kini kini — Restaurant in Copenhagen Municipality

I’ll start with the positive aspects: the ice cream was good, the tuna tasted fresh, and the chicken skewers were acceptable. But the remainder... Simply disgusting. I struggle to find another word to summarize descriptions such as greasy, fatty, and excessively sugary. My boyfriend and I opted for the non-vegetarian menu. It commenced with rice chips meant for dipping in mayo. Next, we were served scallops, presented quite nicely, yet so overcooked that they seemed like an attempt to mask their fishy smell and taste, which still lingered. Then came a peculiar dish, essentially mango with pomegranate seeds on lettuce, drenched in a disgustingly sweet sauce. The first issue with this starter is its difficulty to eat without spilling its contents, compounded by the lack of a knife provided. The second issue is the unnecessary sweetness, which detracts from the natural sweetness and freshness of the mango. Moving on, we had the chicken and tuna tartare, which were passable but poorly presented. The chicken was greasy, and the tuna, once again, was accompanied by a mayo sauce and a variation of rice chips on top. Now, onto the main course - grilled ribs with a side of rice and pickled cucumber. One could purchase marinated ribs from Netto, grill them at home, and it would be ten times better than whatever was served at Kini Kini. The meat was mushy and had membranes on both sides, making it difficult to eat. Once more, it was excessively greasy and sweet. Overall, an extremely unsatisfactory dinner priced at 880 DKK. The service was slow and inattentive, with the waitstaff seeming disoriented. I am genuinely surprised that anyone enjoys this place. Perhaps if the menu were priced at 200 kroner, I wouldn’t complain, but considering the cost, there are numerous restaurants in Copenhagen offering far...

As an Indonesian living in Denmark, I welcome the addition of long-awaited Indonesian restaurant in Copenhagen, however I could only give 3 stars to my last visit.

We ordered calamari for appetizer, seafood laksa and the soft-shell crab for main course as my eating partner and I were going to share the dishes (as we mostly do in Indonesia).

The menu card features the Indonesian name of the dishes so we naturally ordered the dishes as they were called (and pronounced in Indonesia), however the (local?) waiter was apparently not knowing how these dishes were actually pronounced. When we ordered cumi (pronounced coo-mee), he thought we were going ordering fried noodles (mee), and that we finally corrected him for that, he said "OH you meant KOO-MEE". Ha.

We already stressed that we were going to share the dishes and we ordered one appetizer only. But the infamous cumi came out in two plates as he thought we were ordering one each. The seafood laksa and the soft-shell crab finally also made an appearance. While they were good, I couldn't really say whether they had authentic flavours. The laksa was too salty (the waitress simply said that Danes have different tastebuds than us, ha!)

One thing missing from the whole thing was the sambal condiment. How could you call yourself Indonesian restaurant without providing sambal for your dishes? I know the whole "posh" concept with the Kiin Kiin chain, but please, I'd rather have authentic Indonesian than posh Indonesian that is far from one, but that's my two cent.

Three stars for the food, two stars for...

Inasmuch as I would like to write a glowing review of this restaurant, I'm afraid I may have expected too much of this presumably the only Indonesian restaurant in Copenhagen (and perhaps in Denmark?). The execution falls short.

Pros: Lovely interior design. The hanging bamboo handcrafts remind me of my childhood, roosters, and pastoral landscape. The Thai waiter did his best to welcome guests.

Cons: The so-called Balinese Feast tasting menu that we ordered had barely anything Balinese about it. Where's the sate lilit? Where's the bebek Bali? Where's the roasted suckling piglet? Where even in Thor's name is the sambal matah? NONE OF THIS WAS PRESENTED. Instead, we got something woku-woku chicken as a main course (Isn't that from Manado?). The deep-fried siomay? Is that even Indonesian? That's more like Chinese. I mean, we do have siomay sold by abang-abang, but c'm on! The only Indonesian restaurant in Denmark should know way better than this.

OK, so instead of the well-known Balinese sate lilit, we got sate jantung bebek (duck heart skewer). I wish I could say anything more encouraging, but.... it's a no from me.

The laksa? Hmmm... I'm kinda divided here. The broth was nice, topping was decent, but it lacks taste and the tanginess so typical of laksa.

On a brighter note, the corn fritter (bakwan jagung) was perfect! Exactly like how my mom made it. Also, the dessert was not too bad.

When I stumbled upon this restaurant the web, I really wished it would be my home away from home, but...... I think I'll just cook my own...