Kin by Us in Macquarie Park is a trendy Asian influenced cafe run by Uel and Shannelle Lim, contestants from My Kitchen Rules 2014. Despite its location about 5-10 minutes away from the exceedingly busy Macquarie Shopping Centre, it’s packed for Saturday brunch/lunch. Such is its following over a year after it’s opening.
While we wait for our dishes, we get a rose and lychee friand ($6.00) to share. It’s a crumbly and moist vanilla friand topped with rose and lychee cream, rose jellies, rose petals and a dusting of pistachio. I didn’t mind that the rose and lychee wasn’t infused into the friand, as the toppings delivered the flavours with every bite. Rose and lychee complement so well.
D ordered the BFF burger ($10.00) with ‘bacon, crispy egg, chilli mayo, brioche’. The bacon was juicy and the egg was perfectly runny.
T ordered the congee ($15.00) with ‘chicken rice porridge, onsen egg, pork floss, and Chinese doughnut’. The Chinese doughnut looked deliciously fluffy and crispy, and not at all oily like the ones you see in Asian grocery stores. The congee was like a fancified version of classic home food.
N and I each had the waffle belly ($14.00) with ‘caramel soy pork belly, potato waffle, onsen egg, shrooms, and cabbage’. The pork belly was deliciously fatty and melt-in-your mouth. The potato waffle, which is what attracted me to this dish at first, was fluffy and tasted like mash potatoes teased into a waffle shape. I’d have preferred less pepper in the waffle, but other than that the onsen egg was beautifully gooey, and the umami of the mushrooms and the crisp cabbage and fragrant coriander complemented each other well.
To finish off, D and I share the black sesame shake ($7.00). D and I love the flavour of black seasame and can never get enough of black sesame mochi in Japan. Here, the black sesame flavour was as strong as to be in your face like the mochi, but more subtle. D would have preferred a stronger flavour but I thought it was pleasantly balanced so as not to send you into a food coma after a meal.
Kin by Us is located at 1a/2 Saunders Cl, Macquarie Park NSW 2113.