Last Updated on January 31, 2025
Fresh plant-based dining
4.0 out of 5.0 starsFoley Street’s Kin Café has been a popular spot for daytime vegan bites since 2014. Now the team behind the café have expanded into the next-door premises and opened Kin Restaurant. We, two flexitarians, went along one “Veganuary” evening to try out the new offering.
The ethos at both Kin Café and Kin Restaurant is to let the plants speak for themselves so you won’t find any faux meat on the menu here – just lots of locally sourced seasonal ingredients cooked from scratch. What a relief.
Kin Restaurant is small and very cosy and quickly filled up with a youngish crowd of diners. We received a warm welcome and lots of helpful guidance from the staff here.
Our patient waiter brought us tasters of most of the white wines on the list before nudging us towards the Rosorange. This light and citrussy Cinsault blend from Paul Mas turned out to be just the right match for our plant-rich meal.
We started with a selection from the Appetisers and Small Plates section of the menu to share and soon the table was covered in delicious things. A huge portion of Sautéed Mushrooms on Sourdough came with an Italian twist thanks to the addition of toasted pine nuts and sweet sun-dried tomatoes. This is comfort food for mushroom lovers.
We also happily tucked into crispy Broad Bean Croquettes served on a bed of butter bean and dill cream, a savoury dish with many satisfying textures.
The Sticky Cashew Tofu comes with a cashew and carrot dip. The more we ate, the more we both liked this dish as it revealed its subtle but deepening flavours.
After the glories of the starters, we had high hopes for the mains. We felt both of our choices would stand up better as sharing dishes as they don’t quite work as a single large plate of food. We swapped over halfway through to get a bit of variety.
The Miso-Glazed Aubergine was roasted to silky perfection. The cauliflower purée was earthy and smooth but a bit too similar in texture to the aubergine to be a perfect match for it. We would have liked more of the sesame crisp breads to add bite and contrast to the dish.
Our second main was the Falafel Plate, which combines herb-infused falafel with mango dip, fresh salad and mini pita bread. Lovely crunchy, lemony falafels and loads of salad and fruity dip made for another dish that would work best for sharing.
There were just two desserts on the menu on the night of our visit. Of course, we had to try both of them. My companion chose the Avocado and Lime Cheesecake. Any flavour of the whipped avocado was subsumed by the lime. The pistachio base and smear of thick and salty pistachio cream added another level of interest to this mousse-y “cheesecake”.
I opted for the Chocolate Fondant served with a scoop of very good raspberry sorbet – a classic flavour combination. To my surprise the fondant was served cold but, vitally, the centre still oozed.
Kin Restaurant excels at packing flavour and interest into plant-based dishes to share. It’s a charming place offering good value and hearty portions that should please anyone from confirmed omnivores to strict vegans, well beyond Veganuary.
Address: 22 Foley St, London W1W 6DT
Phone: 020 3589 5185
Looking for something different in the area? We love Ottolenghi’s restaurant Rovi which offers plenty of plant-based dishes along with a selection of meat and fish.
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