Kitchen Eighty-Eight — Restaurant in American Fork

A cool, hip, fast-casual eatery that is making its mark in American Fork. The overall experience was enjoyable but lets talk about it!

We found this place online and have placed it on our list of restaurants to try. We were in AF for a softball tournament and thought this would be the perfect opportunity. We had another couple meet us there since it was a Saturday evening. As we entered, we were greeted with a simple bistro-style ambiance paired with a fast-casual feel. We arrived at about 5:30pm and only had a few people waiting ahead of us. The line moved quickly and we placed our order.

We ordered the risotto balls, Tex's Hot Chicken, Pork Sando, and the seasonal Pumpkin Bundt cake. The risotto balls were a 3 at best. The were plated beautifully, but the flavor was lacking and seemed liked they were straight out of the freezer and fried. The accompanied dips were a marinara and pesto (we believe) which were fine. Both sandwiches were good in my opinion. I ordered the Tex's Hot Ckn and I thought the flavor was really good. Good spice, pickles cut through with richness, and the breast was juicy. Loved the fry on it as well. I had sweet potato fries with it which i would have liked a little crispier. My wife order the Pork Sando which was good too. Super tender (since it was a tenderloin) but there were some awkward pieces that were falling out of the sandwich. She had regular fries with her meal as well which were good. Finally, the pumpkin bundt cake was great! Flavor was super good!

My only critiques would be once the place got busier, the staff had a harder time clearing off tables and getting people a seat. Also, the food was overall good but since it was a fast-casual experience, the quality slightly suffered. The risotto balls were not a winner and the drink station was a hot mess since ice was dumping out of it and the water was just a trickle.

Overall, I would come back and recommend it to anyone. It seems to be a fun place, priced appropriately, and good...

I've heard so many great things and finally came here for the first time on a Friday night. First off, it was packed. The line was wrapped halfway around the restaurant. There was only one cashier. We waited in line for about 40 minutes before we were able to order our food.

The restaurant was clean, decorated well, and simple. I ordered the chicken tacos with sweet potato fries as recommended by the cashier. My husband ordered the steak and we ordered the bruschetta to start with. Our friends ordered the tacos as well, both steak, sweet potato fries, and side salad. They ordered the fried risotto to start.

The appetizers came out about 15 minutes after we ordered. The fries risotto was nice and crisp. The marinara sauce was flavorful but we felt like the breading of the risotto was lacking and kind of bland. The bruschetta was much more flavorful but the temperature of each of our pieces was inconsistent. Some were cold and others were semi warm.

Our food came out probably another 15-20 minutes later. Everything looked really good but unfortunately most was lacking flavor. I absolutely couldn't stand that the tacos were on a tortilla that's purchased from the grocery store and not made fresh. It needed much more sauce, jalapeño, and mango. The chicken was tender but it needed to be cooked much longer on the outside to create a better texture for chicken tacos. There just wasn't a ton of flavor. The sweet potato fries made up for the tacos. They were very good and perfectly salted. The steak wasn't seared nor cooked to how my husband asked. The green beans were nothing special and the mashed potatoes were pretty watery and needed more flavor. Everything was pretty bland. That was very disappointing.

The restaurant was jam packed. People were standing around after they ordered because there was no where to sit. The parking lot was packed as well.

I wasn't impressed and would be perfectly content not...

We were so excited to try out a new restaurant since we are not from Utah County but it was very disappointing.

We took a look at the menu and decided what we wanted. After we told the employee what we wanted, she then informed us of them being out of the original fries. Which in my opinion is a staple item to be out of. We were not too bothered and pivoted. Our friends that were with us tried to order Risotto and the employee stated they were out of that. She then tried to order hot chicken sandwich and was told they were also out of that. They tried to order a fourth item and was again told they were out of it. She decided to just order mashed potatoes at that point because that’s the only other thing she would eat off the menu. It was quite upsetting that we were only told what was out when we tried to order it instead of up front. We probably would have left and went somewhere else if we had known. The managers need to do a better job at training their staff to be upfront about those things, that is just bad service.

We were trying to remain hopeful that the food would be good but it was just okay. We probably could have cooked some of the food better ourselves. We ordered the tri-tip, the steak tacos with sweet potato fries, the pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes and the pesto gnocchi. The steak tacos were pretty good and the sweet potato fries that came with it were crispy and well seasoned. The tri-tip was good was a little cold and the mashed potatoes tasted like they were instant potatoes. The pork tenderloin was already but very bland and the risotto tasted like grits, just very underwhelming for the price. The pesto gnocchi was flavorful and tasted good.

Overall, the food was not worth the price. For them to also be out of some staple items on the menu is really upsetting and it was only Saturday night around 7:30pm. I don’t think we would...