Kiln has been on my radar since I arrived. It's one of those places that I have to make the special trek to get to knowing that there will be a queue. The first and only other time I tried was a Saturday night with a 2 hour wait. I was surprised to find that Friday early evening was only 30mins quoted (actually about 50 in the end). Maybe the summer and daylight means noone is interested at 615pm.
While waiting for space at the bar, the aromas of grilling meats and hot charcoal stewing claypots filled the air. It's a great sight to behold. Unlike Tayyabs there's no meat body or clothes odour issues to contend with afterwards.
- Aged Lamb & Cumin Skewer £2.9 - a very tender and slightly fatty piece of spiced cumin lamb. Not very salty and good for it;
- Miang of Monkfish £3.5 - a betel leaf with raw monkfish. There were plenty of textures but not nearly enough flavour. It needed more spicy, salty, sweet to it;
- Grilled Razor Clam £6.2 - one grilled razor clam for £6.2. Really? Really;
- Mackerel Dry Red Curry £7.9 - the word curry is deceiving but I suppose the word dry made up for it. The fish was nicely cooked with the flavour covered by the thin curry sauce and some moderately spicy chillis;
- Beef Heart Laap with Makhwaen £6.5 - my favourite dish with a deeply earthern beef heart minced but retaining that little bit of chewy that is so characteristic of beef heart. It should be made a bit spicier and would do well with some lettuce and herbs to eat it;
- Grilled Tamworth £8.75 - a very tender cut of pink pork with excellent flavour. The chilli dipping sauce was very mild;
- Claypot Baked Glass Noodles, Tamworth Belly & Brown Crab Meat £18 - a big bowl of noodles for a big price. The pork was very fatty and had little meat. The crab meat wasn't discernible. And there wasn't enough sauce provided for the large noodle serving. Maybe the smaller £5.75 serves are better value (looking at the sizes I wouldn't think there was more than 3 serves in the bigger one);
- Stirfried Cornish Greens & Soy £4.5 - greens with sauce.
The food was ok but overall I felt the dishes lacked punch. I like strong flavours with my Thai/SE Asian food and many of the dishes just didn't have edge to it. The prices aren't too bad once I think about removing the monkfish, exorbitant razor clam and the noodles. I'd be happier replacing them with the Burmese beef cheek curry and a lot more rice.
I'll go back once more to see.