The Bantam Kitchen

Cuisine American
Price $$ (16-30)
Rating 6/10
Last Visit June 10, 2021
Location Other: Redding

General Notes

A fairly new restaurant serving up Southern food classics like shrimp & grits, po' boys, and Louisiana jambalaya. Reasonably priced, decent food, and fantastic service. Seriously, the servers are so nice. It's in an odd location but worth going out of your way to try.


Dishes Tasted

  • ★★☆☆ Coleslaw -- A bit too creamy and not vinegary enough for me, but that's true of most coleslaw. Still a great side.
  • ★☆☆☆ Pimiento Cheeseburger -- House ground beef, potato bun, pimiento cheese, house sauce, onion jam, lettuce, tomato, pickles. All is well except the patty, which is pretty terrible. The meat is ground very coarsely, which makes it feel like eating many small chunks of meat as opposed to a burger. The burger is also too lean and slightly overcooked.
  • ★★☆☆ Louisiana Jambalaya -- Andouille sausage, ham, peppers, rice, with blackened shrimp. First time having jambalaya, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The flavors are decent but the dish is way too watery.
  • ★★★☆ Shrimp Dip -- Shrimp, cheese, cream, peppers, served with toasted bread (it's not on the menu but I imagine those are the key ingredients). The dip is delightfully tangy and the shrimp works surprisingly well with the other ingredients. Bread is buttery and toasted beautifully, I only wish there were more of it.
  • ★★★☆ Fried Green Tomatoes -- Cornmeal batter, house ranch, hot sauce. The taste and texture of the cornmeal batter was delightful and contrasted nicely with the tomatoes. Ranch and hot sauce is a great combination with the tomatoes. The tomatoes themselves don't have much flavor, but that might just be characteristic of green tomatoes.