MEDITERRANEAN KITCHEN
ADDRESS: 270 Lorton Avenue, Burlingame, CA 94010
WEBSITE: https://www.mkburlingame.com/
On my first night up to visit my cousin Linda and her family, we decided to venture out into the neighboring town of Burlingame to get some dinner. One place she recommended that their family enjoyed was a spot called Mediterranean Kitchen, which was actually down the street from another restaurant called Mingalaba that they took me to on a previous time I had visited them. It was right around 6:30PM when we stopped into Mediterranean Kitchen, right around prime dinnertime.
I was not expecting the contemporary style décor in the dining area, which was highlighted by a textured wooden wall on the long-side of the restaurant, with embossed gold lettering with the restaurant name along with the restaurant logo. The entire area was brightly lit, with a number of booths and free-standing tables for inside seating options. If the weather was nice enough, there was also a patio area that you could choose to sit at as well, fitted with overhead heating lamps too. With our larger group, we decided to take seats inside.
The menu at Mediterranean Kitchen featured plenty, including entrée plates of falafel, souvlaki, or shish kebab (to name a few), vegetable plates, gyros, salads, along with appetizers that included hummus, baba ghanoush, and spanakopita. Linda asked me if I’d be open to having her order for our whole table; I trust her taste for food, so I was more than happy to go along with her recommendations. We went for four different entrée plates: combo gyros, kofte, lamb shish kebab, and stuffed eggplant.
Even though there were a good number of tables occupied when we got there, I thought that the kitchen staff was able to turn out our plates of food in a pretty quick amount of time. Each of the plates came with rice, hummus, and house salad to complement the main entrée. Everything looked really fresh and the aromas coming off the food really made me want to dig right in.
I started off with a piece of the lamb shish kebab along with some of the hummus. While there was a nice char flavor on the lamb itself, I did find it to be overcooked and ended up being more chewy than I would have liked. The hummus though, now that was really on point. It had a really creamy and smooth texture to it, while still maintaining that earthy flavor from the chickpeas. The aromatics from the spices within the hummus were also noticeable too, but not in an overpowering way. Truth be told, the hummus ended up being my favorite food out of everything I ate during the meal.
The kofte was next up for me to try, which were ground lamb and beef patties cooked up on the grill. You could definitely taste the spice mixture within the meat as well, and I thought that the meat patties went well together with the rice and hummus if you mixed a bite with all three. The stuffed eggplant was also pretty good too, filled with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and bell peppers, while topped with tomato purée. The eggplant had a nice earthy flavor to mix well with the other vegetables and meat filling. For the combo gyro meat, which was comprised of thinly sliced marinated lamb, beef, and chicken, that also mixed really well with the rice and hummus in a combined bite too. For as small the strips of meat were, the lamb, beef, and chicken really did pack in quite a bit of flavor.
Each of our dishes had really great flavors, with the meats, salad, rice, and hummus complementing each other so well for a nice balance. Even though it was a side, the hummus was the real star of the show for me. The manager (or owner?) of the restaurant was also nice enough to provide us with complimentary pita, so that made for a great way to make sure to clean off the plate of any leftover hummus. All of the ingredients tasted really fresh and I didn’t feel heavy or anything like that after all of that food. If you’re looking to find some great Mediterranean flavors with a variety of different options, Mediterranean Kitchen is a great place to stop in at.
Let’s now take a look at the Mediterranean Kitchen Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
Lamb Shish Kebab Plate
Grilled cubes of herbed and marinated lamb. Served with rice, hummus, and house salad.
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** Combo Gyros Plate **
Slow-cooked and thinly sliced lamb, beef, and chicken. Served with rice, hummus, and house salad.
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** Kofte Plate **
Grilled ground lamb and beef patties. Served with rice, hummus, and house salad.
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** Stuffed Eggplant Plate **
Baked eggplant stuffed with ground beef, tomato, onions, garlic, and bell peppers. Served with rice and house salad.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Mediterranean Kitchen:
Food: 4.75 / 5
There were plenty of different Mediterranean dishes to choose from, the ingredients all tasted fresh, and the flavors came together really well. Slight marks off for the chewy lamb kebabs, but everything else was solid.
Atmosphere: 4.5 / 5
The contemporary décor elements inside really spoke to my style. The bright lighting also helped out with setting the ambiance as well. The seating along the wall was situated closer to each other, but the proximity didn’t feel disruptive at all.
Service: 4.5 / 5
Our food was ready relatively quickly, even with the number of other diners that were already at the restaurant. I’m pretty sure that it might have been either the owner or manager of the restaurant who helped take our order, and he was really friendly. Thanks to him also for the complimentary pita for our table.
Price: 4.5 / 5
The average price for an entrée plate was around $18 while the average price for an appetizer was $8. For the quality of the food, the amount of food, and also the location of the restaurant in a busy stretch off of Burlingame Avenue, I thought the price was well worth it.
Overall:
18.25 / 20
(91%)
Categories: California, Restaurants
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