Kiin Kiin

Kiin Kiin has a ground floor bar area, with the main dining room upstairs. The décor has a Thai feel to it without overloading on oriental imagery. Modern music plays; I am not quite sure how to classify the music, but if you have been to Hakassan you will recognise it. The dining room was quite dark so it was very difficult to take decent photographs; the restaurant has kindly supplied a few. The two owners are both chefs, one Danish (Henrik Yde Anderson) who worked for a time in Thailand (as well as at The Paul), the other a self-taught Thai chef. The one in the kitchen this evening was Lertchai Treetawatchaiwong. 

Nibbles were pleasant sugar prawn crackers, very good lotus root fried with lime leaves (the star of the nibbles), roasted cashew nuts that tasted a little stale, and pork crackling and a tomato dip; fine but nothing remarkable at this stage (13/20). Various further nibbles appeared. A cornet of ginger and chilli had vibrant spicing (15/20). Chicken soup with galangal, chilli and lime leaves had clean, strong flavour and excellent spicing (16/20). Dim sum was steamed dumpling with chicken and chilli with cleverly salted crispy chicken skin, while broccoli steamed dumpling was also very good (16/20). Chicken satay was good (14/20), and even better was prawn and chilli salad (15/20). I was particularly impressed with the Thai fishcakes, a standard dish in Thai restaurants that are so often greasy, hard and disappointing: here they were plump, soft and bursting with flavour (16/20 for these).

Salad of mackerel was served with frozen green curry and spicy leaves: this was a very unusual dish and yet it worked really well, the component flavours distinct (15/20). Chanterelle mushrooms in coconut milk and lime leaves were served alongside excellent soft shell crab with crispy noodles and celery. I was very impressed with the crab in particular, the dish having an excellent balance of salt and sweet (15/20). Scallops with fish sauce, tamarind, chilli and samphire featured fresh and carefully cooked scallops and a very well balanced set of flavours (16/20).

Grilled beef was apparently aged for no less than 40 days, served with bak choi and oyster sauce, alongside a very well made spring roll (16/20). Even dessert, rarely a highlight of a Thai meal, was impressive. Here a sorbet of passion fruit was coated in a crumble of white chocolate with a blueberry sorbet – the texture contrast of the white chocolate was clever, and again the elements of the dish were harmonious (16/20).

Mas de Daumas Gassac red 2004 was listed at DK 895 (£106) compared to a UK retail price of around £31. Weinbach Cuvee Catherine 2006 was DK 785 (£93) for a wine you can buy in the UK for around £32. Kistler Vine Hill 2004 was DK 1,925 (£227) compared to a UK shop price of around £103. By Danish standards these wine mark-ups are a bargain.

I must admit I was sceptical when I went to Kiin Kiin, since the only Thai restaurant I am aware of that has been graced with a Michelin star was the disappointing (now departed) Nahm in London. I have had some excellent food on my three visits to Thailand, but this has all been classical Thai food.  Kiin Kiin, while taking a modern approach to the Thai cooking, has done so using great skill and sensitivity, the flavours clean and vibrant, the innovations, when they come, not at the expense of flavour. This meal was a revelation to me, something that demonstrates that Thai cooking can be modernised in a sympathetic and delightful way (16/20). I have not eaten better Thai food than this. The tasting menu (there is no a la carte) was DK 750 (£89).

Further reviews: 23rd Jun 2016