Food & Wine names top 20 restaurants in U.S. — one is in Boise. You should try it

Michael Deeds
·2 min read

Downtown Boise restaurant Kin is no stranger to high praise.

After all, chef and co-owner Kris Komori won a James Beard Award last year — the only Idahoan ever to do so.

But a little more ego strokin’ never hurts. Especially when it’s well-deserved.

Food & Wine recently selected Kin, 999 W. Main St., as one of the top 20 restaurants in the nation — #16, to be exact. The honor is part of the website’s second annual Global Tastemaker Awards. “From a Michelin-starred Indian dining destination to a former F&W Restaurant of the Year,” Food & Wine says, “this list has it all.”

Unlike the vast majority of online “best of” lists — which are throwaway listicles — this recognition carries actual prestige. Food & Wine was founded in 1978 as a magazine, which it still publishes. The choices were made by a “panel of expert food and travel journalists,” it says.

Art and food often intersect when dishes are plated at Kin.
Art and food often intersect when dishes are plated at Kin.

Food & Wine made no attempt to wax poetic in its blurb. I’m OK with that. Kin being selected as one of “the most memorable dining experiences from coast to coast” is all that matters.

“At Kin,” Food & Wine wrote, “Komori launches frequently rotating tasting menus that highlight seasonal harvest from regional farmers and food purveyors. One week the star dish might be a deconstructed chicken-noodle soup. Another menu delights with an unusual raw-bar twist on fish and chips. Many of these menus are themed around community initiatives, including fundraising for a range of causes.”

If you’ve never eaten at Kin (stylized as “KIN”), you should. It’s the most uniquely engaging dining experience in Idaho. A prix-fixe fine-dining restaurant, Kin transforms food into more than just sustenance. Picking up your fork at Kin is communal, artistic, maybe even challenging — and always fun.

It’s not for everyone. I get that. (Sort of.) But, for the record, nobody should be intimidated. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Kin, and I also crushed multiple Crunchwrap Supremes at a Taco Bell drive-thru on a recent late night.

Bottom line? You’ll never know unless you try it. And one of Food & Wine’s top 20 restaurants is in our own capital city.