PUMPKIN SOUP!

Kiin Kiin is a Michelin one star Thai restaurant in Copenhagen and it means “eat eat” in Thai. If you are interested in Thai food, I definitely recommend this venue. Kiin Kiin is currently the only Michelin star awarded Thai restaurant in Europe. Executive Chef Dak Laddaporn is amazingly creative in using different presentation methods for the dishes. She is one of the few female executive chefs in Copenhagen awarded with a Michelin star. The restaurant received its star in 2011.

The area Nørrebro where Kiin Kiin is located is widely known from the news. Nørrebro welcomes immigrants from all around the world, mostly of Middle Eastern origin. It is known for the revolts, nightlife and cheap kebabs. The owner Hendrik Yde Andersen took some risk choosing this trendy and newly developing district. Fortunately, things went on track so far.

I have been informed by the Kiin Kiin team that they are planning to make new changes to the concept of the restaurant. They will be opening a SPA and you will be able to receive a treatment and a degustation experience at the same time. I found the idea very innovative since I haven’t heard of such an experience before. I hope they will be able to make this mind-blowing plan a reality.

Ambiance

Kiin Kiin is a two-star restaurant. We first went to the bottom floor, where there were only three tables and an interesting decoration. However, the lightning was very dark and it was really humid. We kindly requested to go upstairs, which was much more crowded, loud, lively and bright. Although it was very crowded, the staff were very nice and they arranged us the table on the upper floor. It was nice to be able to sit and experience both of the floors, hence the atmosphere was totally different with each other.

The weather in Copenhagen was freezingly cold but the restaurant was extremely hot. We had to make the staff open the windows occasionally. They were very kind and assisted us whenever we asked them.

There were some Thai decorations including a Buddha sculpture and bamboo lamps, however, I thought the dining rooms might have much more Thai specific decorative elements.

Taste

I have to warn you that if you didn’t eat Thai food before, the taste is quite different. Unfortunately, we couldn’t eat some of the courses since they were very spicy. In some of the courses, they did not warn us that the course was very hot, hence we had to learn it the hard way by tasting it ourselves.

The tasting menu starts in the lounge area, where the selection of appetizers from Thai street food is served. It takes around half an hour to finish the appetizers. Afterward, the six-course menu is served at your table. You have your tea or coffee in the lounge area again together with the surprising petit fours.

Unfortunately, most of the courses did not appeal to my gusto. The dominant flavors were green curry, coriander and ginger. The dishes were pretentious however not very tasty. One of the desserts was the star of the tasting menu. Banana cake with almond flavor and salted caramel ice cream was the signature of the chef. The menu contained the banana cake for a long time.

Creativity

In Kiin Kiin, creativity takes over all the other rating criteria. There are many dishes that will surprise you. Amongst the appetizers, an edible bag full of cashews was amazingly interesting. It looks like a transparent little bag. You hesitate to eat it at first but it actually is edible. Another innovative presentation with the appetizers was chiang mai sausage which traps a very specific smell in the plate. It’s the smell from the streets of Bangkok. I don’t know whether you are really able to smell it or not, but the display and explanation were really gripping for me.

Main dishes also offer different experiences. You drink a tom yam soup based on lobster & galangal with prawn bread and tofu noodles. However, you inject the tofu with a syringe into the soup yourself. The salad with poached cod containing cotton candy was also an incredible idea. Cotton candy melts as the staff pours the sauce on it.

Your final destination is spectacular as well. You need to work your way to find out your petit fours. They bring you different bowls full of chili peppers and cinnamon. Your chocolate looks exactly like cinnamon and chili peppers, so you need to find out the real piece of chocolate from the bowl. The cinnamon was pretty easy to find, unlike the chili pepper.

Service

Everyone was quite helpful, friendly and energetic. Even though the restaurant was full, they somehow arranged to change our table from the bottom floor to the ground floor upon our request. I just didn’t like the fact that some of the food spilled in front of me while they were serving the food. Those pieces and spots were left on the table all the time. I would prefer eating at a cleaner table. Yet, the staff was well-trained and smiling all the time.

After your degustation experience at Kiin Kiin, they are sending you an email to evaluate the restaurant. It is very important that the management is receiving feedback from the guests. This indicates that they are taking what they are doing seriously and looking forward to improving their weakest muscles.

I have made the reservation from the website’s online booking service. You do not have to pay any deposits in advance for the reservation.

You can check out the menu on the website. However, they didn’t give us the printed menu when we were dining or leaving. I would love to keep the menu as a souvenir from this experience.

instagram: restaurant_kiinkiin

Value

The price of the degustation menu is DKK 975, which is approximately EUR 130 as of March 2017. Price per dish is approximately EUR 10.

Our waitress has directed us well and advised us to choose a sweet wine to pair with the courses. Thai food is chili and spicy so it was a wise choice to make. We had a 2012 Alsace Grand Cru from Alsace region.

There is a broad selection of wines, mostly focused on Riesling from Alsace, Germany and Austria.