Kiin Kiin

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

One of the World's Few Michelin-Starred Thai Restaurants

Kiin Kiin has occupied a former hash club on Guldbergsgade in Copenhagen's Nørrebro neighbourhood since 2005, and in those two decades it has become one of the most distinctive addresses in the Danish dining landscape. The duo behind the restaurant — Lertchai Treetawatchaiwong and Henrik Yde-Andersen — built their reputation on a clear idea: take local Danish produce, apply Thai spices and technique, and serve the result in a format that is modern without losing the warmth and generosity that define the cuisine.

The Space

Descend a few steps from the street and the city retreats. Soft lighting, smoked mango wood, large cushions in curved woven chairs and low sofas, golden Buddha garlands, live candles on every table — the room is composed in earth tones that feel deliberate rather than decorative. The White Guide, which has recognised Kiin Kiin at a very fine level, describes the atmosphere plainly: "Copenhagen is far away here." The dining room upstairs and the lounge below operate as two distinct acts of the same evening.

How the Evening Unfolds

Dinner begins in the lounge with a rapid procession of snacks — charcoal soy meringue with cashew, Miang Kam, oyster omelette, spiced beef tartare, turmeric crab — before guests move upstairs for the full tasting menu. The kitchen offers a seven- or eight-course progression, each course named after a Thai place or moment: a beach restaurant on Koh Samui, the green fields of Phuket, a spa experience in Bangkok, the streets of Chiang Mai. The effect is less theatrical device than a loose geography of flavour references.

Current menu highlights include a Tom Yam soup with prawn chips, a cod carpaccio with kaffir lime leaf and pineapple in a yam dressing, sea bass fried in dino style with lemongrass-tamarind sauce, an aromatic yellow crab curry with house-made rice noodles, and a slow-braised beef massaman curry with fragrant garlic-fried rice. Dessert brings passion fruit almond cake with kumquat, chocolate crumble and vanilla ice cream. A vegetarian version of the full tasting menu is available with advance notice, following the same structure with dishes such as spiced oyster mushroom tempura salad and a Tom Kha with morel mushrooms and truffle galangal sauce.

The Wine List

The cellar runs to over 800 bottles, with particular depth in Riesling and wines from Alsace, Germany and Austria — a considered choice for a kitchen that works with chilli heat and aromatic spice. Wine pairing and juice pairing menus are offered alongside the tasting menu, and individual bottles can be ordered from the full list.

A Broader Project

Henrik Yde-Andersen has also published cookbooks — including the Kiin Kiin cookbook with more than 75 signature dishes, and an earlier volume tracing his four years travelling through Thailand — extending the restaurant's approach into a format guests can take home. The Thai cuisine that Kiin Kiin practises is documented, taught and shared, not kept behind the kitchen door.

For a restaurant that has held its Michelin star for many years and continues to draw an international crowd to a Nørrebro side street, Kiin Kiin remains a singular proposition in Copenhagen: rigorous Thai cooking, grounded in Danish ingredients, served in a room that feels genuinely unlike anywhere else in the city.