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“Kin Shop”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Asian	West Village	Moderate	Great

There was a fire on 11th Street in the West Village the other night. Thick clouds of dark smoke turned a bright summer sky the color of soot. As I watched the fire trucks line up on Sixth Avenue from my window booth at Kin Shop, I wondered if it would be inappropriate to detain one or two of them to put out the fire in my mouth. But then I thought, Nah, this pain is too pleasurable to extinguish. And I kept eating.

The source of my four-star oral blaze was chef Harold Dieterle’s fantastic Duck Laab Salad ($13), a traditional Thai dish made from mined meat with garlic, shallots, ginger, lemongrass, fish sauce, lime juice, and a Mexican fiesta’s worth of chiles. The finely ground roasted duck, which tasted as though it had been soaked in a bathtub of chiles until fiery to the touch, was served on crisp cooling romaine hearts, neat little canoes that I used to transfer the salad from plate to mouth. The first bite was a painful, eye-tearing, sort of heat, that might take the paint of your walls. But wait. Soon it will subside and you get into this wonderful maze of flavors: the soft warmth of the ginger, the tartness of the lime, the salty-sweet brine of the fish sauce. Now your mouth is filled with a chorus of spicy, sweet and tart all at the same time. An expression that started out as a sort of grimace was now a wide and true grin. You reach for another before it’s all gone. You realize this may be the most wonderful flavor experience your mouth has had the pleasure of enduring. Pain can be so sweet.

By now, most of you have probably eaten at Kin Shop, the sophomore jaunt from Perilla partners Harold Dieterle and Alicia Nosenzo, but this was my first time. In case it wasn't clear from the preceding paragraph, it was very good.

Harold and Alicia chose the name kin shop because “kin,” is the Thai word for “to eat” and the restaurant is the “kin” to their acclaimed restaurant Perilla, a mere seven-minute walk away. Like Perilla, Kin Shop is an easy place to enjoy dinner. The food is great, the vibe is inviting but with the buzz you’d expect from a place that has become the darling of critics. It’s a place you’ll feel comfortable relaxing with a group of friends or having a dinner date, other than the noise level, which can approach deafening at peak times. The space is a tad more casual than its older sibling, with rows of cushy seafoam banquets lining th ... [more, click below]

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Posted: June 3, 2011

Other restaurants in West Village :
+ Jefferson-- Closed   + La Palapa Rockola   + Sumile   + Babbo   + Tasca   + AOC Bedford   + Home   + The Spotted Pig   + Barbuto   + Numero 26   + Mas   + August   + Alta   + Cru   + Blue Mill Tavern-- Closed   + Employees Only   + Lassi   + Metropol--Closed   + Turks and Frogs   + Bellavitae   + Yumcha-- CLOSED   + Gusto: SEE EARLIER REVIEW; THIS CHEF HAS LEFT GUSTO   + Perry Street   + Home   + Ditch Plains   + The Little Owl   + Cafe Condesa   + Cafe Cluny   + Gusto   + The Waverly Inn   + Morandi   + P*ONG   + Perilla   + Soto   + Market Table   + Centro Vinoteca   + Barfry   + Dell'Anima   + Bar Blanc   + Smith's   + Commerce   + Elettaria   + Bar Q   + Cabrito   + 10 Downing   + Minetta Tavern   + Braeburn   + Scuderia, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Bar Blanc Bistro by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Joseph Leonard   + Bar Henry, by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Kin Shop   + Monument Lane   + Wong   + Bin on Bleecker, by Dara Pollak   + Ristorante Rafele   + Cole's Greenwich Village by Guest Reviewer Claire Jaffe   

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