Song (by Kin Kao) — Restaurant in Vancouver

We went here on a Saturday night for a friend’s Birthday dinner, and let me tell you…it is literally so hard to find a good Thai restaurant in this city.

HOWEVER, I highly recommend you try Kin Kao Song if you have never been.

Please note they have two different locations; Kin Kao Song (E Broadway & Kingsway) & Kin Kao Commercial Drive. Both locations have different menus!

Every dish we had was packed with flavours and spices. The presentation was so aesthetically pleasing, and the service was great. Here is what we ordered (starting from my personal favourite at the top);

OYSTERS: 2 Oysters | $10.00 Fresh oysters from Fanny Bay with their house spicy nam jim seafood sauce, thai chili paste, crispy shallot and micro greens. Definitely one of the best oysters I’ve had.

CEVICHE SPOT PRAWNS: 1/2 Lbs | $32.00 Raw fresh spot prawns with their house spicy Namjim seafood sauce. So refreshing with a nice cilantro flavour to the sauce. Heads are removed and deep-fried.

CHILLI GARLIC SPOT PRAWNS: 1/2 Lbs | $35.00 Beware, this is 🌶🥵🔥! But wow, delicious. Deep fried fresh spot prawns stir fried in their SPICY chilli garlic sauce. We ordered rice on the side with this, and I highly recommend the same. The rice compliments the chilli garlic sauce very well and the prawns were cooked to perfection.

HOT & SOUR LINGCOD SOUP: $36.00 Note this is not the same as Tom Yum soup. A SPICY fragrant dashi based soup with fried Lingcod and young tamarind leaves. Serves 3-4. We recommend having this with jasmine rice. The lingcod was cooked well. The soup was a bit on the sour side, but good none the less.

NORTHERN THAI LAAB PORK: $29.00 Stir fried ground pork, pork belly tossed in our house laab spice served with fresh vegetables, herbs and a side of tomato salsa. They recommend having this with jasmine rice, which I agree. We were warned that this is spicy, however we didn’t think it was. Or, maybe my mouth was just numb from the chilli garlic prawns lol.

PAD THAI: $25.00 We stuck with the classic pad Thai. I think this was a bit sweet for me and nothing outstanding to note.

POMELO SALAD: $22.00 Pomelo topped with crispy shallots, shredded coconut. I think I didn’t like the fresh lemongrass. Furthermore, pomelo can be a bit bitter. I think my preference is just papaya salad.

We were way too stuffed and would have liked to try some of their desserts but unfortunately we were in a coma from the appies & mains.

And obvi, we got their Thai iced tea which is a must.

Again, as mentioned they have two locations and each location has as different menu. I would definitely want to try their Commercial Drive location as I saw that they have fried Talapia, drunken noodles and Tom yum there.

PARKING: Not gunna lie, parking was a bit...

Don’t judge a SONG by its cover?

Before stepping in and trying out this place, I read up a few reviews. Honestly, it was somewhat giving me a bad vibe on how the way and words being used by the owner in responding to customer feedbacks, a sense of arrogance or maybe a bit too defensive? Or maybe I give it a try myself to be fair?

This place is located on East Broadway, across from Kingsgate mall. The outside can be misleading because the inside offers that trendy modern contemporary atmosphere with a casual vibe. There is a decent amount of pay street parking available.

Greeted by the hostess and got myself comfortably seated (another small table..). Scanned through the menu and here were the food I ordered;

Thai green tea & bottle of coke. Nice rich and refreshing green tea. Love it when coke is in a glass bottle, they always taste better in a glass bottle! Pomelo salad with toasted coconut & cashew nuts. Nice little blend of flavour and texture, glad the pomelo was sweet and juicy. Tom yum prawn soup. It was served in a Thai hot pot. The soup was steaming hot, very rich and tasty in flavours. I always like a good soup! Mussels with fresh pineapple in curry sauce. The mussels were very fresh, big and plump. The sauce accompanied it was nicely balanced and tasty enough to eat a bowl of rice with. Live spot prawns stir fried with chili garlics. The stomachs in the heads were removed (nice!) the body and head were so well prepared; whiskers trimmed, heads separated from shells. The prawns were nicely stir fried and all the ingredients were in harmony with each other. Literally I can eat 2 bowls of rice with this dish. Loved it! Crab fried rice. There were a generous amount of crab meats, however I find it a bit on the drier side. It’s good they used day old rice to make the fried rice; it’s easier to wok the rice without them clustering together or is that just a kitchen myth? Making it short and simple, freshly cooked rice is just as good in making fried rice as overnight rice, it just depends on the wok’ing skills and experiences. I know all the home cooks are probably saying, “NooOooOo…….” lol chill it! I know what I am talking about =) Watermelon granita dessert. Surprisingly, it was not bad, quite refreshing after a meal. Looks can be deceiving.

Overall, this is a cozy little place to share some laughters and decent fusion food with a few friends. Simply put it; come in and relax to the casual atmosphere, enjoy some good food and drinks, and the friendly staffs will take care of you. To be honest, before I stepped into this place, I was thinking on how bad the service or food was going to be according to some of the reviews, but it proved to me the complete opposite; never judge a SONG...

First, the food is good- wonderful flavours and for the most part, a nice change of pace from your average Thai establishment. We started with the Pomelo salad, shrimp toast and lemongrass chicken and a round of Thai iced teas. All were unique and nicely flavoured.

A couple of noted observations- while quality is really good, servings are a little sparse for the price point or lacked value. Thai price of the iced tea seemed to be eye popping, however all non alcoholic drinks were overpriced. We opted out of the Tom Yum as we looked across our table, and while nicely presented, each person had about half a bowl- might be a bit of a novelty to spend $50 and might be worth getting gouged just the once.

The kicker for us was the service. While our staff was attentive, we brought to attention that there was a long strand of hair in our Pad Thai- we opted to add on the jumbo prawns. The server apologized and said they were going to take it off the bill. We were fine with this, however the server came back and let us know that this is highly unusual and that nobody in the kitchen staff has long black hair. While it was not super alarming, I did feel that she was insinuating that the hair was from my partner but did not want to over-read the situation. She also noted that the dish was basically finished and said she would not be bringing a replacement order. Again, we didn’t think much of this comment at the time. On our way out, we did use the bathroom and on the way back, we were able to look in the kitchen as the kitchen had an open concept- and we couldn’t help notice that there was kitchen staff that had long black hair. Now, we are not saying that the hair was from this kitchen staff but certainly disappointed that the restaurant could have put this to rest by taking some ownership and responsibility over the incident. It’s at this point, we asked to talk to the supervisor to explain the situation. Again, we wanted to make it clear that we’re not suggesting the hair was from their staff as we were more upset that it appeared more now the staff was pointing the finger back at us. We also indicated that the dish was not indeed complete as the server cleared the remaining portion along with our plates with uneaten portions remaining. It would have been nice to have been offered the choice to decide on another dish or a replacement. Instead, it was just the bill and we weren’t offered any options for dessert. We just felt there were so many ways to make this situation more right and ultimately, they decided to hit the...