Kin501 is a restaurant that I find it not possible to categorize. It has an uninformative web page, useful to reserve a table. They use organic and chemical free ingredients where possible, they use first, cold pressed olive oil, non hydrogenated fats and are under the delusion that their sea derived salt contains no Sodium Chloride. The chef was reported by some reviewer as cooking ‘what my mother cooked’ it has Italian origins and this is apparent from the menu which calls small dishes Assagi and are definitely Italian but as for the rest – well this is what we tried after an offering from the chef of a tasty ?cauliflower paste on a dry thin slice of bread:
Three crumbed mouthfuls, one a gratinated mussel with light chili flavouring, cauliflower dumpling, deep fried, and one a small pipe of risotto called suppli rustici none of which I would cross the road for. Two whites- a n aromatic 05 Angelo Negro Rodero (Piedmont) was preferred to the Venetian Tamellini Soave which had an slightly bitter finish.
This was followed by another set of small serves – pan fried calamari over rocket with house roasted chilli aioli 
and crudo of Petuna Ocean trout with Asian style dressing and wasabi mousse. 
A Vialone nano risotto followed with artichoke and peas served very al dente. Two Barbera's an 04 Dunn's Creek (Mornington Peninsula) and a Elio Atare D'Alba 05 (Piedmonte) were beautiful full bodied rich reds with good tannins and long finishes
and then an organic cavatelli with slow cooked meat ragu, a pasta in meat sauce! I found the Heathcote 06 Vinea Marson Sangiovese more to my taste than the tuscan 04 Isole e Olena Classico Chianti, and got them mixed up too
Pan seared kingfish on wilted endive had been cooked too long and had become dry
and char grilled black Angus eye fillet with truffle over mashed potato was very nice but not special at all and the truffles added nothing to the dish. Strangely neither the double decanted 97 'Moccagatta' Barbaresco, which was open for 12 hours, nor the 04 Marchese de Gresy Niebiolo left much impression on me
The finale was a ricotta canoli with pistachio and a Kin tartuffo which my sweet toothed partner assured me was the best dish of the night. Whilst I did enjoy the sweet Castellare di Castellini Vin Santo '00 (Tuscany) I definitely prefer a sauterne
They are noted for having lotsof interesting specials and I believe all that we had, except the wines, is generally available.
Moderately expensive, n entree , main, side dish and a couple of wines ill run out at about $80.
Score: 13.5/20
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