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
and some of the dishes were tiny. Since it also cost $25 to get in it produced an experience which I am unlikely to want to repeat. Of course not everything cost. there were tastes of fine cheeses from Enoteca Silena, Greg Malouf's spices Chapman Hill olive oils and more
We had Grossi Florentino's Porchini mushroom and sage risotto, excellent, Longrain's Yellow chicken curry with cucumber relish, 312's roast quail in vine leaf, cracked wheat, almond and poached lemon, 
I could have done with more of that, and their apple confit, burnt butter ice cream, salted caramel, Circa the Prince's slow cooked sher Wagyu meat pie, truffled coleslaw, licorice spiced pumpkin, (Very good) Stokehouses blue swimmer crab chowder, Verge's slow cooked pork belly 'nan ban zuke' shitake and seaweed, and Fifteens' signature rotolo with baby spinach, baked ricotta,majoram, mushroom and sage butter,
one of the best things served as also was their olive oil chocolate mousse with candied pistachios and grappa marinated strawberries.
Apart from the beetroot, cabbage and smoked bacon it had fruit, dill and sour cream and was served with a basket of rye bread. They have a vegetarian version as well as barley and chicken soup which suffers from having been frozen and thawed leaving the pieces of potato in it with a displeasing textureand so on.
they came fairly dry and failed to excite. Veal goulash, wrapped in a large potato cake, had plenty of sauce and good taste 
- a very pleasing winter dish. ($21.50).Crockery is hand painted Polish peasant style and goes perfectly with the bare wooden tables. Desserts are solid, domestic style serves. 
The massive lights are quite extraordinary, 
which are also used for storing some odds and ends. 
On a more salubrious subject the cutlery is solid good quality, the crockery heavy and serviceable We started with the giant ravioli filled with crab and prawn in a sauce with field mushrooms,
according to the menu, which looked more like 
Served on a cold plate they were in an excellent creamy sauce making it a very good, although cool, meal. We opted for a glass of cab/
I had no great expectations.
and smaller cloth covered tables further into the room. It has a sort of chalet ski clubby atmosphere.The menu is very Austrian/Swiss/German oriented with a few specials on a small blackboard. The entrees are more eclectic including snails, scallops, prawns in a light mango sauce with rice as well as fleishkase – meatloaf, wurstsalat – sausage salad, Swiss Caesar salad with air dried beef, bundnerteller – air dried beef, a variety of meats with rosti and quite a few more. We chose scallops in lemon butter sauce. 
Lightly cooked and simply presented they were very good, A dozen snails in a garlic curry sauce which were also accompanied by a small tower of rice were a pleasure. 
Only slightly chewy the sauce matched them beautifully. There are about 20 main courses available as well as having entrees as mains. They include a variety of steaks, chicken, duck and more typical Swiss fare such as pork schnitzel emmenthal, smoked lamb cutlets in honey sauce, venison with spatzli and red cabbage and calves liver and bacon in Madeira sauce and last thing on the menu - fondue, minimum two people $19.90 / head. I know no where else in Melbourne with fondue on the menu. Meat fondue is too dangerous for occupation health and safety reasons BUT cheese fondue is another matter and what a great dish it is. First a large bowl of pre cut bread arrives, then a burner to keep the cheese hot and finally a large bowl of hot melted cheese 
which had some white wine to thin it and give it better taste. Easily big enough to serve three or four, it’s a meal to bring back memories of Switzerland.
I also ordered a beer roasted eisbein
– a pork hock with spatzli and red cabbage. This classical dish is a particular favourite of mine. The hock could have been slow cooked for longer to make it more tender but it was quite well done, the red cabbage was a little dry but the spatzli was perfect. A huge bowl of crunchy chips (Patroni potatoes), 
also went well when dipped in the hot cheese. We finished the meal with apple strudel 
and a pear tart both served with cream, ice cream and a little cut fruit.
About 9.30 he began to circulate around the room chatting to diners at all the tables. He is jovial, informative enthusiastic, even after 11 years seems to love all that he does. This is a huge asset and turned a good night into a thoroughly delightful night.The club is open for lunch on weekdays and dinner Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays 
We started with a steak sandwich and lamb shanks. The steak turned out to be a chicken sandwich 
which was removed with apologies and eventually replaced with a sustantial very tender and tasty steak sandwich.
My shanks, a very substantial serve, ($22) almost floating in a soup of their wine sauce came with a good size bowl of mashed potato. 
T
There is no effort to impress with presentation of the food which arrived with splashes of beetroot juice all over the dish.
We started with Roti with sate sauce ($2.80/serve) and Golden Bags four very crisp deep fried bags packed with chicken mince and sweet corn – a very mild dish ($6.50) and a Tom Kha – a coccnut milk soup with chicken, beef and baby sweet corn ($6.50). A mild soup with distinctly Thai flavours. 
For mains we had a Gang Keaw Wan another mild dish in a sweet coconut milk with prawns and chicken and beef ($15.90) with well balanced spices including the usual suspects – coriander and Kaffir Lime. 
This is also available in a stronger chilli version. Steamed Jasmine rice ($3.00) for two and another main – Pad See Ew ($15.90) which is stir fry flat rice noodles, also a bit sweet, again with prawns, two of them!, chicken and beef. Both dishes also included some sliced carrot and broccoli. 
These rather dull photo's don't do justice to the food. The dishes all come with either or chicken, beef and prawns and the noodles also come with a sate sauce and tofu. Curries can be very mild to hot as requested. I was impressed with the controlled flavours. Return customers can have a VIP card offering increasing discounts up to 25% after you have spent $400, They are open every night from 5.30 to 10 pm and offer takeaway as well as free delivery for about 5 Km for orders over $20. Licensed or BYO, wines are cheap. Two lovely young ladies provided friendly and helpful service.
– a crab filled omelet inside a crisp deep fried pastry shell an unusual and very pleasing entrée. This was followed by a plate of Mermaid Tresses. 
Fried thin strips of seaweed that looked interesting but tasted exactly how I think fried grass would taste. This is a dish to be avoided unless ordered by your doctor!
for a change, in oyster sauce was a dull choice and does not distinguish B.H. from a thousand other restaurants. I wish I’d ordered the Peking duck I saw being carved for a neighboring table!! 
Beggars chicken is a special dish which I ordered 24 hours ahead. 
It is a whole chicken stuffed with mushrooms and herbs, wrapped in banana leaves, covered in clay and slow cooked. After the clay is smashed
and the leaves peeled back the chicken is normally very tender, moist and tasty.
For some reason, in this case, the bird was fairly dry and thus not up to the usual standard. An accompanying side dish of spinach was very stringy and not recommended. They have a modest wine list at extraordinarily low prices - many around $28 to $35
