It was not a perfect experience, but the Regulars who are also responsible for Pai around the corner, should be considered national treasures.
Firstly, I often joke that Pai should pay me royalty. I have been there so many times since opening and moreover have either taken friends or told friends to go who not only have kept dining there, but have taken their friends and so on.
Whereas Pai serves northern Thai street food Kiin ('eat' in Thai) is meant to offer food that the royal family eats in Thailand. Now the Thai government and politicians have no respect for the Thai royal family having ignored them, silenced them and most recently not even allowing the new king take the throne, but putting all of that aside Kiin serves good food apparently fit for a king in a faux-posh setting that is sure to end up on the huge wastes of time that is Instagram/Twitter/Pinterest/Whocares they will all join Facebook and Myspace as yesterday's news soon.
Back to Kiin and the lunch menu is limited. The full menu inclusive of their dyed dumplings is available for dinner. The lunch menu is comprised of three curry dishes, three rice dishes and a make-your-own noodle soup fare. The last one includes all sorts of noodles, different meats and soup base. I had the Khao Kha Moo, which despite its name is braised pork hock served on rice with greens and half an egg. The sour dipping sauce is tasty and different. Its orange colour is also a delight. I would order this again, but the five-spice pouring sauce should be used sparingly as it can overwhelm and dampen the meal if completely used. It was tasty and felt high quality. My friend had meat with flat noodles and Tum Yum and really enjoyed it. Good food to be found here for sure. The soup is served with condiments like sugar, chili peppers and Thai fish sauce.
Each meal is $14, which takes me to another point of praise for the Regulars. They are not coasting on their well-earned reputation to try to make money, make an excuse of the location, charge extra from a near-captive audience or simply forget what made them successful in the place and become greedy. It may be food fit for a king - and the royal family's portraits and photos are on the wall - but it is not expensively sold at Kiin. What's more, the lunch menu has no appetizers or desserts listed and the waiters did not try to sell alcohol, pop or whatever. I am not against appetizers or dessert and often order them, but again have to tip my hat to the owners who are more about their art, passion and customers than revenue, balance sheet and gross profit.
As for the setting, which I have already touched upon, it looks like one of those colonial estate houses one sees in movies set in India 150 years ago where the local Indian workers serve food to their colonial British masters. Imperialism aside, the colour scheme and decoration is the exact opposite of Pai. Whereas Pai is dark, cluttered and casual, Kiin is posh, decorated with a few fancy pieces and white tiles, white and pink ceiling and walls. The bar panel does have that wooden side though. The restaurant is clean, but of course it is new. With that said, there were several crumbs on the floor and on the cushion and a piece of food was caught between the leg of the adjacent table. Not good.
The only problem with the setting is the Motown soundtrack. When I dine at a Thai restaurant I prefer to hear Thai music and not The Supremes, unless the old king of Thailand was a big fan of Marvin Gaye.
The service was polite, but workmanlike. Just like at Pai or Sukhothai none of the waiters or waitresses like to smile, but the water refills kept coming and there was a quality check. It seems that their hiring criteria include having tattoos, which is fine I guess as long as that is not the job requirement in the kitchen. Hepatitis C is linked to tattoos. Speaking of which, theirs is an open kitchen and there are counter seats next to it.
Not only the Regulars serve good food at decent prices in interesting settings they have saved Toronto from all the Chinese/Indian/Filipino and yes Thai cooks who serve that crappy-sugary-ketchupy pad Thai at their inferior restaurants. read more