A taste of RI

So there's this little hidden restaurant called Mike's Kitchen hiding in a VFW post in Cranston, RI. This is where I just had a "Holiday Luncheon" with my co-workers.

First of all - if you don't know it's there, it just looks like a VFW hall with lots of people there. There are no signs to let you know you've found Mike's Kitchen. Being a Wednesday at noon, I wasn't expecting to see a line of people from the hostess stand all the way back to the door when I walked in, but that's exactly what I found. Luckily we had reserved a table and were able to bypass the line and waiting.

A few things to note: This is a cash only restaurant. The bar is run by the VFW and the kitchen run by (I guess) Mike. So you pay the bar waitress for your drinks and your food waitress for the food. (Similar to the Liberal Club in Fall River, MA) Being a VFW, they reserve time to use the hall AS a VFW Club and are only open select hours.

As a heads up - I am a sucker for the specials board. If anything ever catches my eye on a specials board, I am 99% likely to order that over ANYTHING else on the regular menu. (I'll have to post something on Barcello's in Tiverton, RI whose meatloaf special is out of this world).

So there are a decent number of tables, but at least three large parties with tables squished together took up most of the moderately small dining room. There was all kinds of wonderful food on the menu from veal to chicken to seafood dishes, and I think the most expensive item I saw was the Seafood Diablo at 16.99 (due to the high price of lobster at this time of year, no doubt!). The specials included roasted peppers with goat cheese and roasted pork with rice, but I didn't get much farther down the menu once I saw the roasted pork.

They came out with some sliced bread (super crusty outside, wonderfully soft & fluffy inside) with your choice of butter or margarine and pitchers of water on the table. Others at the table ordered Mike's Chicken (not on the menu, but available, a side of Polenta, the roasted peppers and goat cheese, chicken francaise, the swordfish, an eggplant and wild mushroom pasta, chicken parmesan, broiled pork chops, salmon, and some dish with two stuffed shrimp and some stuffed sole, I think. Everything looked wonderful and I don't think anyone left hungry. (Be warned - with a party of 13, they ran out of room in the broiler and the two chicken francaise dishes came out about 10 minutes after all the other food.)

Overall, the pork was very well seasoned and well cooked but I think I would have been happier to swap out the rice for the polenta I read so many reviews about.

I would probably go back, given the opportunity, and I would like to try the Calamari and the polenta, but that leaves me vegetable-less unless you count the tomato sauce that comes covering the polenta. I'd have to go with someone (or a few people) and share a few plates of food between/among us. While we're at it, we should also order either chicken or veal parmesan!