Long Grain — Restaurant in Camden

I have walked in, hoping to dine at this restaurant several times. They always seem to be busy, that's awesome!

Several times we've called for takeout and we were told that they didn't have enough time to make takeout orders. We were told that if we want to order takeout that we should call at about 4:30 before the service really gets going to place sour takeout order

Today I was passing through the area, so I thought id stop in and see about getting a table. It was just me, myself, and I. I completely understand that the majority of empty tables were reserved way in advance so they seated me at the counter.

My seat was facing the kitchen, and I had a bird's eye view of some of the hustling going on back there. Not exactly the atmosphere I was hoping for. I watched cooks & staff scrambling around and picking up food to deliver to tables and some takeout.

The first thing that stood out was one of the cooks - who had a substantial amount of hair - wasn't using any kind of net. Some staff were eating as they were working. Again, with all the hype about this restaurant and it's popularity I thought it would be a nicer dining experience.

I ordered the Pad Kemao with pork belly. Anyone who eats pork belly knows what to expect. It should be a tasty, succulent, moist, and sometimes sticky deliciously sticky. That is not what I got. I got what seemed to be like thin chunks of fresh pork. No fat could be detected. it was somewhat dry and chewy.

When I asked my server about that, she said that they use a less fatty cut of pork belly.. She said that they try to please everyone, so the pork belly they use is not very fatty. I think that says a lot about the people they cater to.

Portion size was a little bit small for the price. Flavor was good.

There is a slight unwarranted pretentiousness to the place. If that's what you...

We had just arrived into Camden and had a craving for Thai food. I want to start by saying dear god make reservations. We arrived around 7:30 and that place was super busy. As tourists we didn’t think it’d be super packed on a Wednesday night, but we were wrong. At first we were not hopeful that we’d even get sat as probably 4 groups of people were sat in front of us, but they had reservations. The owner was nice enough to work us in on the end of their community table.

I am going to review this as someone who loves spicy food and crave it. We ordered the special appetizer for the night the deep fried pork wontons, Chicken Pad Thai, and another special not on the menu that had ribeye in it.

The Pork Wontons - Fantastic, beautifully crafted and fried. Great flavor.

Chicken Pad Thai - Very good! I told the waitress I wanted it to be as spicy as possible and she said that the chefs kinda take that as a challenge and I said that’s fine with me. The spice was perfectly what I wanted. A nice slow building burn that kept me coming back for more. Any more spice and it wouldn’t have been as enjoyable to consume. They called the spice level “Thai Spice” for anyone that wants to try it.

The Ribeye Broth special - My wife loved it! She also ordered it “spicy” and they delivered a nice building spice that she enjoyed. She would’ve ordered Thai Spice if she would’ve known that was an option. I want to point out that the dish was so full of ribeye. I was genuinely impressed with the amount of meat.

The table next made several comments about how spicy the food was lol. I don’t know what people expect it’s Thai food… After we finished eating we realized that there is definitely a reason that place is packed all the time. Would highly...

Kind of a confusing experience. Managed to get the very last reservation for the night, and watched multiple groups get turned away in front of us, so hopes were pretty high for quality Thai. We were seated at the community table, and even though we were told we had 1hr45min there, it felt like the staffs only goal was to get us in and out in as little time as possible.

Dessert was the best part, but there's nothing to really say about it.

We had the Nam Tok and Som Tum to start, both of which were insanely small portions for the price. The nam tok had almost 0 spice, or even much flavor at all; and that's before you include the two slugs on the lettuce in the Nam Tok.

Entrees were different to say the least. We had the Pad Keemao, but what was served was certainly not Isaan style Thai like the menu states and certainly was nothing close to traditional. Kale in drunken noodles? Odd even for using local ingredients in your own twist of the dish. Didn't work, especially when half the dish was one giant ribbon of kale. The pork belly was just lightly seared, and was nearly all partially cooked fat. The homemade noodles were good, and the spice level was good on the noodles.

Certainly not worth $21+ for noodles. I'm not sure if this is just popular because it's one of a few spots actually still open at this time of year or if Maine residents actually consider this to be real/outstanding Thai food, but this place was just not it.

The whole time it was also very clear who were regulars of the establishment and it was very clear that the staff both preferred them and let them do whatever they want.

Overall I'd give it a 6/10, but the pretentiousness and hurriedness of the staff lowers it...