Quick Take:
Location: Winter Haven (Bowen Yard)
What I ordered: 3 Tacos Plate and Chips & Guac
Extra Order
(Wife/Katie's Order): Enchiladas Platter
Final Score: 4/5
Price: ~$10–20 per person
For my tenth stop on Mike’s Polk Food Quest, we visited The Lake House Kitchen in Bowen Yard (Winter Haven).
Lake House Kitchen has 2 food trucks in Winter Haven, 1 truck in Lakeland, their Bowen Yard location (shown in pictures), and will be opening up another full location in Downtown Auburndale soon as well.
Polk County RAVES about these tacos, so Katie and I needed to make our way there and put them to the test.
By the way: if you're new here, the concept of my Polk Food Quest is simple: every week I try a local spot, order the most common thing people get, try a few extras, and rank it on taste, value, vibes, and overall.
This week: Tacos!
Which means I ordered a taco plate (three different types of tacos to try them all) and chips & guac and Katie ordered enchilada platter.
If you don't remember from our review for Hacienda Mexico in Bartow; Katie loves enchiladas!
How Does This Work?
I order the standard item for that category (for Mexican that’s tacos), plus a few extras so I can get a full feel for the menu.
Then I rank the experience on four things:
Taste | Value | Vibes | 
Overall
Taste focuses on the standard item.
The rest reflects the entire experience.
Taste: 4/5
Lake House Kitchen tacos were awesome, AND I somehow liked the enchiladas even more...!
That said, I wouldn't categorize them as the best tacos I've had in Polk County, and have them coming in at a 4/5.
I tried the steak, pork and chicken tacos.
The steak were my favorite, then pork, then chicken — but they were all really good.
Here's a quick breakdown for my quick scanners, though:
- The Tacos: Great. Every meat I tried was awesome. Steak was my favorite, but would eat all of them again. Wouldn't say they're the best taco I've had in Winter Haven, but would definitely recommend to others.
- The Enchiladas: These were the highlight of meal for both Katie and I. Katie loved enchiladas and she was very happy with them — and I had a bit of it as well and was pleasantly surprised (I normally prefer tacos).
- The Chips & Guac: Chips were great. I prefer thin chips, but that's more of a personal preference. The guac was great, but the salsa that comes with it is a bit spicier than I'd prefer to come with it (for me it was fine, but Katie doesn't like heat and this was fairly hot, in my opinion).
That said, Lake House Kitchen is definitely a top pick in Polk County.
We are VERY excited to have it opening up in Downtown Auburndale, where we will be walking distance!
Value: 3.5/5
For this trip my brother Ryan tagged along so we actually had an additional taco platter (same order as me) and a 2 cans of coke.
This is how it priced out:
- 3 Taco Platter x 2 = $25.98
- Enchiladas = $13.99
- Chips & Guac = $8.99
- 2 Cans of Diet Coke = $6.00
Bringing us to a grand total of $51.96 ($57.16 after taxes and a 3.0% processing fee).
For us, it was a bit more than we expected.
I understand the prices are going up on everything, but I just didn't think the whole menu was going to be $13+ and chips and guac would be nearly $10.
It wasn't ridiculously priced, so it's not getting a 2, but I think a 3.5 here is fair.
Vibes: 4.5/5
Bowen Yard isn't quite The Joinery, but it's still extremely nice.
You're right in Downtown Winter Haven, across the street from Grove Roots, ice cream (Ripples) next door, and anything else you could want either walking distance or around the corner.
It's a nice little set up.
That said, it's not all indoor and air conditioned, there's no central bar or spot for drinks and quick-grabs (especially now that the market closed at Bowen Yard); so it's nothing not quite a 5/5 for us.
The fact that Lake House Kitchen only had canned drinks and no fountain wasn't enough to bring it down a notch, but it did make us realize how much we miss the overall vibes and feel of The Joinery (or Depot 303) in comparison to Bowen Yard.
All that to say, this one gets a boost of .5-1 point for the location, which is why it's coming in as 4.5.
Overall: 4/5
Overall Lake House Kitchen is a solid 4/5.
We are very excited for it to open up in Downtown Auburndale and have it walking distance from us — and we're really looking forward to seeing how what they do to the inside and how they expand even more.
Here are some of the new standards I like sharing in the Overall section:
Would I bring my visiting family there?
Absolutely.
We plan on bringing them to both Bowen Yard location and the new Auburndale location as well.
The food was great, staff was good, and price wasn't enough to make it feel like it wasn't a definite top choice in Polk.
Here’s how I’d sum up Lake House Kitchen:
The tacos are legit, the enchiladas somehow stole the show, and the location at Bowen Yard makes it an easy yes on a nice day in Winter Haven.
It's not the absolute best taco I've had in Polk County, but it's close — and when the Auburndale location opens up walking distance from us, we're going to find out real fast how often we end up there.
If you've got people coming to visit, this is a great stop. Good food, good vibes, and easy to pair with everything else happening around Bowen Yard.
Before You Go....
Hey!
I want to know what you think of Lake House Kitchen.
Leave a comment below.
The more you share, the better, but anything is appreciated.
Each comment helps The Best Of Polk articles and eventually, the yearly awards!
Have a place you want me to try?
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