Irina’s Kitchen

Of course they closed I will forever be very sad. Now all that is left is commercial deep fried junk in whitefish bay

I’ve eatin here at least two times a month when I lived in whitefish bay! A small hidden gem. Great breakfast food and friendly service. Tuna melt will make you come back for sure!

This is a charming little diner with a long menu of typical family restaurant offerings – many with an Eastern European/​Kosher deli bent. Nice to have this place as an option across from the posh and slick Bayshore mall.

We happened upon this gem on our way to green bay, and loved it! The German Apple pancake was worth the wait! Already making plans for lunch on the way home-​want to try the Reuben:)

Service extremely slow for an empty restaurant… but the Reuben & potato pancakes were awesome.

I visited Irina’s this am with my bf to try out their breakfast. It is a funny little restaurant that you might not notice when you are headed to Bayshore mall. It was very clean and we were immediately greeted and seated. I appreciated that there was a little kids area that had games and various things to keep kiddos entertained.
The prices are very affordable. My bf got the New York omelet (I think it had pastrami and corned beef), and he absolutely loved it. The corned beef was incredible and he couldn’t stop raving about it. I got the veggie omelet, which was okay. Nothing to write home about, but really, it was just a veggie omelet. Irina was very friendly and kind. My only complaint was that they didn’t refill our drinks very often, and I am someone who drinks a lot of water with a meal. other than that, the price was right, the food was good, and the service was kind!

Homemade everything, this place is amazing! Affordable and a reuben that could make a grown man cry.

This is like going to your grandmother’s place. Not your nice grandma, the other grandma. The one who you can’t understand why your grandpa married her.
If this were a schtick, it’d be funny but it’s the real deal. This woman scares me in a way I scare my dog when I raise my voice. I don’t feel so much a customer as I do a prisoner. If I could make a break for it, I would. Waiting. and waiting for order. It’s here. Stand by.
Ok, omelette was pretty good and the home-​made bread they use for toast is great. Still, the service will keep me from coming back. It’s not just slow, there’s an indifference to us being here. The food is no better than Benji’s and you’re treated well there. Dos vi donya, Irina’s.

We arrived and sat in a booth that the springs broken in the seats. We were given menus and then were left to sit for 15 minutes without even being given water. When we asked about the wait we were told by the older woman that we weren’t, in fact, waiting that long, and that she doesn’t like «liars». WTF? I don’t care how good the food might be, the service is TERRIBLE. I’d like to support a local mom and pop place but with customer service like that they don’t deserve to be successful.

Irina’s is an adorable old diner located off the beaten path. Well, sort of off the beaten path: it’s across the street from a mega-​mall, but it’s not like any of those mouth-​breathers are skipping Cheesecake Factory to come here.
In any event, it’s a charming place staffed by a kind Ukrainian couple. They serve up typical American diner food right alongside some great specialties from the old country. So you can rely on standbys like omelets or burgers or try out some Ukrainian sausage and borscht. They also have concocted a few predictable hybrids like the Ukrainian omelet.
Another menu offering they tackle is East-​coast deli food: pastramis, ruebens, latkes, corned beef, lox, matzo, and potato salad. Their rueben is an old-​school assembly of kraut, homemade pumpernickel, homemade beef, and no shortage of dressing. Their selection of corned beef is, um, rustic to say the least: loose slices with plenty of the fat left on that spoke of hand-​butchered meat made right on the premises. Not for everyone, but a pleasant surprise to me. There’s a lot of other homemade stuff here like the breakfast hash. And the Slavic wines and beer offered reminded me that Milwaukee still has some good ethnic joints left!
I’m coming back soon for their hopplepopple, pastrami sandwich, and especially for the Bailey’s Irish cream French toast.
Next time you’re up for some hearty brunch, skip the George Webb’s and come grab some grub with Slavic soul.

This place was decent. I wasn’t impressed, but it’s def. one of those go to places for a cheap breakfast. The service was barely mediocre. We waited about 20 minutes for our waitress to come back to ask for our bill (we were the only two in the place).

This is a total mom and pop style restaurant with service at a more relaxed pace, and the corned beef sandwiches were very good!

I’ve visited Irina’s three times. I’ve had great meals all three times.
My first visit included their featured roast beef served open face sandwich style with mashed potatoes. It was great!
My second visit included their Friday Fish Fry with breaded cod, crinkle cut fries, and a delicious cole slaw with their secret ingredients. The cole slaw had hints of curry in it. It was all great!
I recently saw a sign hanging outside the restaurant boasting the best corned beef and best corned beef hash in the city. Those are bold claims with Jake’s and Benji’s sharing the same area code.
I decided to give the corned beef sandwich on rye a try on my third visit. Guess how it was? Go ahead guess. Take your time. I’ll wait.
It was delicious.
The corned beef is made at the restaurant. The meat is very tender and grilled along with the bread.
The beef is sliced thin. Typically, the corned beef sandwiches I’ve had featured thick, chopped corned beef.
I really liked the flavors of the butter from the bread and the fat from the corned beef all working together for tasty goodness.
The only knock I have is the the meat was piled in the center so the edges of the bread had no meat. I spread the meat love across the bread so each bite would have corned beef. That resulted in less meat in the center.
However, the bread slices were large, so in fairness, the amount of corned beef was sufficient. I was completely satisfied after the sandwich and fries. At $ 8, I thought it was a good value.
The restaurant is open for breakfast lunch and early dinner. They close at 8:00 weeknights and 2:00 on weekends.
They have International Breakfast specials available all day, but the rest of the breakfast menu is only available at breakfast time and on weekends.
The owners are a Ukrainian couple. Irina has been very sweet and hospitable on each of my visits. The cook is friendly in a «grumpy» kind of way. He cooks the food «the way he likes it.»
I like it, too!

Five stars for the food. One star for the service. Man, she is one angry woman. He is one amazing cook. Best turkey reuben and cole slaw ever. Such quality.
She was beyond rude. I haven’t stiffed a server (or even left a small tip) in 15 years (that was in Wyoming, where the waitress was offended by our being from outside of her small town and mind). This woman deserved not one cent. Crabby is not the word. Yikes. She insulted the cook, was rude to us and then refused to even make eye contact, let alone refill the iced tea or check on us. He had to bring us the food and she refused to take our money. He had to.
I have no idea what we did to offend her. Doesn’t seem it would take much. What he did was simply to offer us a table.
Then she gave our kids suckers after we told her not to. Weird.

What an adorable little mom & pop place. Irina herself comes over to your table and her husband is at the grill… both with authentic accents. We came here for breakfast – it’s a small place with about 10 tables but we came during the week so it wasn’t too busy.
There was a great range of options for breakfast… including international cuisines. I got the Ukranian breakfast with the Ukranian sausage and saukraut, which was delicious. Others at our table got the German apple pancakes, which were also great but took 15 minutes to cook – so only if you have time.
It was a quaint little diner type homey place… and watch for the «walleye» in the hallway :) I’d recommend it.

This is a small family run restaurant. If you are looking for a modern well staffed restaurant that wants to shuffle as many people in and out as it can then Irina’s is not for you. If you want a small, cozy restaurant that serves great fresh homemade food this is where you want to be.
The food is all cooked by the husband and the orders are taken by his wife. Another woman was there to help and I assume that it was Irina’s sister. That is the only people working the restaurant. With that said, service can be a bit slow and the food can take a bit longer to arrive because all of it is made by one person. It is worth the wait.
I had the corned beef reuben and my wife had the chicken salad and borscht soup. Their corned beef is homemade and is fantastic! Probably the best reuben I have ever had. My wife’s chicken salad and soup were great also.

Met my wife for a Friday lunch and decided to go with Irina’s Kitchen since I have always been curious about it. Their parking lot is located behind the building and is convenient when considering the traffic from the mall across the street.
The inside of this place was a surprise. It’s small and looks to have been decorated sometime back in the late 80s or early 90s. It’s quaint and unassuming. Sure, it décor is from an era that makes it too old to be modern and too young to be hipster kitchsy, but it was clean. The menu is your standard diner fare; breakfast foods, sandwiches and soups along with daily specials. I chose to try their homemade corned beef sandwich and my wife got the vegetable melt with a cup of cheddar broccoli soup. My corned beef was very good and came with spicy brown mustard on wheat bread. The sandwich itself was toasted with some butter on the grill and was crispy without being greasy. The corned beef was thick cut and very lean. My wife’s veggie melt was made with some sautéed vegetables and had a generous amount of melted cheddar on top. She was happy with both her sandwich and the soup.
I had heard about the slow service here and I personally didn’t have any issues. We were in and out of there in about 40 minutes. The only thing I wish they would have done differently was give us our drinks sooner, but they still came within 5 minutes of ordering them. I’m assuming the owners were the ones working that day. They looked familiar to the pictures on the website and the gentleman came around numerous times to ask how the food was.
I like this place. I’m glad I tried it and will happily go back. The quality of the food was good for the price. Even if the service is somewhat slow next time I visit, I can understand if they only have 2 people serving. It’s a family-​owned business and perhaps that’s all they can afford to take on. At least, that’s the way I try to look at it. For all the talking I hear about hating chains, we certainly like to use them as a baseline for service, selection and price. Why is that? (Other than the obvious need to let everyone know that we support local, right?) Fact is, I don’t want my local places to be like the chains.
I’ve finally found a place that has a diner atmosphere that isn’t ridiculously crowded, overhyped, or too far out of my way. I can’t wait to start trying more of their offerings.

I went here for a quick, homemade bagel. I heard (per a newspaper review several years ago) these were the best bagels in town. Apparently, at one time, the present owners did make the bagels onsite, but due to declining sales, the bagels are now purchased elsewhere for resale here. So, I ordered a bagel, toasted, waited probably ten minutes, with only one other couple in the entire restaurant. The bagel was ok. The service is painfully slow, perhaps ok if you want to linger. The cookies looked good so I tried a chocolate chip which may or may not have been homemade but was incredibly hard, similar to a biscotti. As much as I dislike chains and love to support local, the quality of the food and service at least needs to be comparable in order to go there and encourage others to go there.

Like Tammy B, I hate to dis on the Ma and Pap diner as well but this just can’t be glossed over: serving moldy toast. I just dry heaved thinking about it. THANKFULLY, i noticed it promptly upon arrival, and the server was very apologetic but it was hard to eat my breakfast after that little ditty.
I had the corned beef hash and while not the best CBH, it was decent. You could tell it was homemade but VERY greasy. The Mister had a very overcooked omelet. It took an easy 15 minutes to get coffee when were only one of two tables. Sorry, but if you are a breakfast joint, you need to get coffee out STAT.
We gave it a shot but I don’t think we will be back, sadly.

The food is absolutely delicious. The Corned beef is made here, as is the bread, and the Reuben is the best I’ve ever tasted.
But the SERVICE is awfully slow. If anybody ever eats here in under an hour, I’d be amazed. The first time, I assumed it was because the joint was packed, so the next time I tried 11-​ish on a weekday thinking that might be less crowded. There were only people at 2 other tables and yet it took nearly an hour to be served a Reuben and the special of the day, a Ukranian sausage sandwich! Like us, the other diners kept looking at Irina hopefully each time she popped around the corner, and she’d say «Is coming. I didn’t forget you.»
I hate to dis a mom & pop place because I know how hard they work, but I’m writing this in hopes that she will realize they aren’t going to survive if they can’t figure out how to speed things up. I know I won’t be back.
If you’ve got time to spare and charming dining companions, try it. Otherwise, you’ve been warned.