Restaurant Review: Kinship
Price
Quality
Support
Overall
Summary: New Hong Kong restaurant Kinship is one to keep in mind for casual evenings out.
3.5good

Dining on expense accounts is par for the course in Hong Kong, especially among the many business travellers who flock to the city. And with so many restaurants opening in the city every day, there are always plenty of new places to try on the company dime. One to keep in mind is Kinship.

Tucked away in a brand new building on Soho’s Shelly Street, Kinship is a new joint venture by chefs Chris Grare and Arron Rhodes. After stints at Lily and Bloom for Grare and Gough on Gough’s for Rhodes, the chefs decided to combine their culinary talents to create a new casual dining concept designed to bring people together over “new world” dishes.

Kinship

It’s only been open for two weeks, but the restaurant is already benefitting from that new-kid-on-the-block buzz. It was packed when we slipped in for dinner on a Tuesday night which surprised even Rhodes, who manages the front of house operations.

Industrial Meets Rustic

Kinship definitely has style to spare; interiors combine industrial aesthetics and rustic chic with plenty of copper, Edison lamps, exposed vents, and concrete and wood. It’s a relatively small space – there are just 57 seats in total – but this, and the well-executed design work together to create a homey, social atmosphere that’s perfect for relaxed work dinners or after-hours socialising. Bonus: it’s quiet enough that you can actually carry on a conversation without screaming across the table – just ask for a table in the back for a little more privacy.

For important client dinners, it’s crucial that the restaurant you pick will deliver on style and substance without fail. If you’re looking to impress big clients though, Kinship might be a little hazardous because the food can be unpredictable – some dishes we loved, others were filler. This one’s better kept for informal get-togethers.

Global Cuisine

The restaurant bills its cuisine as “new world,” but it would be more correct to say global. The dishes here take the European approach and shakes things up with influences from around the world. And then there’s the fact that ingredients come from all over the globe, like carrots from Hong Kong’s New Territories and salmon from the Faroe Islands.

A huge plus, Kinship works closely with small family farms and suppliers to ensure full accountability and quality for their ingredients. This was evident in the one dish that really surprised us; the side of brussels sprouts was fried, seasoned with ponzu, and cooked to perfection.

If you’re looking for a great dish, you’ll also need to try the grass-fed Australian beef tartare and the chicken liver mousse. The former gets a fun Indonesian twist with the addition of Bali bean salad, roasted peanut sauce, and fresh lime sambal; the latter is paired with raisin relish and homemade oak crackers for a delightful sweet-savory combination.

Kinship

A Little Hit & Miss

Two other signature dishes could be given a miss. Grandpa’s roasted carrots had a great dill-almond sauce on the side, but this did little to mask the fact that we were just eating a plate of carrots. The giant duck ravioli was also a little underwhelming, mostly because there was simply too much pasta and an overwhelming ginger flavour.

There’s a decent-length drinks menu that has all manner of cocktails, wines, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks, but we were somehow given a forgettable New Zealand chardonnay that doesn’t seem to appear on the wine list. I couldn’t say how this happened but if you’re looking to impress your dining companions, you might want to bring your own bottle of wine (there’s a $300 corkage charge).

Kinship isn’t the place to go to sign a big deal or take the company bigwigs for dinner, but if you’re out for a casual night with colleagues or friends, it’s one to have on your list.

For more entertaining inspiration click here

Also in the Headlines…

Hotel Muziris Debuts in Kochi

All-Day Dining Destination Sensu Opens in Hong Kong

United’s SFO Polaris Lounge Voted Best in the World

Recommend to friends
  • gplus
  • pinterest

About the Author

Gayatri Bhaumik

Always ready for her next adventure, Gayatri Bhaumik took her first flight
at 10 days old and hasn’t looked back since. After long stints in Bangkok,
Melbourne and London, she now based in Hong Kong where she's the Group Editor at Artemis Communications.