Kinaree Eatery
An Irvine Thai restaurant uses modern American brunch dishes to differentiate itself from its plaza neighbor
Most restauranteurs either knowingly or unknowingly face a challenge known as the “veto vote” – the reality that one objector in an otherwise interested group of potential customers will veto their restaurant based on a factor such as lack of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, halal, or kosher options. Since a single adamant person’s “nothing there for me” veto can keep families, friends, and business groups from enjoying interesting meals in favor of lowest-common-denominator options, restaurateurs often include a few menu items to placate diners with dietary concerns, religious restrictions, and picky palates. Rarely do they fuse two completely different concepts together – and guests at Kinaree Eatery can thank The Irvine Company for that.
As we understand it, the beautifully decorated Kinaree – which opened in October 2025 at the Quail Hill Shopping Center, next to O Fine Japanese Cuisine, BB.Q Chicken, and several other restaurants – was told that it couldn’t bring the purely Thai menu of its Chino Hills brother Le Kinaree to this plaza, as a neighbor was already serving Thai food. So the owners improvised with a menu that’s roughly half Thai and half modern American breakfast/brunch dishes, including souffle pancakes, omelettes, and chicken and waffles. Unexpectedly, they wound up with a fusion menu that magically avoids veto votes by offering enough choices to satisfy any member of any group, now available from as early as 8am each day to as late as 9pm at night.
Our group, which depending on person, day, and moods can vary from down for a Vietnamese or Thai breakfast to up for smoked salmon or pancakes, found plenty of great options at Kinaree. The big surprise was a fat stack of souffle pancakes ($16 with berries and cream, $18 with creme brulee) that normally take 20 minutes to make, arriving hot, perfectly fluffy, drenched in just the right amount of sweet cream, and paired with both fresh berries and strawberry syrup for personalized sweet/sour optimization. From chicken and waffles ($25) to steak and eggs ($32), avocado ($18) and smoked salmon ($22) toasts, various poached eggs benedicts and omelettes ($20 Florentines to $36 lobster versions), the largely American brunch items would be compelling enough on their own to fill a place like Gram. A nice assortment of drinks – including Thai iced tea and strong lemon Thai tea ($6 each), really nice Kinaree matcha lattes ($7), and yuzu honey teas ($7) – aren’t cheap but are worthy of their regrettably inflation-based prices.
Le Kinaree opened less than a year before Kinaree Eatery, but clearly played a role in creating an equally strong Thai side of this menu. Nearly 40 Thai dishes range from $12 to $22 starters (crab rolls, fried tofu, grilled river prawns) to a couple of salads ($22 each), eight khao soi variants ($22 to $29), and entrees in the $19 to $29 range – most of the highest-priced items feature river prawns, ribeye steak, or crab. To get an initial sense of Kinaree’s culinary talents, we ordered the fried, entirely mild soft shell crab appetizer ($17), a spicy shrimp salad Thai hot ($22), and a medium-spiced khao soi with ribeye steak ($28), and prepared for anything from American fusion disaster to Hanuman-caliber pretty but expensive plates.
We weren’t expecting that each of the dishes would be more generously portioned or thoughtfully plated than normal: the soft shell crab was unusually large, crispy without oiliness, and paired with two sweet and herbal-savory dipping sauces. The shrimp salad – commonly raw or near-raw – hid a full plate of plump, fully cooked and still warm shrimp below sliced cucumbers, onions, and herbs, with a soy-fish sauce-lime dressing that was strong enough to piece all the shrimp and coat the chopped lettuce underneath them. And the khao soi was nothing short of magnificent thanks to seemingly never-ending slices of grilled ribeye (tender despite being medium, rather than ideal medium rare), soft and crispy noodles, and a red curry broth. If we had any complaints, they’d be that the spices weren’t as strong and the salt levels were a hint stronger than ideal, offset by many other things Kinaree did quite right.
Beyond truly enjoying our visit to Kinaree Eatery, we’re thrilled to have found a breakfast/brunch destination that’s veto-proof for our group, and certainly expect to visit again. We’ll update this article with more details when we do.
Stats
Price: $$-$$$
Service: Table
Open Since: October 2025
Address
6741 Quail Hill Pkwy.
Irvine, CA 92603
949.336.5223
Instagram: @kinaree_eatery