Top Chef Restaurant Experience - Kin Shop

Blogger Michael of Foodie Finders NYC shares with us his experience at Top Chef Season 1 champ Harold Dieterle's second restaurant, Kin Shop. Find more of Michael's musings on his blog and on the Foodie Finders page on Facebook.

Kin Shop
469 6th Avenue New York, NY 10011
(Lunch)

Chef Harold Deiterle really knows how to make amazing Thai food. At Kin Shop the food is full of bold flavors and some dishes has heat that can truly pack a punch. My favorite appetizer was the Spicy Duck Laab Salad. On the menu it shows how hot the dishes are and this dish was the spiciest. To me, the spice in this dish was not overwhelming at all. The initial bite had a lot of heat but rather than the heat lingering, the heat almost completely disappeared in less than a minute. To me this is the perfect amount of heat to a dish. My next favorite appetizer was the Garam Masala & Tomato Soup. This soup was a very close second to the Spicy Duck Laab Salad. The taste was very bold and unique. Another dish that was delicious was the Fried Pork & Crispy Oyster Salad. It had peanuts, celery and a mint and chili-lime vinaigrette. I liked all the flavors as well as the texture the oyster and pork gave to the dish. For the entrees my favorite dish was the Stir Fried Wide Wonton Noodles. There was also chicken sausage inside which was delicious. All the flavors worked really well together. Another dish that I liked a lot was the Fresh Egg Noodle & Maitake Mushroom Broth. I loved the poached duck egg on top with the noodles and mushrooms. I also tremendously enjoyed the Crispy Roti (Roti - South Asian unleavened bread). It came with three different condiments which were a Chili Jam, Coriander Nam Prik, and Plum Chutney. Moving on to desserts, the menu was very small but very delicious. Kin Shop only serves ice cream, sorbet, and a root beer float. The root beer float was incredible. It had Galangal Ice Cream, which is similar to ginger. On the side there are ginger snap cookies. These ginger snap cookies were unbelievably amazing. Besides the root beer float I also tried Thai Coffee-Chocolate Ice Cream, Calamansi Sorbet, and Lychee sorbet. They were all good and my favorite out of the three would be the Calamansi Sorbet which is a citrus fruit that taste like a cross between a lime and an orange. Overall Kin Shop was very good and is definitely a place I plan on returning to.

Posted on AllTopChef.com