Are you ever looking for somewhere to eat, but are tired of the same old places? You want a place that is nice, but not a sit-down restaurant. Somewhere with a lot of options, but the food won’t make you feel like crap afterwards. Well, Nan’s Kitchen is the perfect place for you.

Take a Right off Route Nine
Just a fifteen-minute drive from Hopkinton High School, Nan’s Kitchen is a great spot to meet with friends. Taking Route Nine west towards Worcester, a red and white sign on the right side of the road will catch your eye. If you are feeling hungry, and take that right turn, you will enter a small parking lot next to a modern-looking building. This building, inviting to all, is Nan’s Kitchen.

Step on In
Crossing the threshold transports you into a rustic atmosphere with accents of green and red. The market feels homey and comfortable, with subtle yet unique touches to make it stand out.

As you walk in on your left, off-white wallpaper with carefully painted blue chickens scatters the walls, mimicking the wallpaper you might expect to see at your grandmother’s house. Turning your gaze up, you’ll find a full-size wooden canoe hanging from the ceiling. The canoe is overflowing with plants, giving the market a hint of nature in a non-traditional way.

Nan’s stands out from both your typical market and your typical take-out restaurant. Nan’s attempts to combine the two, with a wide variety of freshly made food as well as pre-packaged items such as house-made teas, unique spices, salts, and chili powders.

Feeling Hungry
Nan’s Kitchen is filled with an aroma of spices, which immediately made our stomachs rumble, and looking up above the counter, the large menu is spanned across three screens.

The different screens are split into the categories “Build Your Own Bowl”, “Chicken Sammies”, and “Drinks”. The “Build Your Own Bowl” screen contains all the options to create your own bowl, as well as their most popular bowls and salads. “Chicken Sammies” has all of the chicken sandwich and other Nan’s sandwich options, and “Drinks” was filled with espressos, teas, lemonades and smoothies.

The menu had a wide variety of healthy options to choose from, and was friendly for both vegetarians and meat eaters. Along with the lunch/dinner menu, they also had soap, teas, coffee beans and chocolate available for customers to purchase. All of the product was locally sourced and original, and was very tempting to buy.

Take out or Eat in
After placing our order, we found an open table and took a seat. Looking around, all different kinds of groups are gathered here: families, a business meeting, old friends catching up, and a few people by themselves enjoying a filling, healthy meal.

There were plenty of seating options with booths, red high-top bar stools, and low leather chairs, all crowded around various wooden tables. After a few short minutes, our food arrived warm and fresh.

Mediocre, Good or a Hidden Gem?
Nan’s food was exceptional. The “Original” chicken sandwich was reminiscent of a typical chicken sandwich from Raising Canes, Chick-fil-A, or Dave’s Hot Chicken, but elevated in every way. Opposed to the typical single piece of lettuce usually added onto a chicken sandwich, Nan’s tops their chicken sandwich with a house-made coleslaw. The fried chicken wasn’t greasy or burnt, and the flavors of the coleslaw balanced well with the chicken. The sandwich was a generous size, sure to fill you up.

As for the chicken kale Caesar salad, all of the greens were fresh and flavorful. There was a mix of broccoli, kale and cauliflower, which added variety in both texture and taste. The chicken was seasoned in a way that created a great balance of spice and herb, and was portioned graciously. If you are looking for a “Sweet Green” type of salad, the kale Caesar is the way to go.

Nan’s also has a wide variety of beverages. We ordered the “Red Smoothie” and the “Liquid Sunshine Lemonade”. The smoothie was thinner than usual, with a delicious flavor. It was both filling and delicious. As for the lemonade, it was sweet and refreshing. It had a great flavor with no pulp and was generously sized.

Nan’s Kitchen is definitely a hidden gem.