The Chelsea Kitchen is one of those places that you just can’t put together. It’s located in the trendy Chelsea area with the nearest tube station being Sloane Square. At first I thought that this place was simply another English greasy spoon but upon closer inspection of the hand written menu hanging outside, it is clearly at least an Italian equivalent with greasy-spoon like prices.

Inside it looks very genteel, with the top floor filled with brightly lit wooden booths and the downstairs just as antiquated. We ate on the bottom floor at a large wooden table that could have easily been a wine cellar in a former incarnation as indicated by the arched wooden slates around us. Unfortunately the décor doesn’t really go hand in hand with all the other offerings of this place.

The prices at this place are dead cheap, and if the décor looks this good, something else had to give. In our dining experience it was the service that we received, and the presentation of the food that suffered the most, but thankfully not the food itself as much.

When we first arrived at the Chelsea Kitchen we were told to go downstairs since the upstairs was busy. After wandering around downstairs (there’s no obvious queuing, nor waiting area) we asked one of the attendants who rudely told us to return upstairs because it was full downstairs. We walked back upstairs and since we were hungry, I was almost ready to leave for another place until the owner took us back downstairs and got the waitress to find us a table. After that we actually had quite a nice waitress attending to us but she only came to take the order and deliver the food, and not check up on us throughout the meal.

The menu is interesting as it looks hand written and I take it as a good sign that it must change a little bit from season to season. There are plenty of dishes to pick from depending on how hungry you are from various types of starters, sandwiches, salads, pastas, grills, and puddings. At the price of the mains (none exceeding £6) we received decently sized meals (served with both chips and vegetables). It’s not presented beautifully. In fact, the food sits on a plate you would expect to see at your typical English greasy spoon café. Thankfully looks aren’t everything and both of our meals (the Veal Escalopina Ala Diavola and the Chicken Parmigiana) were extremely delicious and very filling.

The Chelsea Kitchen appeared extremely popular and with good reason for its affordable and hearty meals. It’s never going to win awards for service especially the excessively fast turnaround of customers but I’m sure there are plenty of places in that area if you really want that.

Details: The Chelsea Kitchen
Found on: 98 Kings Road, London, SW3 4TZ
Contactable on: 0871 3328713
Highlights: A place consistently serving hearty meals at very affordable prices. A large variety of offerings from English and Italian foods. The layout is slightly dated, but does add a bit of charisma to the place.
Room for improvement: Service can be shocking if it’s busy, and don’t expect Michelan star presented or quality food.
The Kua Rating: 7 out of 10