For the past few years, whenever we’ve travelled the long sweep of Point Nepean Road — which is often — one little shopfront has always hummed out to us. A flicker of light, a kind of beacon in the sea. Blink and you’ll miss it — a dark corner store wedged between Rosebud, Capel Sound and Rye — but once you’ve noticed it, you can’t unsee it.

The Kitchen, with its warm glow and modest exterior, has been beckoning us for years, and only recently have we finally stepped inside to discover what it’s all about.
And here’s the truth: it’s more than a café, more than a bistro. The Kitchen Tootgarook is an oasis. Not in the dictionary sense, but in the way it restores you, slows you, and makes you feel like you’ve come to the right place at the right time.

From Darlington to the Peninsula

The Kitchen is the dream realised by Robert Coley — Bob to everyone who knows him. His story is the kind that weaves continents and careers into a single thread. Born in Darlington in the north of England, Bob started working in hospitality at just 16. He cut his teeth in the UK’s bustling gastropubs before crossing hemispheres to work in Melbourne’s high-end dining scene, including time at Lindenderry in Red Hill, The Mansion in Werribee, and George Calombaris’ The Press Club. He even turned his hand to catering on a massive scale, overseeing food operations for healthcare facilities and managing meals for more than a thousand staff each day.

But experience, as Bob would tell you, only matters if it leads you somewhere real. And for the past eight years, that “somewhere” has been here in Tootgarook. In this humble shopfront, Bob has poured decades of learning, a love of food, and a belief in genuine hospitality into a place he always wanted to visit himself: consistent, approachable, and without pretence.

The Spirit of the Kitchen

Call it a bistro, a bar, a restaurant — it doesn’t matter. What matters is how it feels. The Kitchen is a place where your name is more important than your wallet. A place where you feel like a regular on your first visit. Where the welcome is warm but never forced, and the service is seamless without ever tipping into fussiness.

This isn’t about airs and graces. It’s about getting the fundamentals right — every day, seven days a week. The same familiar faces behind the counter (many staff have been here five years or more), the same commitment to consistency, the same belief that a restaurant should feel like a second home. And at the heart of it all is head chef Andrew Sharkey — known simply and affectionately as “Sharkey.” For almost eight years he has helped Bob set the tempo and flavour of what follows.

What’s on the Plate

Like any good oasis, the heart of The Kitchen lies in what it serves. On our visits so far, a few dishes have already carved themselves into memory.

Breakfast might mean The Keto Kick: broccoli and feta hotcakes stacked high, paired with house-made green tomato chutney, two perfectly poached eggs and a drizzle of aged balsamic. It’s a dish that wakes you up without weighing you down, a clever balance of comfort and freshness.

For something heartier, the Lamb Shank delivers exactly what you’d hope — flavour that lingers, meat that slips from the bone with barely a nudge. Eating it feels a little like the season itself: autumn giving way to winter, slow, inevitable, but welcome.

There’s also the Fettuccini Vongole, which could have wandered in from Chapel Street’s Café Cucina — all briny sweetness and silk-slick pasta; a plate that makes you stop mid-sentence, close your eyes, and savour it again.

Of course, some of the simplest things hit hardest. Their famous bacon sandwich might be the best hangover cure on the Peninsula, salty and satisfying in a way that only a perfectly built sandwich can be.

And then there’s Thursday night. The Kitchen’s ode to the Parma is the stuff of legend. Where else will you find eight different versions of the classic chicken parma, each with its own flair — traditional, Italian, Hawaiian, Spanish, Greek, Aussie, and more — served with a pot of beer or a glass of wine for just $25? It’s not just a meal; it’s a weekly ritual, a magnet for locals and visitors alike, proof that food doesn’t have to be complicated to bring joy.

More Than Food

Bob, Sharkey, and their team see the restaurant as more than just a place to eat. It’s a stage for connection. That moment when a patron smiles over a plate, when friends linger a little longer than planned, when someone pops in for a coffee and ends up staying for lunch. These are the daily rewards, the icing on the cake, and the reason the doors open every morning.

Local suppliers and producers are part of the story too. Wherever possible, The Kitchen draws from the Peninsula’s own bounty — wines, ingredients, people. It’s not a slogan, but a practice, embedded in the rhythm of how they work.

Next time you see this beacon.

Next time you’re driving the stretch between Rosebud and Rye, watch for that flicker of light on the roadside. What seems like a dark corner store is anything but. Inside, you’ll find a room alive with conversation, dishes that surprise and satisfy, and a team who make you feel at home from the minute you step in.

The Kitchen Tootgarook is proof that beacons don’t just guide ships at sea. On land, too, they exist — in the glow of a humble corner store, in a table where your name matters, and in a meal that restores you in the simplest, most enduring way.