Restaurant Review - Inna's Kitchen

Many years ago, when my wife and I were first engaged, we had a Sunday morning ritual: We would walk from our Teele Square apartment in Somerville to Harvard Square.  Then we would buy the Sunday paper, and go to a restaurant that I think was called the Greenery.  Cathy would order sourdough French toast, and I would order the challah bread French toast.  We would share the paper, eat half of what we ordered and then switch plates.

I have missed eating challah bread French toast.  Oh sure, Katz makes delicious gluten free challah bread, but there is just something about going out to breakfast and eating French toast out.

Well, if you’re like me, and love challah bread French toast, have I found a place for you.

Tucked away on Pelham Street in Newton Center is a small place called Inna’s Kitchen.  They will be in business one year next week.  They have gotten great reviews in Yelp, and when I saw that they had gluten free challah bread French toast, was there even a question of where we were going to go, and what I was going to get?

Inna’s kitchen is a small Jewish deli, that is owned and run by Inna and Alex Khitrik.  Inna is also the Chef and Alex is the Gluten free Baker.  They only have six tables inside, and now that it is starting to get warmer, they told me they will have some outside seating as well.

I had a feeling the challah bread was going to be good, since there was a gentleman who was buying a loaf of it.  Apparently, he calls every week, and they make a loaf of challah bread for him.  As long as you call ahead, they will do the same for anyone.

The coffee was serve yourself…they had dark roast, medium roast and decaf.  The coffee was good.

I was just refilling Cathy’s cup when out came our meals.  There it was.  The size of the pieces were normal bread loaf size, but really thick.  Perfectly cooked, nice and brown on the outside with a hint of powdered sugar, and cooked fully through on the inside.  It came with a small side of fruit and some syrup on the side.

I took a bite. 

I wish I had a better vocabulary than I do, because then I could fully describe how it tasted.  Since I don’t, let me put it this way.  Sometimes when something tastes really good, I eat it very slowly so I can savor every bite, and sometimes I shovel it into my mouth as quickly as possible because it’s so good.  In this case, it was the latter.

For the full gluten people, I was told that the bagel and lox were fabulous, and the cheese blintzes were very good. 

They have a number of gluten free items, including vegetable lasagna, carrot cake cupcakes and black and white cookies.  I can’t wait to try them all…if I have room after I eat my challah bread French toast.