Ahh tomato.
After a few days of burgers and wings, I decided I needed to have a meal kind of on the light side. To accomplish this, my buddy and I went to The Kitchen in Silverlake. The exterior of the place has a pretty cool mural and the interior has a nice vibe that is neither upscale, downscale or hipster. Basically, it’s the kind of place that should be in every neighborhood. At least by the looks. The menu was pretty simple and although their cheeseburger was tempting, I forced myself to order some chicken.
My eyes first went to their Pan Seared Chicken entree, but I was told this would take at least 20 minutes and I am no time millionaire. Instead, I ordered their Grilled Lemon Chicken Sandwich ($12). The menu said it came with provolone, apple honeywood smoke bacon (different from applewood?), lettuce and basil mayo on a LaBrea Bakery baguette. Everything except the lettuce sounded great, so I ordered it without and chose their garlic mashed potatoes over fries for the side that came with my meal.
In far less than 20 minutes, the sandwich was in front of me, but this couldn’t possibly have been the sandwich I had ordered, as there was a sickeningly red tomato slice residing in each half of the sandwich. But upon closer inspection, I saw that the rest of the sandwich was all of the ingredients I had expected. Disappointed, I lifted the top off the sandwich, discarded the tomato and did my best to wipe away any reminder that a tomato had once resided in my sandwich.
With the dirty business finished, I finally started eating. The bread was quite delicious and the sandwich in general made me happy. The chicken was moist and the bacon was dry and crispy, which made the two a perfect pair. There was a little too much mayo for me, but otherwise there wasn’t much I would change. The mashed potatoes were a nice addition to the meal and although they definitely had garlic, it wasn’t overwhelming.
The Kitchen ended up being just the place I needed for dinner that night. It was a light, but tasty meal and the kind of place I would definitely return next time I’m in that kind of mood. Now, if only they would list tomatoes on their menu so I can avoid a future encounter of the vegetable kind.
