Simply Good Kitchen

The only reason I give this place 4 stars out of 5 is because they don’t have nutritional information on their food. It is fresh, delicious, and fantastic, though! I got a vegetarian dish last time and warmed it up in the oven. The price was good and I made 2 full meals out of it!
I really like that the specials change weekly so there is always variety… and I looveee their peanut butter brownie :)

Just wanted to update. This place really has been a fantastic addition to my grocery shopping. I come semi regularly — definitely twice a month at minimum. Still my ONLY grievance with this place which is why I’ll still only give 4-​stars is that they do not offer any nutritional information. I feel marketing wise it’s counter intuitive at times because they’re seemingly promoting healthier food choices that are made with simple often without preservatives ingredients and are also very alergenic conscious, yet there is no real nutritional information.
When I asked a staff member they did say that «they weren’t nutrionists, but chefs» and so they really weren’t qualified to estimate that information for customers. Totally makes sense as I thought about it that yeah, that’s a completely different field of study and training though obviously related through food. STILL I think this place would benefit on at least getting a nutrition specialist for their more popular products and if not a complete breakdown, at least a caloric range. Currently I just make estimates based on the ingredients and portions, which are also well documented on the label.

Here is a tip. If the lights are on, they are open. So even at 10.30pm, when really tired and driving back from work, if the lights are on you can drop by and pick up a great dinner (I pick up Pad Thai with Chicken, or their Rice Pudding — great comfort food). Perfect for every single guy or gal!

I stop by this place when I am too busy to make dinner! The food here is amazing and the prices are decent. They also have a variety of gluten free meals, and the most amazing GF crust. The meals range anywhere from around $ 8 – 14. If you were to get a meal like this from a restaurant it would be over $ 20 easily. They always have a variety of salads, soups, and entrees. I have never had a bad experience. They also have frozen homemade sausages, chicken wings, etc. The staff is always friendly and helpful.
My favorites: GF pot pie, GF fudge cake, curry soup, polish potato sausages. Although those are my return ticket items, everything here is delicious. The menu changes seasonally too!

We picked up lamb with sides of polenta and baked acorn squash. The sauce for the lamb was flavorful and I really like extra sauce and it was well provided. I was underwhelmed by the lamb itself as well as the polenta but the squash made up for it. It has cinnamon over the top and tasted like candy! It was a little pricey for the meal we received but we were willing to try more.
We also purchased the Chicken Marsala Sausages and we are HUGE fans. We cooked them on the grill last night and they were perfect. Flavorful, firm, and are made without all the crazy additives you find in the grocery store. They were more expensive than the grocery store but we think they’re well worth what we paid and we will be back for more!

Wow — so excited to have found this place! I’ve driven by it about a thousand times and now can’t understand how I managed to miss it for so many years. I had their prepared food — pulled pork sliders and peach & blueberry cobbler — and both were incredible! So happy to have this amazing option (as opposed to more pizza) on the nights I’m too lazy to cook…

Simply Good never ceases to amaze me. The extensive to-​go section has been so helpful during our renovation. They even offered to warm things for pick-​up if we needed it !
I did not think I could love and adore a chilled soup more than their Gazpacho and then this week, I was introduced to their Spicy Chilled Cucumber Soup. The perfect amount of heat with the yogurt, cucumber and dill makes this an outstanding soup.
Once my new kitchen is completed, I’ll be buying your cookbook and trying out some of your recipes !
Thank you for deciding to set up shop in Birmingham !

Yum. I’ve been aware of Simply Good Kitchen but just took one of their classes last night. The food was delicious and the demonstrations were fun and informative – we left the class with lots ideas for making our meal preparations better! What a fun time we had, we will definitely be back.

while I don’t need cooking classes — whenever I have one of those «nothing sounds good to eat» I can always find something here. Love, I mean love their appetizer — with hummus, tabouuli, etc.

Simply Good Kitchen is AMAZING!!! Not only do they have incredible cooking classes, which I highly recommend, they also have an extensive food-​to-​go store filled with all of their mouth watering culinary creations.
My husband and I have taken quite a few of their cooking classes (the perfect steak is my favorite, and my husband loves the Mediterranean but they are ALL great!)
I have to stress that their food to go is one of the best kept secrets in all of Michigan. They have coolers and freezers stocked full of all of the food they make in their classes plus so much more. They have dips, spreads, desserts, side dishes, entrees, nitrate-​free sausages, soups, spice blends, and even kitchen tools. Everything they make is from scratch and contains no chemicals. Trust me, I can sometimes be a picky eater, but my husband has brought home different things from their store that I would never have bought, and they have ALWAYS been good!
We usually stop into Simply Good a couple times a month and stock up on frozen entrees to keep in the freezer for when we just don’t feel like cooking. They are 100 times better than store-​bought frozen dinners and are so much better for you! They are also great to keep in mind for parties as their feta spread, blue buffalo spread, hummus platters and honey-​white rolls will satisfy any crowd!
I would recommend picking up a few different things to try before registering for a class, because once you think you’ve found your favorite dish, there’s another one that comes along to rival it. Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you’re in there, the ladies who work up front are all very helpful and have tried almost everything!

Well this is definitely a treat that you must bring your close friends and loved ones to enjoy. I couldn’t believe it the first time I came. Me and the wife were invited to go with are very special friends Willie and Crystal. Let me just state that this is not a hands on class, it is more of a watch and learn type of culinary art class. The instructors Shanny & Bill compliment each other quite well in the kitchen. The techniques they teach will help you improve your experience when cooking at home.
The first class was on Prime– Rib, and that was a few months ago. the most recent class was based on Crab Cakes and Rice Pilaf w/​creamed cabbage and a wonderful Flour-​less Chocolate Hazelnut cake, and a scoop of home-​made vanilla malt ice-​cream (which was absolutely decadent).
The classes are relatively small and everyone is encouraged to bring their beverage of choice, ours happens to be wine, but feel free to bring beer if you chose to. They have staff on hand that are ready to make your night as memorable as possible, they even provide wine coolers for your wine bottles (nice touch).
Needless to say we were all very impressed with this place and plan on going back as soon as possible!

I had never heard of Simply Good until recently. Some chums of mine had taken a class there and highly recommended it, so I checked it out. At the time, me and the then-​fiancée/​now-​wife were not doing much in the form of dates as we were really busy preparing for our wedding and also trying to save money. We checked out Simply Good though and thought this would be a great post-​wedding date to go on in extended celebration, so we applied to join one of their classes and were accepted to take a class only weeks after we get married.
Wedding happened; honeymoon happened. Yay!
Go back to work — I get laid off from my job. Boo!
Immediately, the missus goes into panic mode and wants to cut all social programs. I swear she’s a Republican-​in-​training (I kid). In the slice-​and-​dice process of all things fun, she wants to cancel our scheduled «sautéed salmon» class. That is where I had to put my foot down. I said, «You can take away trips to Main Art and Ronin, but you will not take this one-​off event away from me! I mean, c’mon… it’s educational for cooking’s sake!»
Fast forward to last night, note I won that battle and even if I lose the war, I am a happy chump.
Simply Good Kitchen focuses on two things — cooking and teaching. On Tuesday through Fridays, owners and head chefs — Shanny and Bill Apodaca — give cooking classes that revolve around the 5 basic cooking techniques that they deem, if mastered, will ensure that every dish you make will be great. Those techniques being sauté, grill, roast, braise and poach.
As you might remember in my rambling, we took the sautéed salmon class last night. In the class, Shanny and Bill demonstrate how to prepare the dishes, then their students get to taste them. These are not hands-​on classes. I would suggest OCC or Schoolcraft for that. Both Shanny and Bill seem to recommend their programs.
The «taste» portions are just regular servings. They started out with a garbanzo bean salad with yogurt dressing. Mind you, when they teach, they are constantly giving tips on how to make your cooking experience better. For example, in our session, Shanny taught us how to properly use and care for your knives and Bill showed us how to taper the sharp taste of an onion (spoiler: soak them in cold water). Students are given print-​outs of the recipes being made and pens are also provided to take notes. Boy, did I ever take notes! I thought I knew how to throw down in the kitchen — not anymore.
Our main entrée was a sautéed salmon served witha salsa of blackened green onion, sun-​dried tomatoes finished with red wine vinegar. It was placed on top of polenta that was layered with carmelized onion and portobello mushrooms.
Seriously, OMG. I never do that EVER, but seriously, the salad was very tasty, but the salmon and polenta — OH MY GOD. I am not a big fan of polenta. I would rather eat cornbread myself. I am not into really eating regular cornmeal, regardless if it’s fried, but the way it was prepared by Bill using Parmesan cheese was enough to change my mind on the mealy dish. And now, I know how to replicate it and I plan to make it often at home.
We finished off with a serving of butterscotch pudding. In the midst of learning how to make this highly-​delectable treat, we learned how to first make caramel (sugar and cream) and butterscotch (add 4 more ingredients to caramel), which blew this lover-of-sweet’s mind on how easy it was to make his favorite treats. Needless to say, I’ll be making homemade caramel and butterscotch soon too.
Simply Good Kitchen also sells «gourmet TV dinners» and many of the signature items that they use to cook with. They sell many cooking utensils that they recommend one should have in their own kitchens.
All in all, our experience was 5-​stars. I wanted to knock off a star, due to the price ($ 58/​person) as at first I thought they were charging a lot for a 3-​course meal. Thing is, the few lessons we got in the class were more than worth the price of admission for people that love to cook but are not close to being chefs. Shanny and Bill do not come cheap and they should not, because they know what they are doing and they provide a great service! Besides, if they were the chefs at a fancy restaurant, we probably would have been paying about the same except without all the lovely educational nuggets.
I hear on Tuesday through Saturday they have a hot dog cart in their parking lot of their establishment from 11am to 2:30pm. You can get Chicago-​style, plain grills hot dogs or their homemade specialty sausages. I will check that out soon and report back.
Seriously, this is highly recommended if you can afford it and love to cook, along with loving to eat.