Luke's Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Maitland

After my experience here my guests and myself were all disappointed that we had never been to this restaurant before.

I came on a moderately busy Tuesday night. Asked for a booth on my reservation and we were given a nice quiet booth near the bar which was perfect.

My guests ordered the Deviled Eggs as an appetizer which they thoroughly enjoyed and was modified without jalapeno and arrived promptly. I'm not a deviled egg person but I regret not trying one as they came perfectly plated. I ordered the Blackened Fish Collar and the Roasted Oysters. They took a few minutes but again arrived perfect and the staggered timing allowed for a more proper coursing of the appetizers in true tapas style. Fish collar was delicious and earthy with the scallions and salsa verde and the whole table was impressed. The roasted oysters were also really good. I did not care for the crunchy corn nut garnish but the composition of the dish was still spot on.

The entrees also took a few extra minutes to arrive but they were cooked to order and they came out perfect. One of my guests ordered the Swordfish Schnitzel, the other Red Snapper, and I ordered the Artic Char. The swordfish was perfectly fried and the green tomato tartare was delicious. The red snapper was also amazing served with farro which my guest had never eaten but thoroughly enjoyed.

The artic char served with an amazing honey mustard sauce and red potatoes and topped with a delicious frisee was one of the most outstanding and well composed dishes I have ever ordered in my entire life. I'm so impressed with that dish it's the reason I wrote this lengthy review. It is also going to be the reason why I don't think I can ever go to Maitland again without stopping in to explore more of their menu.

The atmosphere of this restaurant is outstanding. The layout is perfect. Staff is warm, attentive, and inviting. The time between dishes and courses could be seen as a negative but the restaurant was moderately busy and the food over delivered on high expectations we had going into the experience. Luke's Kitchen & Bar is a destination.

For dessert we finished with the Banana Upside-down cake which had nice fusion of caramel flavor and along with a glass of Grenache was a perfect ending to a perfect meal.

Good...

In my top two meals in the four years I’ve lived in Orlando. Well worth the drive from Winter Garden.

The food was very fresh and served hot—sadly, that alone makes it stand out these days. But this place goes well beyond just getting the basics right.

We started with the fried green tomatoes topped with a creamy rock shrimp Louie. There were three of them, and I almost didn’t offer to split the last one. I paired it with a dirty martini—expertly made, and topped off with hand-packed blue cheese olives filled with high-quality cheese. Obvious care went into them. My wife had some kind of strawberry-basil concoction that she loved.

I skipped the oysters. Learn from my mistake. The menu just says “oysters,” so I assumed all gulf. Nope. They’re seasonal, curated, and priced really well. Still kicking myself.

For entrées, my wife went straight for the crab cakes. She said they had big chunks of crab and ranked them in her top five all-time—and that’s coming from someone who’s had them at places like Joe’s in Chicago. I finally settled on the Florida red snapper. It came with a white bean ragout and carrots that was honestly remarkable, and I paired it with an Elizabeth Spencer chardonnay. The fish was perfectly cooked, with a beautifully caramelized crust.

Now, I’d be remiss not to mention the fries. Yes, the fries. Ridiculously good. No ketchup, no sauces needed—and I’m usually a ranch or BBQ dipper. Not here. I couldn’t stop eating them. Silly to rave about fries? Maybe. But they earned it.

For dessert, we had key lime pie with a sharp mango sauce on the side. It let you control the pucker per bite, and I went all in while my wife took the more refined route. We both loved it—and took home a slice of banana upside-down cake for tomorrow. Or maybe just later tonight.

Bottom line: It was pricey—about $190 before tip—and absolutely worth it. We’ll be back,...

I took my husband here for his birthday. He has been wanting to go here for years and we finally went!

I never leave bad reviews but when you spend $$$ on two meals and an appetizer you hold a high standard.

Unfortunately, we had a horrible experience - with the food. Our waiter was attentive minus a couple of things that I will mention below.

We were greeted with a smile from the hostess and sat right away at our table.

Our server came over with a smile as well and a nice welcome.

I was thankful he asked us if this was our first time at Luke's Kitchen because it gave him the opportunity to tell us about the menu.

We began our order and we were excited to try such unique combinations of food.

We were pretty happy until my husband's NY strip came out. He ordered it medium and it came out very well done. Not only that but it was burnt. Not charred- which we like- but burnt. We waited for our server to come check on us but he never showed so I stopped another server walking by to see if he could help us because my husband was eating all of MY food at this point lol.

The server came right after that and we explained the situation. He tried to say that it got over done because they were trying a new concept with putting the ingredients on top of the steak and he would remake our meal.

The second time the food came out it was not only rare but RAW in some parts yet still burnt in others? We had no more time to have another steak made. We had to be back for our sitter and we were already running late by this time.

It is a few days later and I am still bothered by our experience. I feel like I need to redo my husband's whole birthday dinner now because this restaurant was such a flop for us.

I would not recommend this restaurant to someone because of the lack of care I felt as a customer and the horrible overcooked and...