A quick early dinner at Kin Khao. During the pandemic, we had takeout/delivery from here, but had never actually eaten in the restaurant and this was/is the only Michelin-starred restaurant in SF at which we had not dined actually in the restaurant (including the latest guide just published). It is the older, but little sister to Nari in Japantown. Semi-controversially, Kin Khao kept it’s star through the pandemic although it wasn’t open last year and it’s bigger sister Nari only received a Bib Gourmand rating.

The restaurant is in the Parc 55 hotel near Union Square. The restaurant’s decor is pretty basic and definitely geared to a more basic experience than at Nari. We were 10-15 minutes late (I did call to let them know) for our 5:30 reservation and were told that we would only have the table until 7:00pm. It was a little off putting to hear that and at most restaurants at which we’ve eaten, that wouldn’t be doable, but here it was enough time for 4 courses.

Cocktails were interesting and not watered down (i.e. the booze) like so many/most places. For our first course, we went with the server’s recommendations Mushroom Hor Mok and the Yum Polami. The Hor Mok is a a vegetarian dish with musroom curry and rice cakes. It was very flavorful and I didn’t miss meat/seafood at all. The Yum Polamai was a fruit dish, but with a great balance and representation of all of the flavors.

Second course, we went with just the Plah Pla Muek which was a grilled squid dish. Also very flavorful and this was Andrea’s favorite dish.

For our third course (and we weren’t even hungry at this point), we had the Khun Yai’s Rabbit Green Curry. It was the best rabbit I had all year (yes, it was probably the only rabbit I had all year…lame joke). it was a huge portion, half a rabbit. This was also quite good. The curry was very tasty. The rabbit was quite salty (I’m assuming brined?), but I like it that way. Those looking for a low salt meal, will probably want to go elsewhere.

We were full and couldn’t finish the rabbit, but we were going to try dessert anyway even if we knew we weren’t going to be able to finish it. The server recommended the panna cotta, but I picked the black rice pudding for us based on the description. of ingredients. It was different, but really only just ok (generally very mushy in texture save for the crispy rice which helped a bit).

Service was very prompt. We were done before 7:00pm (i.e. less than 75 mnutes). Food and drinks were both very tasty. For a casual dining experience, it was great. We’d probably opt for Nari though over dining here, but we were very glad we came.