Kitchen is a restaurant in Naples, Florida that recently opened in September of 2017. The restaurant promotes itself as serving modern American cuisine. Their menu offerings are a variety of dishes not really emphasizing any one type of cuisine.
Kitchen serves from both a Brunch and Dinner menu. What really intrigued my dining companion (DC) and I was the happy hour Menu. There were about 70% of the dinner menu items on the happy hour menu for 50% off.
As to the design of Kitchen, there are a number of indoor dining options including the bar. The outdoor dining areas are also nice, the dining areas here being the typical sidewalk dining you find in the area.
With so many menu choices during happy hour, we wished we could try them all but that was not possible. Here are a few menu items we tried.
The first was the burrata appetizer. A generous amount of this cream-infused cheese was served, along with some crostini and tomatoes. While the burrata was very good, I really did not care for the crostini or the tomatoes. Unfortunately, the tomatoes were the less flavorful “hot house” variety and the crostini cut a bit small to hold the ingredients on this plate. This made a dish that could have been great into one that was only OK. This would be a very easy fix for the restaurant as the quality of the main ingredient is very much there.
We then moved onto the gorgonzola and pear flat bread. This is a much different presentation than the usual flatbread. Rather than the typical lavash-style flat bread this was in the spirit of thick crust pizza being about 12 inches long by 3 inches across. It was peppered with pear slices, gorgonzola, arugula and speck (a type of prosciutto), the latter gracing the top of the flatbread. It was excellent, and a remarkable amount of food for the $7 happy hour price. My only complaint was the way the speck was laid across the bread. It was hard to cut to make it proportional to the flatbread pieces below it. Not a deal breaker by any means.
Baked ziti was next, and was very good. I am not usually a big pasta devotee and wanted to try something different. The dish was very good, incorporating alfredo sauce and tomato sauces, garlic, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. Both DC and I described the flavor here as “bright”, and probably due to a combination of the sauces and Ricotta cheese. I would order this again.
We finished with the blackened grouper that DC ordered. It was served with broccoli and roasted carrots; the fish topped with an avocado butter. The fish was excellent and was definitely grouper as described. DC and I agreed this was probably one of the best pieces of grouper we have had in recent memory. Highly recommended.
For the most part, the happy hour items we ordered were very good to excellent. Considering the quality of the food, the most generous discounts and the happy hour being held daily (except holidays), I would consider the happy hour at Kitchen to be one of the best in town. Talk about sticker shock but in a good way. There are also drink specials but the food here trumps that.
That’s that for another post on Forks.
Kitchen
878 5th Ave. S.
Naples, FL 34102
(239)315-4571
Brunch: 830 AM-230 PM; Dinner: 3 PM-11 PM; Happy Hour: 3-6 PM; All major credit cards accepted; No valet parking; Kid’s meals available
Peter Horan, Southwest Florida Forks, posted on SouthFloridaReporter.com, Oct. 15, 2017
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