The Hidden Kitchen

04/06/2026

Keen to find a way to warm up during this lovely winter on the peninsula?❤️‍🔥

We got the smoker fired up down at The Hidden Kitchen ahead of the long weekend - will be fresh bbq beef brisket and bbq pulled pork rolls on offer.

Same as last time, with a pickled red cabbage salad and melting cheddar cheese in a toasted brioche roll.

22/05/2026

As fresh as it comes 🫶🏻


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08/05/2026

Dropping this weekend! ❤️‍🔥Mother’s Day special
• BBQ smoked brisket roll

Hours in the smoker and prep, so we can’t wait for you to try.

Slow smoked beef, stacked fresh and served all weekend at The Hidden Kitchen, Tootgarook.

MorningtonPeninsulaEats

27/04/2026

The Hidden Kitchen,

A true local gem on the Mornington Peninsula, where serving great coffee, delicious food, and coastal vibes come together.

📍 Tootgarook, Mornington Peninsula
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27/04/2026

Say hello to The Chocolate Haze.

Our new hazelnut hot chocolate is rich, and laced with smooth roasted hazelnut and vanilla.

This limited-time hot chocolate special is made for slow sips, beachside chills, and serious chocolate cravings.
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22/04/2026

Some hidden details from the Hidden Kitchen.

Happy Monday! Open every day from 6:30am to 3:00pm

10/03/2026

Golden almond croissants and perfect lattes in the sun at Mornington Peninsula’s best hidden gem.
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11/02/2026

24/12/2025

I'd like to open with a huge thank you for the amount of support that's been cast our way since revealing the news about the new addition to The Kitchens' family :)

Thousands of likes across the socials, countless comments, personal messages, emails, and so many of you have pulled me aside the last few weeks to offer your congratulations and well wishes. It's genuinely blown me away knowing how ready you were for us in that new spot!

It's reminded me, once again, how simply amazing, open-hearted, and truly wonderful you all are. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the above, and for making what seemed like a daunting prospect a few weeks ago, the most confident decision I've made in over ten years of business - you are all absolutely incredible :)

Secondly, a huge, huge, thanks is needed to all of my staff, most of whom shook their heads at me, raised an eyebrow or two, and simply asked 'why?' when I explained to them what I'd taken on, three weeks out from Christmas...

Sharkey, Jess & Hollie all faced immediate challenges, from pulling together menus, recipes & getting food our food regulation requirements up to speed, moving venues, stepping up to new roles, ordering, cleaning, prepping, shuttling stock around, and all the hundreds of other tasks involved when you need to open a brand new venue ahead of the peak summer trade, and all in less than 20 days.

Not only to the guys above, but to each and every one of my staff, thank you all for gently pushing the steam back into my ears on 'those' days, thank you for your incredibly consistent and unnerving belief in me, thank you for all the offers of help & support, and also for the countless reassurances directed my way every day.

From the nearly 50 of you, it's all down to your hard work, enthusiasm, smiles, friendship & willingness to give it your all, every day of the week, that has made The Kitchens into what they are today, and I will never, ever, be able to thank you enough for that.

That's about it from me before we close up for two days - I (and/or Sharkey) usually do the rounds while we are closed, to make sure everything that should be on, is on, and everything that should be off, is off, but if you do happen to see me sneaking into an empty venue, blissfully unaware of the tourist carnage around me, please don't ask me if the coffee machine is on, we only just got the steam back in to my ears remember...

A huge thank you once again for being the customers, the staff & the amazing friends that you all are, you truly mean the world to me.

Have a safe and wonderful Christmas, and I'll see you across a writhing sea of heads, either in Woolies, or in one of the venues, on the other side.

Love you all,

Bob

15/12/2025

Hosting Christmas but not keen on the chaos? Prefer Mimosas over peeling potatoes? Want the roast without sacrificing the entire morning (and every pot you own)? This year, let the team at The Kitchens handle the hard work while you handle the fun.
Our Heat-at-Home Christmas Meal Packs are all labelled and fool-proof so you can spend Christmas Day stirring martinis instead of mashed potatoes. Make Christmas easy this year with our Heat-at-Home Christmas Meal Packs from St Andrews Kitchen. Simply pick up on Christmas Eve, heat, and serve a full festive feast without the stress.

Our 2025 Christmas Meal Packs are fully pre-prepared, packaged in oven-ready foil trays, and designed to be picked up on Christmas Eve, popped in the fridge, and heated through on the big day. No stress. No clean-up. Just beautiful festive food.

$110 per person — what’s included:

Entrées

• Chicken & chorizo Spanish meatballs (GFI)
• Prosciutto & cheddar croquette with pimento dipping sauce

Mains

• Chicken roulade with pine nuts, cranberries & baby spinach (GFI)
• Slow-cooked lamb with chermoula & yoghurt dressing (GFI)
• Quince-glazed ham (GFI)

Sides

• Roasted Dutch carrots, sundried cranberries & minted yoghurt (GFI, V)
• Roasted pumpkin with bitter leaves, toasted seeds, goat’s cheese & burnt honey-lemon dressing (GFI, V)
• Golden roasted Hawkes potatoes with rosemary & thyme (GFI, V)
• Roasted sweet potato & charred broccoli with yoghurt dressing (GFI, V)

Desserts

• Mini chocolate fudge brownie with chocolate ganache & fresh raspberry (GFI)• Pavlova with vanilla cream & fresh berries (GFI)• Homemade fruit mince pie from The Hidden Kitchen

Want to level up your Christmas table?

Add our Seafood Pack — $90
• ½ kg prawns• ½ dozen oysters• 100g smoked salmon

A perfect festive upgrade for anyone who loves a proper Aussie Christmas spread.

Kids Packs $60 each
Half-size portions with all the festive favourites for happy little elves.

Pickup Christmas Eve — 10:00am to 2:00pm
St Andrews Kitchen 124 Bass Meadows Blvd, St Andrews Beach

(Orders close and cancellations/changes accepted until Thursday 18 December 2025)
Head to https://square.link/u/9qh20Ojy or via the link in our bio

10/12/2025

Ok, so there's this thing that's happening, and I think it might be rather splendid...

We'll be setting up shop very soon at 43 Wondaree Street in Rye, just in time for the silly season, and we're hoping for a good number of years afterwards too.

What was the site of The Peninsula Pantry for a good chunk of time, has been incredibly redesigned and reimagined by Trent and Leanna when they relocated their previous café, Sea Store, earlier this year.
They will be staying on as our wonderful landlords, and our latest venture, The Rye Kitchen, will be taking their space in the shop.

We're hoping to be open later into next week. We'll just need the council to pop their heads into the kitchen and sign us off before we can trade, and once that's been ticked off, the front doors (and the doors to the new courtyard area) will be opened with warm smiles and our legendary hospitality behind them...

Obviously, there's a fair bit to bite off, and we're definitely not going to take more than we can swallow heading into Summer on the Peninsula. We'll initially be operating Wednesday to Sunday, with a similar offering to Sea Store, now - fresh-made sandwiches, toasties, salads, etc, plus award-winning Hidden kitchen pies, pasties and sausage rolls. Plus our homemade slices, cakes, biscuits, and, of course, the excellent coffee you all know and love from the other three venues, with Godfather blend.

Things will develop as and when we can add them over time, without stretching things before we find our feet - think cooked breakfasts, fabulous lunches, take-home meals, and many more ideas that are too long to list here, all being thrown in along the way as we get things under control and staffed correctly...

We will be making a few changes to our socials, consolidating all four venues into one account, as the thought of opening and managing a fourth Instagram and a fourth Facebook account made my eyes twitch slightly. Details on that are to follow, but I wanted to pre-empt anyone trying to find the new joint on the socials before I get around to merging and posting about it on the others....

Wish us luck,

Bob and the teams

15/10/2025

Come down and join us on Saturday the 1st of November on the upcoming Melbourne Cup Long Weekend

We'll be serving up authentic Mexican Tacos, delicious Chilli-non-carne nachos & mouth-wateringly amazing grilled corn on the cobs (alongside our full menu none the less!)

We've also got a liquor license for the day, so they'll be plenty of adult tipples on offer, including imported beers, local wines & more frozen margaritas than you can shake a Mexico shaped stick at :)

Pop it into your diary, and head on down to get your mouth around a flavour packed afternoon and evening at The Hidden Kitchen. We'll also be bringing out the decks for some funky eclectic beats in the afternoon & evening, which your margs will thanks you for the day after.

We'll be trading until late, no matter the weather, as calling it early on the last event (when the rain came in sideways) wasn't the greatest when the blue skies returned just as we were leaving 🤦‍♂️

See you all then!

11/10/2025

I never knew that!

10/10/2025

Our pastries are either handmade by us, or handmade by local suppliers, and are fresher than Will Smith on his way to Beverley Hills in the back of a cab... You'll find awesome goodies from and in our pastry cabinet, next to the delicious homemade goodies we knock together daily.

All our details, offerings, and opening hours can be found via the link in our bio, or head to https://thekitchens.au/thehiddenkitchenhome for more info.

09/10/2025

What's your go-to in our warmer? Beef and Burgundy Pie? Sausage Roll? our Lil' Breakfast Tarts? or the 'please don't touch it's hot' sign?

08/10/2025

Did you know? Muffins are called 'Frohsinniger Glückseligkeitserlebnis-Freudenflausch-Kuchen mit Fröhlichkeitsfüllung und Begeisterungsverzierung' in Germany. Literally translating to 'Cheerful Blissful Delightful Joy-Fluff Cake with Happiness Filling and Excitement Decoration'

Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it?...

Ours, on the other hand, roll onto the tongue very easily, as we bake them fresh daily, and with an ever-changing array of delicious filling and toppings (with some German-inspired in there as well)

07/10/2025

Did you know? The word 'pie' is actually an abbreviation of 'Gympie'.
They were first created by a sheer fluke, in a popular laundromat in the Queensland town, in March of 1992.
They very soon took over the world. with many claiming to have invented them themselves (New Zealand and the UK, I'm looking at you...)
Before 1992, it was common practice to dish up scalding hot stew directly into your hands and then serve the pastry separately to help cover the painful burns.
Thankfully the fateful mishap at the laundrette over 32 years ago has prevented untold trips to the burns ward, and we can all consider ourselves fortunate we live in a day and age when we don't require a skin graft every time we get a craving for gravy based dishes....

You can find our Medal Winning skin savers in the warmer every day at The Hidden Kitchen - if you happen to come in after a rush and find the cabinet lacking in what you fancied, we can have a hot one to you in less than five minutes (through the magic of an air fryer, oooohhhhh)

25/09/2025

Our Mexican Fiesta is this Public Holiday Friday folks! We’ll be cooking up a storm on the BBQ outside, and whirling up a whole host of delicious South of the border drinks inside. We’ll be open all afternoon and into the evening, and we’re serving up the good stuff from 10:00am onwards!