Backwoods Burger Shack — Restaurant in Gorham

I want to be fair, since this place just opened less than a week ago, I know there are bound to be growing pains with any new business.

At first glance, it looks like a little hole-in-the-wall walk up burger joint, which I love. But when you walk up to look at the menu, it doesn’t really match the vibe. All the items have cute “outdoorsy” names, and craft brewery menu level pricing. The toppings do the talking and appear to be the main focus. Some of the burgers seem genuinely interesting, and I love a boujee burger as much as the next person, but excellent toppings can’t compensate for unseasoned patties that taste kind of mid.

Again, I want to be fair because I know they just opened and staff might not be super knowledgeable about the menu yet. However, naming your poutine “Frenchy Fries,” might be really clever in theory, but in practice it just makes it very easy for the cashier to hear “French fries,” and for the customer to not get what they ordered. (They were out of the ingredients for poutine anyway). We also asked about “The Day Hike” which is listed as “something new every day of the week,” and the cashier just replied “no.” Upon asking further questions, it’s not currently available to order despite being on the digitally displayed menu over the counter.

I appreciate the cute outdoor space with picnic tables. While we didn’t eat there, it looked like a nice little spot to enjoy your food.

My constructive feedback - consider changing some of the item names to make ordering intuitive and less confusing for customers and staff. Since you have a digital menu, work out a means to actively update the menu throughout the day incase of inventory issues. Give your cashier access to a paper version of the menu. Since they can’t see what’s listed, since it’s outside and above their head, having a physical copy will make answering questions for customers much easier, and help facilitate familiarity with the menu for the staff that...

Stopped in with my coworker for lunch. We were both excited to try a new spot.

We both ordered a burger and fries. I got one off the menu and he kind of built his own. Service was excellent and the food came out very fast. It was packaged very well and everything looked amazing.

I added lettuce and tomato to mine and didn't get any tomato. My coworker added bacon and mustard to his and didn't receive any bacon. His was drenched in mustard, noth top and bottom bun were slathered in it and he seemed a bit disappointed. I thought the burger was good. The bbq sauce was nice. Onion rings were crispy. But my entire meal was extremely salty. The fries, although cooked well, were so salty that I only ate a few. Which was a bummer because if they were seasoned normally they would have been excellent. I tried my coworkers fries to see if it was just my batch. His were less salty but still extremely salty for frenchfries. And the salt seemed like it was a powder consistency, not table salt or kosher salt flakes.

They were recovering from a brief power outage, and were having issues with tickets printing, so I don't want to be too harsh. I know things happen. I will definitely be back with the family to try a few other options and I'll make sure to ask for light salt on the burger and fries. All in all not a bad place for a burger and fries if they work on...

Really want to like this place, on our first 2 visits after backwoods opened the “jaybird” or otherwise known as a nashville chicken sandwich were incredible. Very saucy and good meat to bread ratio. However the last 5-6 times we have gone hoping for the same sandwich we have been severely let down. Seems nowadays you get a chicken tender worth of meat on a massive roll. The nashville that use to be over abundant is nearly totally missing. It literally looks like a few drops are placed on the meat and thats it. Compared to the pictures of the jaybird on the website it doesnt even come close to the expectation they present you with. Ive even had my money taken on a online order after the website stated they were open, drove down from naples just to find them totally shut down and gone. Still keep trying them hoping for that first time experience but continually keep being dissapointed. Seems like it would just be better to drive to portland for a better nashville...