The Kitchen

Awesome spot if you’re looking for something quiet and low key. No loud music or crowd, so you can actually chat with your friends/​date. Good customer service and they have a bathroom! I would recommend this place for those who just want to grab a casual/​affordable drink or two with a friend.

I sooooo wanted to like the Kitchen’s food. I usually come late at night for Hookah and the DJ. The hookah is reasonably priced. The DJ is really good too. I had sushi there once before and it was decent.
This was my first time sitting inside for an actual meal. I ordered a blueberry martini, which was supposed to have muddled blueberries. The drink was pink, didn’t have blueberries and it just tasted like a cosmo. I verified with the waitress that it was the correct item. One other person at my table sent their calamari back. It was soggy and under cooked.
I had the tuna bowl with brown rice. Big mistake. The rice was hard. I asked for a side of white rice and picked out the tuna and seaweed to put on top of the new rice. The dish didn’t wow me at all, but at least I could eat it. My friend had the same tuna bowl with lo mein. He seemed to enjoy his.
My advice is to come at night for hookah, DJ and drinks.
Oh the inside is small, but they have seating outside as well.

I used to love coming to this place. However, tonight was not a great experience. After one server came by twice to clear two tables near us and then never came back to see if we wanted anything, I had to track down a server for assistance. He seemed nice, set us up with our hooka and told us it was a two drink minimum (which I’m ok with). After an hour of being here, our coals burnt out and he hadn’t come back to replenish them or see if we want our mandatory second drink. I miss Tony Bologna (Bolony). He kept this place on point. Feeling a little frustrated.

Typical outdoor bar in downtown St.Pete. They do have cushioned benched and a decent bar with TVs if you want to watch any sports.

I can’t comment on the drinks because we just came for a quick bite to eat. The service was friendly but the food was meh. The pork belly banh mi was soggy and not on a traditional french baguette :(It was a sub roll… and they put the cucumbers on the bottom so the pork belly and sauce made them soggy. My husband got the mahi tacos and they were decent.

The Kitchen is the place to eat dinner outside at Jannus Landing. Sitting outside on the sofas and looking up at the changing lights glowing on the brick buildings is magical. Plus, you get to people watch and eat pretty decent sushi. Wait staff is great. It can be loud with the music from the bar but it’s definitely a slice of St. Pete with ambiance (for Jannus).

We love this place and make sure to visit it at least once every time we are in St. Pete! The Kitchen is consistent in the high quality of its food, unique cocktails, and friendly and helpful staff. We particularly enjoy the Chef’s Specials, especially this Friday’s Wisconsin Handshake! Kudos to Chef Seth! And don’t miss their delightful spin on Strawberry Shortcake! Best place in downtown St. Pete to eat, drink, and be merry!

The food is good, but not great. The burger was really good. The rainbow roll had very thin sushi on it and was pricey for the amount of sushi. The restaurant seating area is not the cleanest. We might come back, but will not go out of our way for it. The prices were slightly high for the quality.

Sounds like the place recently got new management and is going downhill. To be fair, the only thing I ended up getting there was a Bloody Mary, so I won’t comment on the food. What I will comment on is how disappointingly the situation there was handled by the staff and why we decided not to eat there.
If you go to the following address off The Kitchen’s website (unless they finally take down the page), you’ll notice some really tasty-​sounding food items for Sundays under the «Sunday Hangover Brunch»
Well, too bad they no longer do the Sunday Hangover Brunch. When we asked why it’s still on their website, we were told because the new management hasn’t gotten around to taking it off yet. They also had a poster with the info right in front of the entrance.
So we ask if there’s any way they can whip up at least something similar to what was advertised, and the waitress disappears for several minutes to try and track down the chef (maybe she should have tracked down a manager, if there was one around?) Then she comes back and says «Do you guys wanna go ahead and order any food?». My fiancé and I look at each other, kind of surprised, and try to explain we’re wanting to see what feedback we get on the brunch stuff.
It became obvious that our waitress really couldn’t give a f***, and was just annoyed because it seemed to her we were just campers. After 20 minutes, NO ONE came out, which really suggests to me a lack of active management presence.
Here’s the thing — let’s say a manager HAD come out. Even if they could do nothing other than offer their apologies and indicate they’d work to get the bogus advertisement for the Brunch down quickly, I would have been satisfied with the situation and willing to try something else on their menu. I don’t mind when things go wrong, I mind when the response is poor and non receptive to the customer.
It seems clear that this place is hindered by poor management and lackluster staff. Their food may be good (their Bloody Mary was very decent), but there are a lot of places I can spend my money that also have good food and likely have better management than this place. I’d steer clear and spend your money elsewhere so bad customer service is not supported.

Bad service. Bitchy bartender. Long wait on food. Cold food. Let me ask you, what restaurant brings your appetizer out with your meal? And the meal is cold? How does that make any sense? This place was had so much potential and the menu is awesome but everything about it was horrible. They are highly understaffed. I would never come back.

I attended a birthday party here a few weeks ago. Although it was First Friday, the manager gave us the entire dining room from 11pm on. It was really nice, as there were folks working at the outside bar, who made sure our drinks were full at all times.
We had pre-​ordered food which the manager had waiting when we arrived, along with all the necessities. The food was only so-​so, but overall It was a great time at a great place!

Just like sitting outside and relaxing with good food and people watching.
The Bloody Mary is a good one and the Saturday/​Sunday brunch specials are reasonably priced and good. A good combination!

I think the kitchen is okay. I’ve had their food a handful of times and it’s just been okay. They do have a really good salad with candies walnuts that I like. The sushi was tasteless the last time I got it. Maybe I need to order something different next time. I saw a burger being delivered that looked damn good.
Service is just okay, nothing special. I mean they will bring you what you ask for but they’re definitely not overly friendly. The nicest bartender is the guy in the glasses with blonde hair; he seems to have a genuine interest in his customers well being.
This place is just so small inside. And a lot of times outside at the bar, there are rougher types smoking cigarettes. Ick. So it’s sometimes hard to find a decent spot to sit where you’re not being ogled or smoke is being blown into your face.
Prices are decent for downtown St Pete.
I just never really feel welcome coming here. Not one of the friendlier establishments downtown.

After walking around at the Saturday Morning Market in St. Pete with a friend, we decided to grab a bite to eat at The Kitchen. Since we had snacked at the market, we were just a little munchy. We were told to sit anywhere by the staff who was standing at the host stand smoking a hookah. Although I guess they thought by smoking the hookah it would serve as advertisement for the service, however we thought it was unprofessional.
I was a bit concerned about dining at this establishment after watching the food handling of one of the servers. The kitchen is exposed by a full floor to ceiling window. The server used his bare hands to rearrange the garnish on the top of an entrée without even washing his hands first. We ordered anyway since we figured we could see the kitchen and monitor the preparation of the food. We ordered the crab cakes, lobster roll and seaweed salad.
The seaweed salad was standard. The crab cakes came with 2 to the serving. To our surprise the crab cakes were good. They had a good crab to bread crumb balance. The crab cakes were garnished with a duo of sauces. The lobster roll was served with three mini rolls. I was very disappointed by the serving size given the price. The taste was good. The bread added a touch of sweetness to the lobster salad. I liked it and wished they had not been so stingy with the amount of lobster salad on the bun. The buns were already about half dollar size and then they topped it with what seemed to be only a teaspoon of lobster. That is definitely too scarce for me.
Overall we were pleased with the food but the service was lacking.

The food here was great! I had the short rib with the mash potatoes, roasted carrots and pea-​jalapeño mash– delicious! My friend had the Mahi-​Mahi with white rice and chorizo corn side– really good! We sat outside which was great for people-​watching yet quiet enough for conversation. Ou waiter, Jesse, was new but very attentive with a great attitude! Definitely recommend anyone to give it a try!

The Kitchen has some of the best burgers! I was really surprised because when I ate there for the first time a couple weeks ago I really wasn’t expecting much. I started with their hummus. You have to sit outside because there isn’t inside dining from what I can tell, so if you are a people watcher this is a good place to do that. They also have hookah I think and sofas so its a good place to hang with friends.
They give you a lot of warm grilled pita and a good amount of hummus. I devoured that dish in like 10 minutes. Then my burger came shortly after with the homemade chips. I ordered goat cheese on my burger and that really set it off! The goat cheese was warm and soft dripping from all sides (can tell I love goat cheese), I made sure not one drip went wasted lol. I still dream about that burger and all its flavor lol. So check out The Kitchen next time you are DTSP. This will def be one of my first picks when I want hummus or a burger.

My girlfriend and I decided to eat here before a concert at Jannus Live. We sat outside since the weather was tolerable and it was actually really nice to sit outside in downtown St. Pete. We ordered all 3 sliders as an appetizer and I thought all 3 were great. With the pork belly one, I was expecting more of a piece of pork belly rather than it just being shredded. Because of this, it tasted like a pulled pork slider and I wouldn’t have guessed it was pork belly. It was still really good though and I would order it again.
My entrée was the short rib with carrots, mashed potatoes and a jalapeño/​pea purée. The rib was tender and juicy and the sides were just as good if not better. My girlfriend’s hanger steak was melt in your mouth good, despite being a relatively small portion. The service here is great and there is usually some kind of drink special going on, which makes The Kitchen a great place to grab a meal before a show, or if you’re just walking around downtown St. Pete.

The building & staff…
The Kitchen has a very interesting set up. It’s really just like a kitchen counter… on the street. I can’t speak to the servers, but the bartenders are great. I haven’t had any issues with any of them whether it be 6p or midnight.
The food…
It’s not great. Like none of it. And I don’t
Understand why I keep seeing people order sushi here. It’s garbage.
The drinks…
The Kitchen has an amazing beer special on Thursdays– $ 2 drafts. It definitely beats MacDinton’s crappy $ 1 Miller Lites that night.
Overall, I am a fan of their bar, but not so much the actual kitchen.

My wife and I loved The Kitchen! I know some naysayers may not be digging it, but this place was a great bistro on our trip there last night… So hear me out.
We are big foodies and former New Yorkers turned floridians now living in ft Lauderdale, so before we headed to Tampa and st. Pete for the weekend we did our restaurant homework. We chose the kitchen due to the eclectic menu, cost per dish, location in proximity to our hotel and to st Pete nightlife, and also because they had a cldeals coupon.
They are located on a main row with lots of bars and restaurants to choose from so finding them was not a problem. Our reservations were for 7:30 but we got there a little early due to the fact there was ample street parking (that is free after 8pm) and tons of other cheap lots. They sat us right away at a comfy table where we could watch the rays vs yanks game on their flat panel tvs but also to be out of he rain. Whoever runs the kitchen has an amazing 80s-​early 2000s collection of music because we as gen-​Yers were rocking out the whole time during dinner. So yeah big plus! Also, we had a super sweet waitress named Lauren (or laura) and even though it was her first day, she was very nice, extremely attentive and everything was «no problem» and by the end of my meal I concurred with her that everything went superbly.
We started out with a tempura tuna sushi roll as our shared app and it was pretty delicious. The whole roll was lightly fried to provide crunch, the tuna was fresh, which balanced out with the cream cheese center and the wasabi and sriracha wasn’t too overpowering so even my wife who is a non-​spicy eater could handle it with ease.
For main dishes, my wife ordered the chicken with wilted spinach and mashed potatoes with a side of au jus. The au jus /​gravy made the chicken moist and it blended well with the potatoes. I went with the mahi mahi which came with spiced corn nibblets and dirty rice. The fish was sweet and tangy and was cooked perfectly, the dirty rice was actually awesome and the corn made me feel better since it was a vegetable.
As an add on, it was $ 2 corona Saturday so it was a win there too.
During the meal, we noticed there was a band playing outside the back door of the restaurant. After we asked Lauren she went and asked and let us know there was a reggae band performing tonight in the square behind the restaurant (its a big square sectioned off from the road but many of the restaurants and bars have doors leading to the square) and the band currently on was their opening act. After settling the bill, we snuck in the back and rocked out to the opening band with some early arrivals.
All in all– a great experience from front to back. Next time we are in at Pete we’re coming back to The Kitchen!

I came here on a weekend night after First Friday — living in Tampa, this was my first venture into St. Pete nightlife, and left me with a great impression. This place was really cool, and for such a busy night, the service was outstanding! The moment we sat down our server took our drink and food orders and came back several times to check on us. She was really nice and definitely knew what she was doing. We didn’t get to try the sushi, but the wings and fries were ridiculously delicious and the drinks were strong. What else can you ask for?
I love how you can sit on the sidewalk and people watch here. I really can’t compare this kind of atmosphere to anywhere in Tampa honestly. It’s really fun and I will definitely be back for the sushi sometime soon!