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Dining Out at: Kristis Kitchen
- by Allison H. McAlister -

After a long day at the office, your stomach is growling on your ride home. Famished, you think how great it would be to get home and enjoy a home-cooked meal. Maybe fried chicken and mashed potatoes... or wait, spaghetti would be really good too. Only trouble is, after a day like youve had, the last thing you feel like doing is spending time in the kitchen cooking anything. Guess what? You dont have to. Gather up the family and head on out to Kristis Kitchen on Turkey Point Road for some delicious home cooking. Located right off the water in the Rockaway Beach community, Kristis Kitchen boasts a family-friendly atmosphere where everything is homemade. Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, the menu is extensive and varied. Guaranteed you will find something thatll hit the spot. Whether youre in the mood for soup and salad, sandwiches or burgers, a surf and turf platter featuring a juicy steak and delectable seafood, or even a western omelet, Kristis has it all and more. A co-worker and I visited for lunch on a recent weekday where owners Wayne and Dianne Brown and their daughter Kristi treated us to a smorgasbord of food so that we could properly sample some of their famous fixings. We started with a fresh fruit cup, which I especially appreciated since I am trying to eat more healthily. Filled with grapes, pineapple, watermelon and cantaloupe, the fruit was deliciously sweet and tasty. Next we were brought a sampling of their famous salads - egg, tuna, chicken and shrimp. All were really good, but I myself was partial to the shrimp salad. With nice big shrimp, seasoned just right with Old Bay, it was creamy and very flavorful. Their tuna salad was wonderful as well, made with white albacore tuna. We also tried two varieties of wings - the traditional hot wings and their honey BBQ wings. The hot wings are delectable, in a decidedly different sauce than the norm. I believe I detected some parmesan cheese in there somewhere. Very good. My co-worker could not resist the honey BBQ wings, as she fell in love with the delicious homemade sauce they were bathed in. Probably the best wings shes ever had, she said. Kristis offers up a variety of wings, from hot to mild, honey BBQ to Old Bay and more. Wayne said they really go through some wings on Saturday Fight Nights. (Check it out - wings are 25 each on Saturdays.) And we certainly couldnt pass up the crab dip that they brought out, all cheesy and bubbling hot. Served with toasty french bread slices, the ooey, gooey, cheesy crab dip is superb. The next items brought out really appealed to me, a great fan of seafood. We got to try the crab cake, the fish fry and the butterflied shrimp. While I loved it all - the crab cake had nice big lumps of crab and very little filler and the fish fry was delicious, flaky cod - my favorite was the handbreaded butterflied shrimp. Yum! The big, succulent shrimp were lightly breaded so the flavor of the shrimp could really shine through. Im hooked! Though at this point we were stuffed, we also had a sample of their Chicken Parmesan, served with spaghetti and a spectacular homemade sauce. Wow! This dish was really super tasty. The chicken was tender and flavorful and the sauce was outstanding. This was definitely one of the best Chicken Parmesan dishes Ive ever tried. I even liked it better than the one I make at home! We loved everything we tried at Kristis Kitchen. They also have a great breakfast menu, and my co-worker insists they have the best pancakes shes ever had. The restaurant is currently running early bird specials for breakfast from 7 - 9 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. They also have Happy Hour dinner specials Monday - Wednesday from 4 - 7 p.m., featuring entrees for just $7.99. Other specials are ongoing throughout the week as well, such as half-price burgers on Mondays, $1.50 crabs on Tuesdays and Thursdays and half-price appetizers on Fridays. (And dont forget the 25 wings on Saturdays!) In addition to Saturdays Fight Nights (UFC fights are featured), Kristis really gets into Ravens football. In fact, part of the restaurant has been repainted in Ravens colors and there are lots of Ravens decorations as well. Be sure to check out their upcoming football specials, since theyll be showing every Ravens game this season. And not only do they support the hometown NFL team, Kristis is also a proud sponsor of the areas Comanches little league football team. Wayne, Dianne and Kristi invite you down to meet their wonderful new waitress, Doris, and try one of their tasty homecooked meals. From breakfast, lunch to dinner, you cant go wrong at Kristis, noted a loyal customer, calling the restaurant The best kept secret in Rockaway Beach. Kristis Kitchen, tucked away off the beaten path, is located at 2346 Turkey Point Rd. Open Sunday through Wednesday from 7 - 10 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 7 a.m. - 11 p.m. Offering indoor and outdoor seating, plus carry-out. For more information, call 410-391-1730.