Kinn Thai

Address: 89 Park Avenue, Kotara 2285

Website: www.kinnrestaurant.com.au

I’m not a huge shopping centre dweller, so when I found out Westfield Kotara was set to open their new Rooftop, I wasn’t overwhelmed with excitement however I was interested to see what vegan options may be on offer.

When planning to visit the Gold Class Lounge at the new Event Cinemas for my recent birthday, dining on the Rooftop seemed like a practical choice so I got to lookin’ at some menus online. Kinn Thai’s menu not only has a few good vegan options but we can now add another restaurant to the list of those that actually have a little vegan symbol, yay!

My first visit on my birthday was great so I headed back last week to give it another shot and also took my camera along to get some snaps. There are three or four dishes on the menu that are labelled vegan but I reckon a couple more could be made vegan if you asked nicely.

The decor is fresh and vibrant with lots of natural light (when the sun is out, obvs), dark wood and plenty of greenery hanging from the ceiling and the walls. I reckon you’d be hard pressed to find another Thai joint that looks this good.

I love a good entree but sometimes it’s bloody hard to get a vegan one in a regular Thai place. Kinn Thai have two options: Golden Tofu and Curry Puffs, this time I went with the lil Puff Daddies. The pastry is light, crispy and golden and has an awesome crunch. The filling isn’t very spicy but doesn’t lack flavour, especially when combined with the sweet chilli sauce.

For the main it’s either the Stir Fried Asian Greens or the Chilli Green Peppercorn Eggplant. I went with the eggplant because I love a bit of spice and boy does it deliver! Don’t order this if you can’t handle your chilli, the whole dish is a spicy party with chunks of chilli throughout and plenty of green peppercorns. The eggplant itself is really quite tasty and the green beans are cooked perfectly. I wasn’t able to finish the whole thing because my nose was running (not necessarily a bad thing) and also the portion sizes are quite large, especially when combined with rice.

For a chain restaurant, Kinn Thai is actually quite impressive and I always appreciate it when a restaurant puts in effort to make things easy for their vegan customers by making it totes obvs what we can eat! This is definitely a great option for lunch to break up a day of shopping or to get some grub before a movie.

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