kenilworth centre. I prefer to park on the upper level by the food court as the Mugg and Bean is right there. This is the first fully halaal Mugg & Bean in South Africa. What’s really great is you have the same Menu items that you will find at other Mugg & Beans, except it is halaal. So no more food envy!

When we arrived Dilshad introduced us to each other by our instagram handles which was quite funny – seeing as how we don’t know each other in real life but online. Eugene, the Manager explained the tasting menu to us. Little did we know how much food the tasting menu would consist of!

Starters

We were offered a selection of summer slush drinks; Turmeric Gingerade & Root Beer Ice Cream. I was intrigued by the former and chose that but tasted the Root Beer as well. The Turmeric Gingerade was refreshing but I could not finish it as it was rather filling. The Root Beer reminded me of drinking coke floats as a kid – nostalgia deluxe.

Shortly afterwards platters were brought out of nachos, chicken wings, mini hasselback potatoes, beef rashers and Mexican sweetcorn fritters. As you know I love Mexican food, so naturally my favourites were the Nachos & Sweet Corn Fritters. I prefer my chicken wings really crispy and these weren’t but had a nice flavour. The Hasselback potatoes were a cute idea, like a take on loaded fries but since I don’t eat a lot of potato I don’t know if I would order these. The whole concept of these items are sharing plates, therefore you can order a few and share!

Mains

The Main course dishes consisted of Thai Rainbow Beef Salad, Moroccan Butternut Chickpea Salad and Mini Sesame-crusted Buttermilk sliders. My eyes were immediately drawn to the Thai Rainbow Beef Salad. The colours and flavours made it my favourite of the night and I would definitely order it again. Watch out for the chilli though! It was spicy but that just made it better.

Dessert

Mugg & Bean is synonymous with good coffee & cake and for dessert we couldn’t expect anything less. Pictured from back to front are mini versions of their favourites: chocolate cake, strawberry cheesecake and carrot cake. My favourite was the chocolate cake, it tasted homemade, the cake was moist and the icing super chocolatey and smooth. I’m not a huge cheesecake fan but I know Hubby would have loved it. The carrot cake had a good texture and was full of nuts but I found it a bit too sweet for my liking. I would definitely go back for that chocolate cake!

Mugg & Bean has also come out with a range of Superfood Latte’s. We were offered Turmeric or Beetroot Latte’s but by this stage I was in a total food coma and did not try them. You can find all these menu items and more at any Mugg & Bean Branch in the country, except Mugg & Bean On The Go.

Branch Information