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| - I recently heard about Kiin from my cousin, who had been invited to the soft opening by a friend. As a huge fan of Thai food, I was eager to try this upscale Thai restaurant from the same owners of Pai. I recommend making reservations. Hubby and I lucked out to be seated within 30 min of walking in (even though we originally were told the wait for seating would be an hour).
At first glance, the menu was a little intimidating to me as the Thai names of items or ingredients left little indication to me of what I was ordering. The staff were very helpful and walked us through the menu. As we weren't very hungry, we ordered 2 small dishes (Roy Thai and Kang Moo Yang Nam Jim Jaew) and 1 large dish (Gaeng Boombai Nua), and we left feeling satiated and not overly stuffed.
Several Royal Thai dishes are featured on the menu, and the Roy Thai platter consisted of 4 such small savoury bites. The other smaller dish was actually fairly substantial as it came with a generous portion of sliced pork jowl meat served in a tamarind based sauce that had a spicy kick to it. It was refreshing to have kale stalks to eat with this dish to cool down the palate. My fave dish by far was the Gaeng Boombai Nua which is short rib in a sauce very reminiscent of massaman curry - creamy, velvety, peanutty, and delicious! It came with a side of fragrant coconut rice. My only critique about the dish was that it was served with some undesirable bits of fat that I had to pick out.
There is a chef's table for up to 4 people overlooking the kitchen. I was told the offerings in coming weeks would include fresh roti.
Chef Nuit and Jeff Regular have another winner on their hands with Kiin. Although the food was delicious, I personally feel that $28 is fairly steep, even for short rib curry. That being said, I would definitely order it again!
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