Kitchen Tribes

• 555 Phoenix Street
• South Haven, MI 49090
• (269) 247-1264
• Website
• Menu

OK, so this is a little unusual. It’s not unusual that I will write a blog post for a restaurant I’ve already been to if it’s been a couple years and there’s been some changes.

But I just wrote a blog post on Kitchen Tribes about a month and a half ago! But there’s been A LOT of changes in a month and a half.

We decided to go to the beach a couple of Sunday’s ago. We tend to go later in the evening as the tourists head back to their beach houses and head out for dinner. There’s not as many people on the beach and it’s easier to find parking.

We planned to only be there for an hour or so and that’s about what we did. Before leaving town, one of the kids wanted ice cream and the rest of us wanted something to eat. McDonalds is always an option…but South Haven has places way better.

J suggested Kitchen Tribes. We didn’t realize the menu had changed so drastically, but that didn’t really matter. They still had what we were looking for.

Kitchen Tribes is in the old Dairy Queen building on the south side of South Haven’s downtown. Th building is on Phoenix Street just north of Broadway. The thing that you immediately notice is the parking lot that used to be between Dairy Queen and City Hall is gone…and for good reason.

When I was at Kitchen Tribes back in May, it was more of a physical Ghost Kitchen. They had several popular online ordering kitchens running out of the old Dairy Queen space. Those are gone and the property has been turned into a food court. This is about as close as they can get to Traverse City’s The Little Fleet…which would be awesome in South Haven…but the downtown restaurants have fought it tooth and nail…they claim that part of the “South Haven experience” is to wait four hours for a table..

We started first with ice cream. B didn’t want food. He just wanted ice cream. You no longer go inside the building for anything. The ice cream walk up window is in the front of the building on Phoenix Street. J took him there to get what he wanted while L and I went to order food.

Ordering food is done in the food court. There’s a small shed with a couple of order windows. The menus are on sign boards propped up on either side of the small outbuildings. There are two of the buildings in the food court but only one window was open when we got there just before 8:00 on a Sunday night.

Last time I was there, the food was categorized in to different Ghost Kitchens. I actually ordering a Mr. Beast Burger. All of that branding is gone and the food is now categorized in to Americana, Bloom, and World Fair.

I put in an order for J, L, and I. I gave my name then L and I went to a table to wait for J and B.

The seating area is picnic tables with large sun shades for those hot summer days. There’s also rooftop seating on top of the building. The space is just really relaxed and what we look for after leaving the beach. We’re not the type of people to go sit in a restaurant and eat.

B and J showed up a few minutes after we sat down with B’s “dinner.” He got an Oreo Blender. He was even nice enough to share with L and I.

J also got a Peanut Buster Parfait for herself. We passed that cup around the table too.

A few minutes after we ordered, a woman came out of the building and called out my name. This works when there’s not a lot of people there but it seems some kind of buzzer system would work better on busy days.

I stuck with a burger…cause I like burgers. The Smash Burger is two 6 oz. patties with cheese. I added on bacon and jalapenos for an added cost. The sandwich is a solid smash burger. Nothing fancy but way better than fast food.

I also got an order of fries. They were simple crinkle cuts. Not a lot to them, but there were a lot and the meal quickly satisfied the hunger from a day at the beach.

L ordered the Hawaiian Acai Bowl. This acai is topped with bananas, mango, chia seeds, coconut flakes, and granola. There were a lot of bananas and she took most of them off. She picked this meal because she loves mango. I actually had no idea she liked acai but she ate quite a bit of this bowl and took the rest home for another meal.

J’s pick for dinner was the Katsu Chicken Plate. This meal is Katsu chicken, Hawaiian macaroni, white rice, and teriyaki sauce. The chicken was super crispy and still really juicy. She was a little concerned the macaroni had some kind of shellfish but it turned out that was just carrots. Once we made sure that was safe for her, she ate most of that as well. She was actually the one to ask about coming to Kitchen Tribes on this night because she saw this dish on Facebook and wanted to try it. It did not disappoint.

I totally forgot to get us drinks so J had to go back and got four drink cups. The machines are self serve and they’re outside in a little shed of their own.

The bill for everything, ice cream, food, and drinks…was right around $50.

I could go on and on about food trucks and the fight to prohibit them at the places the people actually want them, but I won’t. Kitchen Tribes figured out a way to do essentially what a food truck park would do and they’re doing it really well.

I absolutely love this concept. If you go anywhere downtown, they’ll have signs saying “No swimsuits.” that’s why South Haven needs walk up windows, food trucks, and in this case, a food court. We all went in our suits, got some delicious food, and got it quick.

I liked Kitchen Tribes as a Ghost Kitchen….I love Kitchen Tribes as an outdoor food court.