Kitchen 73 Resto Review

Two brothers who grew up in the restaurant business learned early on that restaurant-goers want simple tasty food at a great price with friendly service.

I paid a recent visit to the Kitchen 73 location in Dollard des Ormeaux (there is another one in Laval) and I have to say from the moment we entered we felt like we were at home. The service was great and our waitress was very accommodating. Once I told her we were gluten-free, the owner came over and gave us the low down.

The restaurant has a separate waffle maker,   separate toaster, and even separate salad prep space and all gluten-free orders are served on red dishes. They train their staff about cross contamination and seem to take the matter seriously.  They make their own gluten-free sausage and hamburger patties and they also have their own bread (toast).

One of the reasons this company is so dedicated and meticulous about doing gluten-free is due to the fact that one of the owner’s family is Celiac. They get it and seem to do a good job of training their staff to “get it” as well.

For those of you concerned about nuts and peanuts I will come right out and say it…..They have peanut butter in-house and all the servers are in contact with it. Of course this was disappointing to us but we did manage to find our way around it. Our server washed her hands before serving our plates and made sure that the kitchen knew about our allergy. That is all they could do at the time. They did let us know though, a credit to them for this, that if we advised them ahead of time that we were coming they would ensure the chef can prepare safely for us. I thought it was a good suggestion and was surprised that they would be so accommodating.

So what about the food we ate, was it good???
The presentation was beautiful. We had a blast knowing we could order something other than pizza and pasta. The toast and eggs were really yummy. My son loved the crepe but note it comes with nutella on it which are hazelnuts. (I am sure they can prepare without). There was an abundance of diced hash browned potatoes served on our plates, but we did not indulge as there was parmesan cheese (we think) sprinkled on top.  The waffle was gorgeous, topped heavily with fruit and served with maple syrup. The texture was great but to be honest the flavour was missing a little something without the maple syrup.

About Bread. Kitchen 73 will soon have their own bakery next door where they will make and sell white bread, brown bread, cheese bread, onion bread, chia and herb and multiseed bread. All of their breads are dairy-free except for the cheese bread.  The restaurant will have pizza by March and will also be making hamburger and submarine bread for those who want gluten-free sandwiches.

Unless you’re in a restaurant that specifically serves GF and allergic customers there are never any guarantees about safety and knowing as we do that Celiac and peanut allergies is a tough combination, we come prepared with questions to feel as safe as we can.

If you’re planning a visit, I suggest calling Kitchen 73 ahead and making a reservation. We went on Sunday at 1pm and it was packed when we arrived but were seated within minutes.

Kudos to Kitchen 73 for really stretching themselves, making every effort to accommodate us.