Kin Khao — Restaurant in San Francisco

This was my first experience at a Michelin star restaurant. I had certain expectations regarding service, flavor, ingredient quality and cohesiveness of the fixed menu, compared to other non-starred restaurants of a similar price point.

The service was great! We were seated promptly at our res time, and had drink/food orders taken pretty quickly. For the fixed menu, the pace of the food coming out was perfect. I appreciated the waiters coming around to check regularly and unobtrusively how we were doing with our meals. I gave some opinions with certain dishes when asked by the waitress, and she made a point to let me know after she passed it on to the kitchen.

The mixed drink i ordered was sweet, refreshing and tasty. Foodwise, i have mixed opinions.

1: great oysters. Sweet with excellent crunch from the fries shallots. The chili also provided an excellent contrast to the richness of the oyster

2a. Persimmon dish: amazing! The texture and sweetness reminds me of the juiciest scallop. The birds eye chili is very spicy, but good in small doses. It did clash with the flavor of the delicata squash (that was served at the same time as this dish)

2b: the squash is lovely and sweet. The mix of textures in this plate is phenomenal. The squash is soft and perfectly roasted, the toasted coconut and peanuts provide the perfect crunch.

Soup: the rockfish was a little tough. The soup base itself was a fish broth but the sourness overwhelmed the subtle flavors of the rest of the dish. I was grateful when the next course came (with sticky rice) because the rice with the soup toned down the flavors enough to be enjoyable. I did appreciate that the soup was not on the menu and was a "gift" for ordering the fixed menu.

3a. The braised pork belly: amazing quality of pork with no boar taint. The flavors were incredible and strong, paired perfectly with the sticky rice, and was rivaled only by my mom's pork belly dish. I do wish it was served in a slightly more shallow cast iron because it was difficult to get the sauce out without touching the sides of the dish which was very hot.

3b. The squid was delicious. I dont even typically like squid much, but either the freshness or prep had the texture be soft but not overly chewy. the broth and seasoning the squid was in tasted similar to the soup, a bit sour, but was toned down perfectly by the sweet richness of the garlic and herbs.

4a. Rabbit curry: the rabbit itself was my least favorite part of this dish. the curry was savory and rich, the apple eggplants were delightful and the meatballs had great flavor and texture. The rabbit in comparison was less flavorful and didn't stand up to the complexity and strength of the rest of the dish. You probably could have replaced it with most any sort of meat and had the same or better result.

4b. The green beans were the most disappointing part of this meal. The beans themselves were fibrous and stringy and tasted overcooked. They didnt have that crunch or flavor i love and associate with this type of dish and, unfortunately, I've consistently had much better versions at my local asian restaurants.

The rice pudding dessert was good! The freshness of the strawberry, the toasted rice and the rice pudding all complemented each other well. The outcome was an almost smoky, not overly sweet end to a good meal.

I love a fixed menu because it means someone who knows way more than me has put thought into the flavors of each dish and their flow through the course of a meal. In this case, the flavors of many of the dishes were strong but dishes seemed disconnected for the most part, and actively clashed in other parts of the meal. The portion sizes were large, especially for a fixed menu with so many dishes. The dishes themselves were hit/miss and i would not order the fixed menu again.

TL;DR: Kin khao had phenomenal service, good ambiance and a few superstars when it comes to flavor, but i was disappointed with the lack of cohesiveness of the dishes and the duds in the fixed menu. i would recommend ordering ala...

TL;DR: Not a good option for one person. Unwarranted one star rating for food. Food: salt bomb Service: comically bad Atmosphere: awkward and cold - literally

I was staying at the hotel so I was surprised to see a Michelin rated restaurant in the same vicinity. That being said I’m surprised they got a star...fat tire man you disappoint 😢

I thought the decor was plain but cute with the postcards. Washrooms are located in the hotel lobby so you’ll need ask for a hotel card.

I ate alone and was seated at a communal table. They probably should have just seated us at the bar. Or asked if if we wanted to wait for it? It was very awkward since we were all squeezed in. You had no where to look but your phone if you want to avoid eye contact. Also awkward when the other customers angrily pay their bill (somehow that one person racked up a bill worth for at least two people). I don’t think anyone was happy from their conversation. Mostly about the about the service. Like I said we were sitting close. Not a good start. For context I live in nyc so I know squashed seating but this seems like a poorly managed front of house issue.

The menu is family style so there are no options for one person. In hindsight I should have just gotten the 20$ stir fried noodle dish (the only true stand alone dish). I wanted to try something different since it had a 1 star rating so I asked for a recommendations. The squid dish and sticky rice side recommended by the waiter. I realized that was a weird combination once I got the food. The squid dish was just too salty. The sauce had fish sauce, lime, peanuts and cilantro, and sugar, but there was no balance and all you tasted was a salt bomb. That did not go well with the dry sticky rice since it’s a cold dish. It would make more sense to pair that with the curry dish. I also ordered chicken broth to help me eat it.

Halfway through my meal, I was asked to move seats since everybody else finished before me. That could have been avoided if I was just seated there in the first place? For context it wasn’t a particularly busy night either.

I also ordered black pudding dessert (recommended by a lot of the reviews) since I wanted to at least give it another chance, unfortunately the the bananas were underripe and you could tell even with all the coconut and black pudding/caramel sauce.

On two occasion I prompted for the cheque. I waited more than 15 minutes, so I just got up and asked for the cheque at the front. The waiter informed me that he comped me for the dessert. The other waiter commented how the service was bad that night. I guess I was unlucky and went...

Seriously, not sure how the 1 Michelin star is obtained from this place, but Google review one star is well deserved. The server at our table has a strong ego on what he thought of us and what he wanted us to order. He pushed us from the beginning about the menus. The 2nd time he came back , he already showed his annoying face with a fake smile for our hesitation of ordering. Seems we are not welcome to ask any questions. The set dinner was $95 each person, he said we could get everything form the set, but we doubted that very much, however he walked away fast and busy with other matters in the restaurant. Once he came back to ask us to order dishes, Only one friend wanted to order the set, then he said we couldn't do it, it had to be everyone agrees on ordering the sets. We don't mind the clarification and we would have made other choices after, but we were upset his manner. My friends at the end of the table couldn't to think of what to order when option is out, so they kept thinking without any suggestions or assistance from the server. In order not to take up his "treasurable life time", I asked for taking my order first, but then he just pretended he wasn't understanding and used his way to split up our billing system first before we proceeded to make order. Wow.. we were going to eat under his regime. What a manner! A father of family ordered Laab Kua and the server wrote Caramelized Pork Belly instead. So the father told him it was not his dish, but the server actually insisted that the father ordered Caramelized Pork Belly and not even willing to check again and apologize at all. The server did not like to listen to us when we have questions and he just answered us in his way of thinking... That's why I said he had so much ego in him. He came back for filling up the water with his fake smile continuously. He might think we were the dumbest customer for his day? We don't deserve that. My friends ordered wings and noodles both are overly salty, I know they are easy going people, they don't really complain about anything when it is not necessary. So they told the server, he just said "ok, I will tell the chef l." That's it & he left immediately. We finally got a superior staff and told her about the salty dishes and I think she offered a discount on their bill secretly, however the server at our table provided the discount on another bill at the end (the same table of another family)... So I'm not sure he's not liking us ? Or he's just not happy with his job. Anyhow, u likely I will recommend this place or I will strongly not recommend this...