Kin

13001 MARSEILLE

12/20
Gourmet Restaurant

11 PHOTOS

Chef Hugues Mbenda

Cooking African | Local | Mediterranean

Price Indicative price per person (excl. drinks)

55€

Gault&Millau's review

12/20

Gourmet Restaurant Hugues Mbenda has quite a pedigree, first in Paris (Apicius, Taillevent, Christian Constant's second at Violon d'Ingres), then in London (chef at Céladon, the Westminster Hotel restaurant). Back to France, where Marseillais discovered him at the Orphéon and the Montgrand garden. But his roots remain with him. Childhood memories of his mother, who ran a street-food restaurant in Kinshasa (hence the name of the restaurant). After a stay in the Congo, he returned with a desire for cross-cultural gastronomy. The result was Kin, in the heart of Marseille, which he opened with his partner Mathilde Godart. The décor features walls decorated with tribal art, soft African music, plants hanging from a ceiling frame, comfortable banquettes and armchairs. For wine, choose from the short wine list of Caroline and Marc Barriot's "Le Clot de l'Origine" or Philippe Gilbert's menetou-salon. As for the open kitchen, we're right on theme. The whole of the Congo is on display, with its products treated in a contemporary way. Manioc chips with burnt onion cream, okra tempura with chili-mango sauce, manioc risotto with parsley emulsion and baobab crumble, roast lean steak with spinach coulis infused with smoked fish and plantain gnocchi. A far cry from the classic recipes for maffé and yassa chicken comes a snacked guinea fowl leg and a breaded sweet potato millefeuille doped with combava juice. To keep the note, the pre-dessert is a ribbon of parsnip confit, nougatine and peanuts, followed by a cornbread fondant, meringue and passion fruit ice cream. An exotic table, in the good sense of the word, which only opens in the evening with a €55 menu.