Kin Kao - Commercial Dr — Restaurant in Vancouver

*Warning to readers that the owner or manager who responds to negative reviews seems to be copy and pasting the same response for everyone. I've done a quick scan on many of the accounts that left negative reviews and majority of them seem like legitimate people who've left positive reviews at other restaurants. Who knows, maybe it was an off day for restaurant.

Anyways....

Saw a bunch of photo's on Instagram and decided to go here tonight. Unfortunately I will never go back after today. I honestly feel robbed, almost cat fished but with food.

I wanted to like it but I would have to agree with some of the negative comments here. It really felt like a fast food restaurant serving cold and expensive food. When I was done my meal, I had wish I gone to Down Low Chicken next door

Things I ordered:

Papaya Salad - Wasn't awful but all I could taste was fish sauce. It really lacked the sweetness I was hoping for but the saltiness was over powering

Chicken Wings - Not too sure if it was their supplier but their chicken wings were all bones with little to no meat. And the little meat that it did have, it was dry. We were advised there would be 5 wings and they gave 6 or 7. It almost seemed like they knew It would be an issue but never addressed this. The dish was also cold. The only thing good about the wings we're the sauce

North Eastern Style Steak - the steak was probably the biggest disappointment of the night. It was as cold as the papaya salad. It was also dry and tough to chew. When I look at what I got compared to the photo's others have posted, they definitely seemed to have overcooked it. If I was being honest, it tasted like a day old steak that came out of the fridge.

Red Curry Duck - The duck had a weird taste to it, almost as if had been stored incorrectly. Nothing special about the curry itself but we couldn't finish it. Keep in mind, I'm a huge carnivore and it's very rare that I won't finish my proteins.

Service:

It wasn't horrible yet it wasn't great but for the price that you're paying, I would definitely expect better. I was sitting at the bar with my girlfriend and there was nowhere to store our belongings (jacket or bag) and we ended up throwing it on top of the bar. If there was a place to put it, we we're not advised. Servers seemed more focused on the take out orders rather than the people sitting inside...

What we ordered: Red curry with duck Papaya salad Tom yum soup (small) Crispy pork Pad thai Thai milk tea

TLDR: Don't take reservations. Walk in only. Saturday night had to wait about an hour to be seated. Very small space, food is good but not so good that we would wait an hour again on a weekend. Would go again if no wait, prices are reasonable, and more reasonable than their sister restaurant, Song. Friendly service but didn't check on us and had to ask for water refill. Tip on machine starts at 18%. Auto 20% gratuity on group of 6+.

We got a gift card from a friend and thought we would try it this weekend. Little did we know that the gift card was actually for their sister restaurant song by kin kao and they did not accept the gift card at this location on commercial drive. You have to go inside to speak with someone for them to write your name down. They told us initially a 30 minute. Wait so we decided to walk around. Shall drive and come back after half an hour? I walked back inside to check on our place in line and the server now told us it was another 30min. So we waited, it was not an additional 30 minutes probably another 10 or 15, so in total, we waited about 45ish minutes on a Saturday evening around 730pm.

Atmosphere/ambiance 3.7/5 Food & drinks 4/5 Service 3.9/5

Food overall was tasty. It hits the spot if you're craving Thai food. The papaya salad was your regular papaya. Salad, nothing reinvented here if anything I wished that there were a bit more green beans and that the dressing had a bit spice to it, a bit one dimensional. I'd say order if you want that sour freshness, but I've definitely had much better. The tom yum soup was fully loaded for that small bowl. Contained 3 shrimps and a lot of mushrooms, fresh lemongrass and lime leaf. The Star tonight was probably the crispy pork. Perfectly fried, and that sauce was spectacular. The pad Thai was a bit too sweet. The tamarind sauce overpowered everything else. Red curry was also on the sweeter side, but I believe if you were to ask for it to be at least medium spicy, then it would have more than just the sweet taste. Thai ice tea was nice and milky quite thick, but a lot of ice. A bit steep at 7$.

Overall service is friendly but They never checked in on us and did not come by to fill our water. Maybe because it was quite busy at resto itself was a bit cramped at around 32 seats in the...

There are two restaurants. Kin Kao Song on Commercial Drive is the test kitchen and seating is first-come-first-serve. Song on Broadway is the one that requires reservations. I had initially made a mistake by making the reservation at Song (which I thought was Kin Kao). After checking the menu one day prior to the actual meal, I realized that Song did not have some of the menu items I had intended to try. Fortunately, I was able to cancel my reservation in time. We were the first to arrive at Kin Kao on Commercial drive – just to make sure we can get a table. Since I have garlic allergies, there were only specific items we can order. We were able to request no garlic for the Green Papaya Salad. The Chicken Satay does not have garlic in the ingredients. We really wanted fish instead of beef, so, we selected Grilled Fish even though it was marinated with garlic. For carbs, we ordered sticky rice. The Green Papaya was very aggressive. I had a hard time finishing this dish as the dressing was so strong. I did not enjoy the 'fight'. The chicken satay was very tender. We both liked the texture of the grilled fish and did not detect the garlic. Emboldened by that, I ordered a small portion of chicken wings as I was really craving it plus I am not a chicken breast person. That was a mistake. Although the flavour of the chicken wings was interesting, I liked the crispiness and the fact that it was not flour-dipped, the garlic left a disgustingly strong taste in my mouth that I had to live with all night. Although I cold have used some chocolate ice cream to remove the flavour, I did not trust my body to be able to endure the garlic, so we rushed home without stopping for chocolate ice cream. We really enjoyed the sticky rice though. Overall, this place has a more interesting menu than most of the Thai place we've been to. The execution was more creative and fusion. Next time though, I will be sure to selecting items that we not...