Parking is a slight issue. Unless you\u2019ve booked, you\u2019ll want to arrive before rush hour, but there\u2019s a clearway along the eastern side of the street until 7pm, forcing you (me) to do a series of ungainly three-point turns to try and find a space. <\/p>\n
No gap stays open for more than 30 seconds and I was eventually forced to skulk into a space at Woolworths, wondering how strictly – and how, exactly – they enforce their customer-only policy. <\/p>\n
Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
We hadn\u2019t booked (honestly, when was the last time you had to book for a restaurant? At 4.1% inflation, there is always room) and were surprised to find the place entirely full, with a waiting list at 6.45pm. <\/p>\n
Promised that we could be seated in about 20 minutes, we asked to sit at the bar, which caused some confusion and commotion as a waitress with probably 100 more urgent things to do was forced to open up the storage room and find a couple of spare stools. <\/p>\n
We were embarrassed and very grateful and didn\u2019t complain when the stools turned out to be too short, meaning as we sat down with our drinks the bar sat around the same height as our chins. <\/p>\n
Kiin has moved to a new location on Dominion Rd. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
Kiin has taken on the flat screens left behind by previous tenant the Bridgman, which is not an atmosphere strategy I\u2019d recommend to any restaurant, and yet somehow it works. <\/p>\n
The screens show non-stop footage of Thai food television, so rather than subtracting from the mood they\u2019re trying to create, they add to it. The other appliances we were very grateful for were the floor heaters – small and presumably inexpensive purchases that did more than enough to warm up a mostly airtight room in July. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care, it\u2019s warm,\u201d Victoria kept saying to me as I apologised for not reserving a table, and between people watching and a glorious Behemoth IPA, the time passed relatively quickly. <\/p>\n
The chicken larb on the menu at Thai restaurant Kiin on Dominion Rd. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
The menu is very appealing, with photos to help you make your final choices. It\u2019s been ages since I enjoyed a good sour-spicy Tom Yum and this one was a beauty, with your choice of meat to turn it from a soup into more of a meal. Victoria and I shared it and it took some time to devour. By the time we had finished it I was feeling pretty replete and began worrying I\u2019d over-ordered. <\/p>\n
Chicken larb was next, quite different from the version I\u2019m used to, with the chicken minced quite coarsely, with plenty of moisture and no sign of the sour flavours that are crucial to the tension of this dish. It may have been a regional variation but for me it didn\u2019t quite hit the spot. <\/p>\n
Kiin’s lamb shank massaman curry. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
But a lamb shank massaman curry was a showstopper – those beautiful deep spices in a generous gravy, with the meat forming a centrepiece in the middle of the dish. <\/p>\n
It had been simmered rather than roasted so missed a bit of that Maillard-heavy flavour, but the slow cooking had really got the best out of the hard-working leg muscle, breaking down the connective tissue so that everything fell apart to the touch. <\/p>\n
The gravy was definitely on the soupier side, and the collagen content was confirmed the next morning when the leftovers had coagulated into the shape of the takeaway container. <\/p>\n
We\u2019d ordered some sticky rice, that wonderfully indulgent Thai side dish, which arrived wrapped in banana leaf and tucked into a little woven bamboo basket. <\/p>\n
Finally came a stir-fry that was, by then, surplus to our needs – it had huge garlic flavours and some Thai basil which took it out of the realm of something you\u2019d get at a Chinese takeaway. This went down very well for lunch the next day too. <\/p>\n
Uncharacteristically conservative, we\u2019d ordered all our dishes \u201cmedium\u201d and were glad we hadn\u2019t gone any hotter. Please, don\u2019t try to be a hero. <\/p>\n
Just a couple of these dishes would have been enough for two hungry people, which represents exceptionally good value (we ordered four, plus rice, plus two drinks and it came to barely $130). I\u2019m sure that\u2019s part of the reason the place was packed. <\/p>\n
But being inexpensive is only part of the equation; the food has to be wonderful too, and at Kiin it really is.<\/p>\n
Thai coconut ice cream. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
Address: 234 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden <\/p>\n
Contact: 09 600 2166, kiin.nz, @kiinthai<\/p>\n
Reservations: Recommended <\/p>\n
Hours: Daily 11.30am\u20139.30pm <\/p>\n
From the menu: pork tom yum $24.90, chicken larb $25.50, lamb shank massaman curry $31.50, stir-fried chicken with Thai basil $24.90, sticky rice $4.50 <\/p>\n
Score: 0-7 Steer clear. 8-12 Disappointing, give it a miss. 13-15 Good, give it a go. 16-18 Great, plan a visit. 19-20 Outstanding, don\u2019t delay.<\/p>\n
According to Dining Out editor Jesse Mulligan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This local favourite has moved to a new location and the crowds have followed. I am brilliantly excited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5195,138,26636,17751,21534,22397,60044,564,305,2537,269748,11113,440,39084,32033,2538,111,139,69,90,2642,763,6100,25067,223,1961,701,540,15411],"class_list":["post-549256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-be","tag-business","tag-crowds","tag-dominion","tag-enjoying","tag-favourite","tag-followed","tag-food","tag-have","tag-jesse","tag-kiin","tag-kitchen","tag-local","tag-location","tag-moved","tag-mulligan","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-rd","tag-reviews","tag-still","tag-thai","tag-the","tag-this","tag-tomorrow","tag-where","tag-youll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}