Kitchen 64

On a friend's recommendation, we decided to stop by Kitchen 64 on N. Boulevard. Warned of long wait times, we made a Sunday evening visit (which may or may not be a good thing considering the large number of families there). In any event, a wait for a table for 4 was running 30 minutes !! We got lucky with a table for two outside on a muggy evening. The storm clouds slowly gathering strength in the distance made for a pretty sight.
This place was hopping !! All ages seemed to be represented. Next to us a group of young women were celebrating a birthday. Behind us, a family of 6 chowing down burgers. All of this gave an impression that the meal was something to look forward to.
10 minutes pass. The menu, a collection of laminated sheets was now in its second iteration. Something to drink perhaps, a glass of water maybe? Finally, our waitress appears. Um...ok..this place is busy. "Just water please thank you very much". another 5 minutes. The water appears, the waitress disappears. You get the idea. The service was simply shoddy. Being busy is really no excuse.

Finally we order, a cup of gazpacho to start (it is a hot day!) and a pizza each (a little miscommunication I guess, I would have ordered a sandwich just for variety if I'd known my companion was getting a pizza :)). Mmmm...Thin crust. This should be good. The menu is rather extensive and very basic stuff - a lot of sandwiches, burgers, salads and entrees. Having had a late lunch, we decided to skip the heavy looking pastas and lasagnas (good choice in retrospect as we spied a huge plate loaded with a monstrous slice of lasagna making its way to the next table).
The gazpacho was chunky! Like salsa. Being a bit of a smooth/pureed-gazpacho person, I was quite curious and actually did some research on this, coming across an essay by Alice B Toklas on the subject
http://www.soupsong.com/ftoklas.html.
Anyways, this gazpacho wasnt very good. The chunkiness may have been a part of it but the tomatoes didnt taste very fresh and the overall effect made me quite queasy.
Portions sizes are HUGE !! Plates laden with large burgers and fries passed us by and we looked on in amazement. Perhaps the draw of this place is the quantity of food to price.

Our pizzas arrived built in pretty much the same fashion. Absolutely overloaded with toppings. The effect was one of being full just on sight. Where did the kitchen arrive at this concept?
My toppings were chicken, onions, roasted peppers and mushrooms. A single bite of this heavy slice was enough to tell me that this should have been in the oven longer. (btw, I did corroborate this by baking my leftover pizza for 10 minutes the next day. Verdict: Somewhat better than this awful agglomeration of toppings). Yes, I could have sent it back but there were portions that were done and others that werent and sticking it back in the oven in toto wasnt going to help.
The second pizza was marginally better with tomato, basil and mozarella - a classic favorite but even this one had what were almost, slabs, of mozarella and soggy tomato slices. How can one possibly ruin a basic margherita pizza? What a comedown from a place like 2 Amy's. Yes, of course this isnt a pizzeria but.....
Somewhere towards the end the meal, our helpful waitress stops by to inquire if wanted red pepper flakes or fresh parmesan. Why? thank you but we're almost done. Could we get some water please, when you get a chance? Dessert, nope. We're out of here.
Do the patrons of this restaurant feel like they're getting a great deal on so much food for cheap? Sandwiches for under $10 (entrees marginally higher). Our meal came to $20-$30 with tip.

Bottomline: Very unsatisfactory. C-. We may have ordered wrong so I am perhaps prepared to pay this place a second visit. Besides, we didnt try any of the interesting looking entrees and stuck to the rather simple stuff. Maybe they're good. But this place disappointed on every metric. The decor-very basic, generic restaurantish. Why are people flocking to this place?

Kitchen 64: 3336 North Boulevard, Richmond VA 23230 Google Maps.