Maureen's Kitchen — Restaurant in Town of Smithtown

October 29, 2021

Maureen’s Kitchen 108 Terry Road Smithtown, New York 11787

Attention: Maureen

I have wonderful memories of your early beginnings in the small restaurant across the street where I, along with many others would wait patiently in line to get inside and eat like we were going to the electric chair. Those early beginnings were the precursor for the Maureen’s Kitchen that we know and love today.

The long, hard hours that you and your husband put in essentially laid the foundation for the magnificent establishment that exists today. I eat there often and love each and every member of your excellent staff. I always ask Doreen how her mom and dad are doing.

You should be so proud of your personable, professional, polite and efficient children and grandchildren who reflect the values that you and your husband instilled in them. Doreen (my favorite), Christine (the best baker on the planet) and Kevin (his soups are Amazing) are living testimony to how you raised them. Michelle, Tommy, Morgan, Joe, and the entire staff are second to none. They are all hard workers and no matter what kind of a day they are having they ALWAYS provide service with a smile and check constantly to make sure that the customers are happy and satisfied. The Bus Boys work extremely hard to clear the tables so that more customers can be accommodated and the receptionists are always super nice.

The daily menus offer a variety of selections for breakfast and lunch all of which are absolutely delicious. The soups made by Kevin and the cooks are the BEST. I love eating at Maureen’s and do so often.

I salute you and your hubby for the manner in which you raised your Amazing children. Their everyday interaction with the customers is a direct reflection on the value systems that they learned from the two of you. Thanks for having created this Amazing, Awesome establishment that is affectionately called Maureen’s Kitchen, and loved by all.

Doreen tells me that you occasionally stop by the restaurant. I hope some day to be there to personally thank you for all that you have done for the community and the customers who love you.

Respectfully submitted,

Clifford S....

Just want to preface, I'm the person who rarely everrr sends a meal back or complains about an establishment, but I was recently bummed about my experience at Maureen's Kitchen because of how a situation was handled by the manager.

I put in my name and then parked the car with my husband. We were supposed to wait 15-20 minutes before being seated, which we were completely fine with (we've been to Maureen's enough to know there is a wait). But after awhile, I started to think we may have been skipped over. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt first (maybe the doubles that went in were sitting at the counter?), but after a decent amount of time, we asked and we were skipped over. The manager took notice and we didn't throw a fit at all. We were kind. Things happen and we understand. She brought us in and we sat. When we got to the table, we figured we would ask the waiter if it was possible to be compensated a bit due to the mistake. Maybe a free cup of coffee or tea? From putting in our name till we sat and asked our waiter, it was 50 minutes! We at least doubled our wait time. He said he would ask the manager (BTW our waiter was great). The response: all she did was walk on by, and said in passing as she went to do something else, "it wasn't that long of a wait, I looked at the list." I guess that was her way of saying, "no?"

We didn't even have a chance to chat with her. It just came off so stinking rude. We landed at Maureen's before 11 and sat at the table at 11:50. What's a $3.25 cup of coffee just to make your customer feel like you care about their business? Not for nothing, we had somewhere to be so we were looking at the time. Basically, what she was really saying is we weren't telling the truth. If she said, "no" but took the time to chat, we would have even been alright with that. You just want to feel valued when you spend money at an establishment.

I love Maureen's. Never had an issue with staff or food previously. Have taken my family there & friends who come to visit. My husband and I go there often but this kind of just put a bad taste...

The AMBIANCE. We sat at the counter as it was very crowded and the wait for a table would have been over 30min, while the counter was only 10min. It is a bit noisy at Maureen's Kitchen and parking was not fun. They only accept cash (no credit, no debit) but if you call and ask in advance, they might take a check. It's definitely on the expensive side, we spent $73 for breakfast for two, with tip. That said, we do have enough pancake & French toast leftovers for another meal. Our server was very attentive and we didn't really need to ask for anything, she was always right there and knew when we needed something.

The FOOD. We ordered: two hot chocolates, one side of sausage, two sides of bacon, one order of chocolate chip pancakes and one order of apple stuffed French toast.

We loved the sausage! It was really delicious. Can't say enough good things about it.

The chocolate chip pancakes were excellent. The pancake flavor was just so very good. We were surprised that the chips were placed on top and not mixed throughout the pancakes.

The stuffed French toast (apple) was very good. I did want the raspberry stuffed French toast but they were out of it. They accidentally made a blueberry stuffed French toast and gave pieces of it to the diners at the counter to try. It was also good. After seeing the reviews, I wish I had ordered the croissant French toast with raspberry preserves but they were out of raspberry French toast so it might not have been available anyway. The stuffed French toast was good but on a croissant was something different that I didn't see on the menu until it was too late.

The hot chocolate came with a lot of whipped cream. Took a while to get to the chocolate but it was good.

One bacon order was cold but they quickly replaced it after asking if they could re-heat it. Bacon was good.

Our two favorite items were the pancakes and the sausage! Would definitely re-order both should we return, along with trying the croissant...