Local Kitchens — Restaurant in Lafayette

The Sumo Crunch Sushi Burrito was pretty good. Conceptually, the restaurant works pretty well. The staff very courteous and handled a busy night and lots of orders really well. Good for late night take out, but low quality of food from my order. Perhaps, I'll try one of their many burgers next time.

The Salmon Samba Burrito was more like a tuna salad wrap. Tons of lettuce, and the salmon way dry, like the consistency of canned tuna. It was so full of lettuce, it exploded open when I took the wrapper off.

Tikka Masala Burrito with Paneer was flavorful, but it's was gross and plain. Mushy rice with hardly any paneer. Not fun to eat at all, just plain.

Half and Half Lumpia were extremely greasey and couldn't tell them apart, if I even got different kinds. They all tasted the same, greasy little egg rolls. What's the point of Half and Half if you don't separate them and they don't taste different?

Chicken Karaage also very disappointing. Not flavorful at all. Very bland.

The dipping sauces on the other hand, everyone I tried was delicious. Loads of flavors and helped the entrées, but not great when the side sauces are the best thing...

Holy Moly,

I was just driving on Mt Diablo Blvd in Lafayette around lunch time, wondering what I could have for lunch that wouldn’t kill the progress I’m making at the gym.

I drove past the minimalist sign “Local Kitchens: Micro Food Hall”, and was intrigued enough to make my 3 rights to get a closer look.

I walked in to the rather minimalist storefront and was immediately approached by a friendly dude, let’s call him “Austin”, but mostly because that’s his name. Austin gave me a great overview of the business model and answered all of my questions. He knew so much, I actually asked if it was his brain child!

To sum it up far less eloquently, Local Kitchens partners with other local small restaurants to bring their menu fresh to more people. Staff are trained to cook the foods exactly as you would have it at the original locations.

I love the options they had, which could EASILY please my family of 5 picky eaters. And you don’t have to sacrifice the freshness to be able to eat together as a family from different restaurants.

I love this concept, and I loved my experience with Local Kitchens...

We ordered for the first time today for lunch. We ordered pork sisig with rice from Señor Sisig and, from Oren's Hummus, a falafel pita and side Israeli salad. The sisig was fine, but the rice was a little old (my mom described it as old, dried arroz caldo); luckily she had some freshly cooked backup rice at home to have with the meat.

The falafel pita was horrible. It smelled old, which I believe was from tahini sauce that was off. The tahini made the pita very wet, so it was a soggy, smelly mess. The falafel was also cold and seemed like it was fried yesterday. The Israeli salad smelled normal. I couldn't eat the pita and am hesitant to eat the Israeli salad because I don't want to get food poisoning (as I am 39 weeks pregnant). I will probably not order from Local Kitchens anymore and will get my falafel pita from Kabab Burger in Lafayette instead, and will just get sisig directly from Señor Sisig or Goldilocks in Concord.

On a positive note, Oren's green "harissa" sauce had a nice flavor so would have been nice if the falafel...