It’s also absolutely fantastic to get some feedback about what’s interesting for you to hear as the reader. Very valuable to me! I have considered this in my new soon to be published Pierre Gagnaire review.

JC, thank you for your elaborations!

Neil

About atmosphere…I’m from Los Angeles, where it is rare to find a restaurant that isn’t so noisy that conversation can be difficult. Kiin Kiin was definitely very relaxed, but the noise level was still low compared to what I’m used to. noma felt just a bit more formal, but a little quieter (we were there for lunch, so the room wasn’t quite full). The service was also more formal, more polished and precise, but always warm and friendly, and never intimidating. Kiin Kiin, service-wise, was almost like being invited into someone’s home (I mean that in a good way), not quite as effortlessly professional as noma. Honestly, I have nothing to complain about with either place.

Looking forward to hearing about your trip to Noma. One thing I would appreciate to hear more of in reports of visits to all these great restaurants is some comment on the atmosphere. For example, Kiin was very relaxed, lots of talking and people enjoying themselves. MR was almost hushed – a very different feel to the place. I’d be interested to hear how Noma was in your opinion.

Neil

BTW, noma was even better – best meal of my life so far. More later…

Really, Thanks!
Trine

PS. I’ll write my thoughts too, soon.

Firstly, I really did not have a mental picture of what to expect from this restaurant. Thai is one of my very favourite cuisines but I was intrigued to know how Kiin Kiin would make it fit into a formula that The Guide would recognise. I needn’t have worried!

From the wonderful decor of the downstairs lounge where we enjoyed champagne (rose), snacks (the lotus root chips were a stunning surprise) and the amuse and where we first met Henrik and started to get a glimpse of the passion that is going into this place until we left several hours later, nothing let us down (well, maybe the foie gras but more of that later).

I do understand JCs comments regarding the amuse. Certainly spring rolls are rarely special but the cucumber and chilli jelly absolutely made the fish cakes and the satay was rich and satisfying. It certainly got our curiosity awakened as to what we would find when we got upstairs!

The first ‘course’ of dimsum, soup and prawns was a very neat trick to get us engaged with the food. With no utensils on the table apart from silver chopsticks for the dimsum, we were encouraged to drink the soup straight from the bowl and use fingers for the prawn. The dishes complimented each other wonderfully, mainly because of the contrast in textures – soft dimsum, crunchy prawns with their shells and the fiery liquid of the soup.

By now we had met Henrik and JC is right – he loves to talk about his vision for this restaurant. And we loved to talk to him, too. So that was ok! But I do hope he can recognise when people want to talk and when they don’t!

Stand out dishes in subsequent courses were the red curry, served in an Ole Hvidt coffee cup with a lychee(?) foam on top making it appear as a cappucino; Thai salad with octopus except the traditional coriander had been replaced with watercress for the Nordic twist. We also enjoyed the salt / sweet contrast of the guinea fowl and Tom Ka dishes.

JC – the asparagus dish was all about the pork! It was heavily smoked pork which had been flash fried and was delicious with the asparagus and the quail’s egg.

I greedily ordered the roasted foie gras as an extra course. And I have to say I did not understand it at all. Served in a relatively large bowl, the foie gras was covered by what I can only describe as a ‘pudding’ of very sweet tamarind concoction. Nothing wrong with it at all but it was far too sweet for me and the foie gras was ‘lost’. I’d be very interested to hear JC’s opinion on it. Trine, did you try it?

Perhaps you will have picked up by now that all the dishes took Thai cusine and added a Nordic twist and I thought it was done with great imagination, whilst respecting the original Thai and it was also done with great humour.

This also extended to the decor – lots of Thai furniture and decoration, but also lots of Nordic classics such as the Ole Hvidt I mentioned before. I thought it worked well but K. wasn’t so sure. And when a serving arrived at the table in Royal Copenhagen porcelain, I had to agree with her that this was too much – until Henrik explained the joke to us that Royal Copenhagen have now ‘offshored’ all their production to Thailand, he is simply bringing it back along with some local food to go with it. This was one of several little touches that we made us laugh – the iced deserts were served on a frozen cobblestone – we were a cobblestone’s throw from the ungdomshus riots!

Has anybody worked out what was on the final spoons that crackled and exploded in the mouth just like the ‘spacedust’ sweets we had when we were kids?!

I thought all the wines were excellent (I had the red, JC!). Given that Henrik was a sommelier, so they should be. I’d have to say that they are not of the same quality as, say, MR where we dined recently but they were poured very generously and, given the price, they were excellent value.

Henrik claims they never went looking for the Star. And I’m inclined to believe him because he has got away with a couple of things that I’s sure he wouldn’t have tried if he had been waiting for The Guide to show up. For instance, the stemless glasses (Riedel before anybody gets too sniffy about it!).

Service was excellent but also very relaxed giving the restaurant a very informal feel. People were enjoying themselves – no whispering here! The only thing I would change about the service would be the way that wine is brought to the table. I like to see the bottle, watch it being poured and perhaps ask a question or two sometimes. I felt that having glasses that had already been poured being brought to the table took something away from the experience. I’m sure Henrik has his reasons for it – he has so obviously put a lot of thought into every detail – but I didn’t ask.

So, keywords for me – passion, fun, quality.

A truly memorable evening – although the generous wine pourings mean my memory of the deserts is hazy! We’ll be back for sure.

Neil

Am very excited about hearing in details what you thought of Kiin Kiin!

Something funny happened as we left. I was standing talking to Henrik whilst I was reading the guestbook. The last entry was written by you so I said, ‘Oh, I see Trine has just been here. do you know her?’. To which Henrik replied, ‘Oh, do you mean the Noma girl?’. So that is how you are known within the Cph. good food circle!

I’ll report back as soon as possible….

Neil

JC, thank you so much for your Kiin Kiin feedback! No need to apologize. Kiin Kiin IS amazing. When I have time I will surely review my experience.

Can’t wait for tonight now! Will report back!

Neil

The beginning street food-type snacks were inconsistent, or perhaps some things just are not to my taste (Chef Henrik gave explanations as to why certain items are the way they are, and I can´t fault him for those reasons, but they still are not to my taste – specific examples being the salty cashews and the chewy fishcake). Everything else ranged from very good to incredible. The best dishes were the asparagus and quail´s egg (I think there was pork in there too but my memory is fuzzy and I don´t have my notes with me ATM), foie gras, and fjordshrimp with garlic dust (don´t inhale when you eat them!). Also, for the final dish, go with the white wine – the red tasted very watery to me. Aside from that, I very much enjoyed all of the wines, very thoughtfully paired.

We arrived at 6:30, a full 30 minutes before our reservation time, but they seated us anyway. They even gave us someone else´s table next to the window because we were taking photos. Henrik chatted with us a LOT the entire evening, telling us about “the business” and his inispiration for the restaurant, and all sorts of other things. We didn´t make it out of there until…2am! That´s right, 7.5 hours! And not once did they do anything make us feel like we should leave. We even had to ask for the check. Oh, and when my dessert melted because I was too busy chatting away, Henrik brought me a new one. This is service above and beyond anything I´ve ever encountered. All of that adds up to one incredible experience. I may have had better individual courses at other restaurants, and perhaps tasting menus that were more consistent, but taking everything into account, I would probably put my night at Kiin Kiin in my top 3 restaurant experiences.

Of course, my dining companion was the best part.

Next week: let´s see how noma compares…

(Sorry Trine, as usual my short writings are not very short. Undskyld!)

I figured it would be something like that, but for some reason all I could think of was noma – and I couldn’t get that to fit. I need to focus!

Ah, Neil, where could we possibly read about your (coming) experience?

Ooops, sorry, that was me, falling off my chair. Wow! Geez! Awesome! It looks amazingly fantastic! Your pictures are wonderful Trine – that vegetable field is to die for!

*rips out hair for not having gone through her education soon enough to be able to eat at noma ALL the time…*

Neil

213:55:17…

I know what you mean about the evening light, Yin. Had a fabulous evening last night. The perfect final of a beautiful Copenhagen spring day.