What are you looking to achieve, or what are you not happy with about this kitchen now other than the vent thing?

These are pictures from before we bought the house, from the previous owner. I changed the lights and tossed the ceiling fan. where the pot holder is was a window, but the guy made another room behind the kitchen so the window is no longer a window. hence there are now no windows in the kitchen. There is an area for the kitchen table, not pictured. I would love to expand the kitchen with more cabinet and counter space

We can't help you if the photo you provided is not actually how the kitchen looks. Provide current photos, and several of them from different angles. Please also answer my questions about what you meant by the duct in your OP.

Read this thread: Read me first in the kitchen forum.

Then come back with the suggested drawings and photos. The drawings don't have to be architect quality! Just include the details of current layout (like doors, surrounding rooms to show entrance/exit paths and possible wall changes) with measurements of each wall, door, window, opening etc.

Look at the adjacent rooms to see where their ductwork runs, might give you a clue of how you can modify the kitchen ones.

A contractor can drill a small hole in the soffits to feed in a tiny camera with light. Your HVAC contractor may have the equipment, too.

I have the same dilemma, do not know how to do it and is it worth to do. The job depends on what is behind it. It can be vent duct,or pipes or just electrical wires.

Please provide more pictures.

We definitely need current photos to be able to provide advice. But by looking at this, I think I would definitely get rid of the pans and pots holder, window or no window. Since your kitchen doesn't have any natural light, I would replace or paint the cabinets into a lighter tone, white or gray.

Current Pictures please!

What we really need is a to scale drawing of the kitchen and the room next to it where the window looks into. And do you need an eat in kitchen with a table.? Use graph paper make sure all measurements are large and dark enough to read make sure the drawing is able to be enlarged. Of cours also state what you hope can be accomplished . Right now I see you need more storage, the fridge and stove placement are bad and you will have to find out what is in those soffits I too would like to see more pictures .

Looking at the pics, it appears your work area is approximately 8' x 10 1/2'. Unless you can expand the kitchen to the eating area, the layout you have is about the best you can do with leaving plumbing/electric in place - though I would move the refrigerator away from the door/put the cabinets on the other side/by the door to the other room. Would look around to see if there is place you could steal a few feet to put more cabinets for storage - possibly free wall in an eating area .

The hood looks like it's ductless which means there is no duct/outside venting - it's just plugged into an outlet. If that's the case, no worries about moving that - but if you want to vent the hood outside, you'll need to add duct work above and horizontally to the nearest outside wall. Since you're on a slab, don't believe you can use a downdraft stove unless the ducts can be routed through the lower part of the walls. But not like you're missing anything since downdrafts are expensive and not all that effective.

Unless the soffits above the cabinets are hiding other things (heating ducts, pipes), they're basically 2x4/drywall boxes that can be easily removed allowing you to use full-height cabinets.