Place of the week: KIN, pan-Asian street food on Leather Lane
4th December 2015
It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of my ‘place of the week’ blogs, but I’ve been waiting for somewhere really, really special to tell you about… and last week, I found just the place.
I love it when my mum comes down to London because it means we get to go out for lots of really good food… I like spending time with my mum too… but the food…mmmm. We were wandering around Clerkenwell last week, looking for somewhere for tea when we stumbled across ‘KIN’ on the very cool Leather Lane.
We’d never heard of this place before, but it looked cute from the outside and when we read the little menu sitting just beside the door and realised that KIN serve up pan-Asian street food, we were sold. Asian food is definitely my fave, and anybody who knows me, knows that I’m just a bit obsessed with Wagamamas (who could turn down a Katsu curry!?)… but I guess it’s kind of cheating to always go to the same place, especially now I’m living in London and there are so many quirky one-off spots to try. But I’m really glad I passed up the Wagamamas this time, KIN was incredible.
The restaurant is super simple and stylish but it still feels cosy and comfy and authentic. The vibe is chilled but fun and the staff are all really lovely and smiley. With uncomplicated metal and wood tables and chairs, beautiful original Victorian floorboards, simple white walls with sections of exposed brick and a pop of primary colours, it makes for a lovely place to relax for the evening.
We found it pretty tricky to decide what to order, literally everything sounded amazing. In the end we went for chicken satay to start, which came with the crunchiest, most flavoursome, most yummy peanut dipping sauce ever. We also went for a classic miso soup and a Tom Yum Gung soup, which is basically a spicy (extremelyyy spicy) and sour Thai style broth, with chilli, galangal, lemongrass, prawns, mushrooms & tomatoes. I’m not usually that good with spicy stuff, and trust me this was as spicy as it gets, but for some reason the spiciness just worked and I loved it. It was simple, but it was so good. Then for mains we had to go for the classic Pad Thai, one of our all time faves, and we also tried the chicken Panang Curry. I don’t even know what else to say apart from it was all amazing and so fresh and homemade tasting and you have to go and try!
Ok, I know I need to get better at remembering to take pictures of my food, (sorry!) but I was so hungry and everything just looked so good I couldn’t wait. But I don’t want to give the whole game away anyway, and I feel like my photos probably wouldn’t do this food any justice at all, so I guess you’ll just have to wait and see how good this stuff looks for yourselves.
KIN is super reasonably priced, starters are all about £3-£4 and mains about £8, drinks are pretty cheap for London too. I would highly recommend this place if you’re into Asian food and are looking for somewhere a little bit different and very lovely to while away a few hours. And, if you fancy visiting KIN in the daytime, don’t forget to have a stroll down Leather Lane market, it’s great.
For more info on KIN, you can visit their website here.
image source: KIN
