Urban Kitchen

Beach food generally stinks. Most places are geared toward large parties and just don’t care that much about the food or the dining experience. Much of it is seafood plunged in hot fat without regard for seasoning or care or taste. Of course there are exceptions, and on the Outer Banks there are plenty of good greasy spoons, but Urban Kitchen is unique among the offerings up and down the Banks in my limited experience.
My wife and I dined here twice during our week stay in Corolla.
First off, you won’t find a fixed menu on the restaurant’s website, which is intentional. The chef changes up the nightly menu regularly depending on what is good and available. I get the feeling there are some staples, but more than likely you will want to get whatever is the off-​menu special for the night — that is generally my rule of thumb for higher end restaurants: get the specials because that is what the chef hand-​picked for service.
The place is sparse and minimal, elegant and modern. It is relatively small with an open kitchen.
On our first visit, my wife got the curried carrot soup, served chilled. It was positively fantastic. The curry tasted like the sweet curry we keep in our spice cabinet, and have mated with pureed carrots before, so it was comfortingly familiar. It was offset by the sweetness of the carrots, supple in texture.
I got the scallop starter which was served on (possibly a take on creamed) corn and a few other adornments. Sorry for not remembering, but this was singularly the best dish we had during our two visits. One thing I enjoy about visiting higher-​end restaurants is that if you keep your eyes peeled, you can pickup many tips to improve your own home cooking. In this case, I will say the lesson is this: when cooking scallops, do not be afraid to take them to a nice dark brown, almost caramelized on one side. And do not flip them! I’m going to have to start taking food porn pictures, but these were darker on one side than any presented in pictures here already. And appeared to not have any heat on the other side — carry over cooking made them absolutely perfect. They were just fantastic.
My wife got the fish of the day which was generically called a drum or croaker. Again my mind is failing me and I forget what they called it. I checked wikipedia later that evening (when I did recall the name), and it is just another name for drum or croaker. It was served on a bed of field pea succotash-​like dish. It reminded both of us to our trip to Paris where she was served a piece of fish over a very similar vegetable preparation, but featured baby fava beans rather than field peas. Absolutely perfect!
My main was the pork chop, topped with a delicious salsa verde. I asked for it to be cooked as the chef recommends and it came out medium, and was perfect. The grit cake was a bit confusing at first, as it wasn’t seasoned (no salt). However, just cut off a piece and eat it with the pork chop and you’ll understand.
On this first visit, we got dessert and went with the chocolate panna cotta served with the burnt marshmallows. Brilliant. We’ve done the 5 dessert course at WD-​50 in NYC before and the creativity in this dish reminded me of that experience. It is at that level of awesome.
The final point to make on our first visit is that on first glance I wished the wine list was more voluminous. However, we were introduced to a local Albariño wine from Sanctuary Vineyards just across the Sound which we loved so much we bought a case of it (Cotton Gin has a tasting room, not too far from the restaurant; google it). One of our passions is finding expressions of traditionally old-​world grapes grown here in the U.S., in and produced in the old-​word style, and this fits that bill perfectly.
On our second visit a few days later, we didn’t do any repeats. I’ll keep this part of the review brief since I’ve rambled on a bit already. I got the crawfish sausage and my wife got the soup special, tomato. Both were as good as we’d come to expect after only a single visit. The pickled cabbage to offset the richness of the sausage was perfect.
For mains, I got the strip steak while my wife got the chicken. We’re used to getting fresh, never frozen chickens at home, and this tasted similar. This is real chicken. And the Greek yogurt with preserved lemons was sublime.
My steak frites was everything I hoped it would be – just perfect.
Perhaps the best part of our two visits was the fact that the chef remembered us from our first visit. Chefs are among my favorite and most respected people in the world, so if I ever get a chance to thank one for a great meal I will. And that’s exactly what we did after our fist visit on our way out the door. There is an open kitchen, so it is easy. Now get this — on our way out of our second visit, we were going to thank him again, and when we did, he said, «Thanks for coming back.» He remembered us from our first visit.

What a treat to find actual good food in a resort town. This place was great. Tiny and only a few tables so prepare for a wait. We lucked out and nabbed bar seats. Decent drink selection. Good was great — we had the horseradish strip steak and pork chop. Both prefectly cooked and seasoned. Bartender was friendly and suggested drinks, let us sample wines, etc. We’ll definitely go back here next year when we go to OBX. We left our 11 month old home with the grandparents that night, glad we did. This place is def. more of an adult spot, not to mention too small to subject the table next to you to your crying kid.

Just weird. We had a party of 10 and were refused seating… and we were willing to split up. 2 minutes later two parties of 6 were happily greeted and seated. We were shocked as we sat outside and saw a larger cumulative group enjoy their meal.
I had to ask… and what appeared to be the owner was adamant that her policy was solid. In the face of logic and the real world example before her, it fell completely flat. I felt like I was in The Twilight Zone. Yikes.

We arrived here on many recommendations from locals and vacationers excited to taste the fare. We showed up at 5.45p ready for the experience. Instead of being met with open arms and seats, of which there were plenty, we were greeted with an invitation to leave. We had a party of ten but stated up front we would be happy to split into two or three tables as the restaurant’s policy is no party greater than eight. The woman (manager or owner?), who did not provide her name, emphasized that she knows how her business runs best and her kitchen cannot handle everyone sitting at once, even split into groups. We said they could space us out, and we were told that under no circumstances would we be seated. She said if we arrived separately (and acted like we didn’t know each other) she would have sat us happily. We arrived in three different cars and asked to be seated separately with separate checks with no demands for the food to arrive simultaneously and she saw this as different.
I asked repeatedly why she could not seat us and the bottom line is ‘I’ve turned away many people and it is my integrity.’ I’ve never seen a restaurant where poor customer service equals integrity. I’m sorely disappointed that a restaurant with supposedly great food has such bizarre and rude «policies» when it comes to seating its guests. Won’t be coming here again.
Bottom line: This restaurant is not group friendly even on a Tuesday.
Happily the restaurant Upside welcomed our group with open arms and we had a great meal. Upside was accommodating, friendly, customer focused, and cooks really great food. If you have a large group head over to Upside.

Boyfriend and I came here tonight. He said it was the best restaurant we’ve been to all week here. I completely agree! For appetizer, we had the shrimp ceviche (corn, shrimps, guac with Fritos!), which is apparently a new dish. Love, love, love! So fresh, so light! It exudes happiness! :) For entrée, I had the pork chop and he had the strip steak. The super thick cut pork chop was cooked to perfection — tender & juicy! I’m not a grits person, but I couldn’t stop eating the cheesy grits I had as my side. Can’t speak much about the steak since I was too busy chowing down my food but the bf couldn’t have made that bold statement if he didn’t like his steak! If I had to give one suggestion, I would say to add a few more girlie cocktail drinks. Our waitress was so nice and she always had a nice big smile. Always love a place with great people and service. Bf wished we had discovered this place sooner so we could come back for a second time. Regrettable that we found this place too late. Definitely next trip!
Bottom line: If you’re in the area, you’ve got to stop by this place for dinner, at least once.

Cute atmosphere. Friendly staff. Entrees were excellent. Appetizer & dessert were ok.

Food was amazing. My wife and I were looking for a place to eat around 845pm but everything seemed close except for this. We’re glad we made it in! Food was a little pricier than expected but definitely worth it! I had the steak ad she had the salmon. Both cooked to perfection.
Menu asked for no substitution and respect the ingredients. We did and we were extremely pleased with the food and service!

We bought a place in Duck this past year and have been to most of the restaurants up and down Duck Rd. in search of «our spot». There are some good go-​tos (Cravings, Roadside, Aqua, Blue Point) but NONE of these compare to Urban Kitchen.
First off, it is a smaller space with a small, but perfect, menu. Great ambiance and service. Good drink selection. But the most important part… THE FOOD! We started with the crab asparagus appetizer which came with, of all things, popcorn. Weird or genius? BOTH! My flounder was cooked perfectly (ie. not overcooked as it usually is everywhere else). All accompanying sides were fabulous and complimentary. My husband loved his entrée too, but I was so obsessed with mine I don’t remember what he ordered.
And then came dessert. We don’t always order dessert but decided to splurge. We had the blood orange cheesecake. Speechless. The ‘marmalade’ was nothing like what you get from a jar. Absolutely delicious. Cheesecake was creamy and succulent without being overly sweet. Then we noticed there were these fine orange crystals on top that seemed to be imparting a unique and yummy flavor. So, we asked our server and she said they were… drum roll… crushed pop rocks.
So, if you are in the mood for a delicious, inventive and reasonably priced Outer Banks dining experience you should consider making Urban Kitchen your spot, too!

This restaurant simply has superb food. It’s small so I’m thankful they don’t accommodate large parties because it was noisy enough.
Food is very fresh with creative ingredients, not the run of the mill tourist food. I had a cold onion soup which was perfection, the grilled swordfish and hubby had the pork chop with a chimichurri style sauce, zucchini salad and a fried hominy cake.
This was our only meal out the entire week and I’m so glad we picked this place. Prices seem to be on par with other places in the area.