Kitty's North Reading

I had a terrible meal at Kitty's Restaurant & Lounge in North Reading back in '17 and had no interest in returning. For no good reason, I decided to pay them another visit. This time it was a completely different experience. They will cook a pork chop pink, and the service is really great. Nothing is ever a problem.

They have been a fixture in North Reading for over 65 years. The food and service seem to have improved after they briefly got closed down. They proudly call their food family-style Italian American. They incorporated in Mass 02-11-1943.

Kitty's is located on Rte 28 and has a BIG parking lot. Occasionally there are car meets here. This photo doesn't really show the size of the building, but it's big. Need a function room for 150 people? They have it.

The inside must have been refurbed in the not too distant past. It's bright and in very nice condition. The gentlemen in the middle were there on a later visit as well.

The add-on Caesar salad for $1.95. A good-sized salad that was fresh, but the croutons were rock hard. The dressing is excellent. But where is the parmesan? We don't do that said the waitress and got me a shaker of the supermarket parmesan. If this was true, I would have noticed it on previous visits. Ordered it again later, and again no parmesan. You get fresh (cold) bread and rock-hard butter.

Lunch Pasta with White Clam Sauce ($13.50). I ordered it with spaghetti, and when it arrived, it was with linguini. How complicated was my order? The pasta was cooked nicely, and it was a big heap of it. There could have been more clams, but what was there was tender. The sauce for this dish is normally oil, white wine, garlic, and seasoning. I think they may have been a bit too generous with the olive oil. The leftovers were sitting in 1/2 inch of oil in the box, so there was definitely way too much oil. Not a recommended dish. Some of the clams were also gritty.

I found out later that this dish comes with a salad included. Not noticing that was my bad, and I paid for it. 05/12/21

Lunch Broiled Lamb Chops ($16.25). I got three porterhouse chops that were pink all the way and nicely broiled. The Delmonico potatoes, formerly known as cheesy potatoes, were nice and cheesy. The bright green mint jelly was probably from a can but was still tasty.

We can't always eat pretty dishes! Lunch Italian Assortment ($15.25). "Veal Cutlets, Chicken Cacciatore, Meatballs, & Sausage". I think the plural only applies at dinner.

If you pick pasta as your side, you can then pick any sauce listed under pasta dishes. I had no idea and just figured it was the red sauce or the meat sauce. I picked the meat sauce since I have never tried it, and linguini. Just the pasta and sauce are really a full meal on their own. The pasta is cooked al dente, and the sauce was bright and tasty. The meat in the sauce was a bit lumpy and could have been more finely minced. Is there any cookbook anywhere that says cook the pasta in unsalted water?

The veal cutlet was tender. It was at one point crispy but putting the sauce on top of it quickly destroyed that. The Chicken Cacciatore sauce was delicious, and the mushrooms and peppers were not overcooked. The chicken was on the dry side but not completely dried out. The meatball (at 12 o'clock) was seasoned well and really light and tender. The sausage was tender and well seasoned and had some nice grill marks. I didn't realize that the meatball, sausage, and veal cutlet already come with sauce included.

This was a really nice way to try a multitude of items from the menu in one go. Or (in my case) in several meals 😁. Fresh soft rolls with rock-hard butter. What are they thinking! They had stopped the contact tracing at today's visit (05/19/21). It must have been recently since the hostess still gave me the pen, but no form.

Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese Individual Pizza ($10.45) can only be found on the takeout menu. Much confused, I asked my waitress if it was still available? She said it was, sort of. She had to put in a Mac & Cheese individual pizza ($9.45) and then add buffalo chicken (50¢), and that comes out to what was listed on the takeout menu. Look at all that tender buffalo chicken I got for 50¢! The M&C was really good, but the pizza was overcooked on the edges and undercooked in the middle, but this was soo good that I didn't care. I also got some delicious blue cheese dressing (Sauce? Dip?) on the side. Update: This item isn't available anymore and the prices have increased.

On this hot Saturday at lunch, there was more staff than customers, but they probably will get busier later in the day, especially when the 4 o'clock dinner crowd arrives. 06/05/21

I spied these bad boys on a previous visit. Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail (MP $4.50 each). Breadbasket in the back for perspective on the size. These are bigger than humongous! They had a good texture but didn't have much taste, but that is the drawback of farm-raised and frozen. When did you last have a shrimp with some taste? Cocktail sauce, scampi, garlic or alfredo doesn't count. Just tasty shrimp. Despite that, it was interesting eating. 06/19/21

Cup or bowl of clam chowder? Breadbasket again for relative size. This would be a bowl in most places, but here it's a cup ($3.95). Slightly thinner than what I prefer, but the chowder was perfectly adequate. Lots of potatoes and clams. Not sure if the clams were fresh or not, a few were a tad wooden. The chowder needed pepper and lots of salt to come alive. Overall, a decent chowder, and the clams were not sandy. 06/19/21

Everyone is raving about their house dressing, and they even sell it bottled. Today I ordered the $1.95 add-on salad with the house dressing. The salad was very fresh, and the seasoned croutons were really tender and tasty. The salad itself was a bit boring and had just a couple slices of bland onions. The famous dressing I didn't really care for. Too vinegary for me, but at least I have tried it.

Lunch Broiled Pork Chops ($16.25) (w/ Vinegar Peppers & Fried Onions) with Delmonico potatoes as my side. Yes, I really like the potatoes and order them extra cheesy. Not sure if this works or not. The pork chops have fallen off the online menu but are still available. They had me really worried there for a while 😟. I ordered them cooked pink, and they arrived as ordered. A lot of restaurants refuse to cook them pink, so I'm happy that these guys will. These are two thick tender chops, with a nice sear. One loin chop and one porterhouse chop. The pepper and onions are also very pleasant. 06/25/21

Lunch Seasoned Broiled Haddock/Scallop Combo ($16.75) (w/ Lemon Pepper) (w/ or w/o Crumbs). I got the rice pilaff as my side, and it was well seasoned and tasty. The haddock was cooked really well, and so were the big scallops. The whole right side of the plate was scallops. This was a ton of food and an excellent deal. 07/09/21

Address: 123 Main St, North Reading, MA 01864 Phone: (978) 664-4541

A foreign accent is a sign of bravery.
-- Amy Chua