When you come to Kin Dee, you must come with an open mind as you’ll encounter Thai food like you’ve never seen it before. The seemingly nontraditional dishes taste authentic and familiar, but at the same time completely elegant and new. Charming head chef Dalad Kambhu was raised in Bangkok and lived in New York before making Berlin her home not so long ago. As fate would have it, she quickly teamed up with the restaurateurs of Grill Royal fame and together ran a successful Thai pop-up at Dóttir in 2016. Earlier this year, Kin Dee found a permanent home in Tiergarten after Edd’s Thai Kitchen closed its doors – perhaps marking a new era for Berlin’s Thai cuisine scene. Opting to offer contemporary and innovative dishes using mainly local and organic products, Dalad’s team went away from the must-have ingredients found only in Asia, but still keep true to the flavors of Thailand. Never have I eaten green curry with such tender slow cooked beef and crisp deep fried eggplant — it was a truly eye-opening dish. With a prix-fixe menu and unique bites, like the octopus confit in ka-prao sauce, I’d say Kin Dee is a more than welcome Thai cuisine game changer. (Text: Rei Matsuoka / Photos: Sven Hausherr, Robert Rieger c/o Freunde von Freunden)
Kin Dee, Lützowstr.81, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten; map
Tue-Sat 18-22h