KIN by us., Macquarie Park

Kin means family. At newly opened cafe KIN by us, Uel and Shannelle aim to welcome you into their family by cooking Asian-inspired food with love, just like they did on My Kitchen Rules.

The cafe is tucked away on the ground floor of a new apartment complex in Macquarie Park. The area is so new the street barely registers on Google Maps, but when we arrived one rainy morning it was clear that half of Sydney knew about it, since there was a mass of people waiting outside for a table.

Menu

After a 45 minute wait, during which Uel was super hospitable, even offering those waiting some Easter eggs (it was Good Friday), we finally got a table and placed our order. We'd had ample time to look at the menu during the wait, so we ordered our food straight away and it all came out quite quickly.

Nana Fufu smoothie - $7

One of the most interesting menu items was the Nana Fufu smoothie, a banana, tofu and honey smoothie. At first sip, the banana flavour hits you, but then later on you get the slight creamy tofu flavour mixed in with the sweetness of the banana and honey.

Latte - $3.50

Coffee is sourced from Reuben Hills and each order comes with a cute little biscuity thing placed carefully on the teaspoon.

Milo mocha - $4

I tried the Milo mocha which was pretty much like a regular mocha but with the added malty goodness of Milo. You couldn't definitely smell the Milo but it wasn't so pronounced in the taste.

Snap, crackle, plop - $10

Onto the food! We were saddened when we saw that they'd ran out of the limited Bao Cheeka Wow Wow (rendang beef cheeks and pickles on a steamed bun, $15), but we consoled ourselves with crackling. I'd already heard great things about the Snap Crackle Plop dish, and I mean you can't really go wrong with chicken rice, chicken skin crackling and an onsen egg.

Mixing it up

Break up the egg and mix it all together for glorious mouthfuls of fragrant chicken rice, crispy bits of chicken crackle and gooey egg!

Waffle Belly - $17

The caramel soy braised pork belly on the Waffle Belly dish was super tender with just the right amount of fat to meat ratio. The potato waffle, mushrooms and wobbly onsen egg were great accompaniments to the pork belly, adding texture and extra flavour without overshadowing the star of the dish.

Miso Yummy - $17

The Miso Yummy was my favourite dish of the lot. I absolutely loved the miso salmon which had slight char marks on the outside but was still a perfectly rare on the inside. Two onsen eggs feature on this dish, along with a ball of sesame spinach and a piece of sourdough bread.

Sub-marine - $18

The Sub-marine dish actually did kind of look like a submarine, with a brioche body and two soft shell crab halves sticking out the stop, dressed in fresh herbs and a chilli sauce which packed a punch! It looks like there's not much crab, but when you put eat it all together with the brioche hotdog bun, it all balances out and you're not left with huge chunks of brioche with no crab to go with it.

I can see why KIN by us is so popular. The Asian twist on standard cafe fare means that the menu items are pretty unique and not something that you would find at your everyday cafe. I'm keen to see how Uel and Shannelle keep evolving their cafe and keeping things new and fresh. Hopefully next time I'll be able to get my hands on that limited Bao dish!

KIN by us.
2 Saunders Close (corner Herring Rd)
Macquarie Park NSW 2113
Email: info@kinbyus.com
Open Monday to Saturday 7am to 3pm