Today it was my pick and I decided to venture into the popular area of the city just north of Forest Park frequented by many of our graduate students and post-docs (as well as my daughter), the Skinker/DeBaliviere area. That is where you find The Kitchen Sink, a well reviewed neighborhood diner with a Cajun emphasis on its menu. We decided to park on Pershing and walk down to it, and we noticed we passed by a place called 2Shae Cafe which looked like a reasonable place to eat and with a clever name. That may have to be another review.
The Kitchen Sink is located on the bottom floor of a large apartment building, which means it always has plenty of potential customers nearby. It is an older building which gives it plenty of charm, but also some bad acoustics, and the place was pretty loud, making table conversations a bit difficult. There is a central bar in the dining area with the tables located all around it, and the waiters and servers all wore different T-shirts with different sayings on them. We were seated at a raised table with bar height seats, which are always a pain to use. We also noticed the music selection was odd and inconsistent, with a song playing and then stopping for a long pause of silence before another song would play. It was not pop music from any era, I am not sure what it was. All I know is it was loud and distracting when it was on, and then it would stop.
The menu at the restaurant consists of breakfast food, specialty sandwiches and burgers, and Cajun entrees. Many of the items looked pretty intriguing to me, but I decided on the Four Horsemen (a Cajun sampler of four dishes), my daughter selected the El Classico steak quesadilla, my son ordered the Breakfast Burger, my wife ordered pancakes with sausage and my mother-in-law ordered french toast with bacon.
After we ordered we had to wait quite a while as the service was pretty slow. The group at the table next to us had already been there when we arrived and it took a while for their food to arrive, and it finally took about 20 or 30 minutes after we ordered for our food to finally appear. It all arrived together except for the French toast which took a few more minutes for the first ones came out soggy. The serving sizes were pretty large and I looked at my Four Horsemen trying to decide how to attack it.
The SBR (sausage, beans & rice) were just okay, and the Jambalaya was pretty good, but the two I really enjoyed the most were the Etoufee with shrimp and the Seafood Gumbo. Despite being served all next to each other the four dishes each had their own distinct flavor and they blended together very well. I was stuffed to the gills but enjoyed eating it very much.
My daughter loved her quesadilla as well and my son ravenously devoured his burger. The burger meat patty was large, but my daughter (who sampled if) noticed the meat was not the best quality (as compared to a place like Five Star Burgers.) My wife thought the pancakes and sausage were fine but nothing too special and my mother-in-law liked the bacon and thought the French Toast was fine. They definitely excel more at their more original, Cajun inspired fare, but can also make decent breakfast food for those who prefer.
On the restroom check, others said they were okay but needed some maintenance. They were trying to make them nice and upscale with real doors on the stalls, nice smelling soap and real paper towels. However, the walls were not fully painted and the grout by the floors was not well cleaned.
Overall, I would say their originally inspired dishes are creative and very well prepared, but their service and atmosphere leave a bit to be desired. We liked the food enough to go back again but wished their ambiance was more appealing.
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