Kitchen 22 Review

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Intro
Kitchen 22 - Highly Recommended
36 E 22nd St, New York 10010
Btwn Bway & Park Ave S
Phone: 212-228-4399

My parents took me out to Kitchen 22 for my birthday. I almost feel like Paris Hilton with 3 birthday dinners this month. Any who, I picked Kitchen 22 for two reasons. 1) I wanted to pick a relatively inexpensive place that served good food 2) I respect Charlie Palmer a lot - Aureole is my #2 favorite restaurant in the city (my #1 is Daniel at this point). The food here is amazing for the price. For $29.95, you get a really solid 3 course menu that will impress. My parents were commenting they paid $29.95 for a chilean sea bass at a NJ restaurant that wasn't as good as their salmon entree at Kitchen 22. Overall, I give the restaurant an 82/100.

My Menu
Iceberg Wedge Salad - Not Recommended
Grilled Pork - Recommended
Triple Chocolate Mousse with Vanilla Cream - Recommended

Other dishes I tasted
Caramelized Pear Salad - Recommended
Crisp-Skinned Salmon - Recommended
Roasted Chicken - Highly Recommended
Steamed Mussels - Highly Recommended
Upside Down Pineapple Cake Recommended

Dish
Iceberg Wedge Salad was good, but nothing really special. Supposed to have chipotle blue cheese dressing, but the chipotle and blue cheese were really muted. I was still happy with it though. However, I wish I ordered the steamed mussels or caramelized pear salad. I had mussels the night before which were tasty, but the mussels at kitchen 22 was so much better. Mussels were nice and sweet and the broth was super intense spiked with chorizo. Pear salad was a great salad. Sweet pears contrasting the bitter greens. The grilled pork was pretty solid. Wish it could have been juicier, but it was still a great dish. Accompanying collard greens were so good. I would have preferred to order the roasted chicken. A mark of a good restaurant is to serve proper chicken that has juicy meat, crispy skin, and tastes like a proper piece of chicken. Kitchen 22 does roasted chicken properly. The accompanying eggplant caponata was so tasty. Smoky eggplant and sweet raisins complemented the chicken perfectly. Salmon dish was perfectly cooked as well. Crispy skin and perfectly moist salmon. Desserts were solid, but nothing worth writing about.

Overall Restaurant Experience (82/100)

• Food 8.2/10 - Everything is done very well and for the price, it's a great deal.
  
• Service 7.5/10 - Main waitress was very nice with a great attitude. The secondary waitress that helped cleanup the table was terrible. No smiles. Just attitude.
  
• Atmosphere 8/10 - Fun atmosphere and nice decor. Tinier place than I thought it would be.
  
• Price 10/10 - For the quality of the overall experience, you cannot beat this price.
  

Closing Comments
I have read reviews about the long waits, terrible host, and crowded/rushed experience. I did not see any of that, but my reservation was for 5:30pm. From my experience, it seems that everything at this restaurant was done very well. When you visit Kitchen 22, you will experience a restaurant that serves food with very proper technique. I wouldn't call any of the food mind-blowing, but everything we had was pretty solid. And for the price, I think the food is great.