5 Chefs — Restaurant in Portland

Very disappointed! We were expecting homemade food (as advertised) and we received frozen fried green tomatoes, dry hamburger in the sliders (please tell me they weren't frozen too - patting little hamburgers is not hard or too time consuming) and the pasta salad and pimiento cheese on the salad trio plate tasted like they came from little plastic containers at Kroger's. The chicken salad was good, not great, but it wasn't bad, but the other two salads were AWFUL. This salad trio plate was $9, but I had to ask for a roll or crackers. (Was I supposed to eat forkfuls of pimiento cheese?) This charming place has so much potential, I hope the 5 chefs take a good hard look at their menu and start making the southern style homemade food they advertise. Maybe the meat-and-three meals are freshly made home-style food, but the advertisement that convinced us to drive there from Bowling Green said "Southern style home cooking" and we believed it, so we drove there past the time the meat-and-three meals were available. It could be a great place, worth the drive for the atmosphere, but it's not. The "humming bird" cake was not a true humming bird cake, made from the Southern Living recipe. I think it was a spice cake mix with some extra ingredients...a faux humming bird cake. Too bad, we were hoping to end our meal on something good. We would have shopped after eating, but this was not a meal we wanted to remember. Our server was good, so she got a $7 tip because the food was not her fault. The building is charming, and the décor is homey, the wait staff is friendly and an asset to the business. Everything is in place and ready to be successful except the food! We weren't expecting gourmet food, just good Southern home-style food. It's not that hard to make, and it's not that much more expensive in food costs or labor costs, and sometimes it's less money to make it right, yourself. So, come-on 5 chefs! Give it a try! Have a meeting! See what you can do to improve your menu! Your business depends on it. If you want people to drive to Portland for a unique dining experience you're all-set and ready to go as soon as you start cooking instead of heating-up or just scooping-out someone else's cooking. (You're 5 CHEFS, right?) Please give some of your menu items a do-over so that Robert Irvine doesn't have to come in and kick-butt so that you don't fail. Or worse, he doesn't come and a potentially great place goes under. That would be a shame; you are set-up for success in other areas, you just have to stop taking shortcuts and serve what you advertise- Southern...

The setup: lunch on a Thursday. Chicken salad sandwich with onion rings. Slice of coconut cake to go.

The good: Nice place, clean and sharp. Lots of seating. Food was out quick. Onion rings were outstanding.

The bad: Chicken Salad was almost tasteless. A little watery, the only flavor was an occasional bit of fruit in the mix. This stuff was highly reviewed, not what I expected. Talked to my server, was told it might be lightly seasoned for sensitive palettes.. honestly I didn't think it was right. Tomato on this sandwich was refrigerated.. shouldn't do that as it makes it grainy.

The Ugly: I spent my evening with a gnarly stomach ache. Of course I can't say 100% it was the chicken salad, but I've got a pretty solid idea. I don't get stomach bugs, and it was gone by morning.

Also the cake was WAY overhyped. $8 for a huge slice... well the slice was a decent size but it wasn't $8 huge.. and the cake itself was made well, but not at all remarkable. If I'd have made it, I would've been happy with it.. but I expected extraordinary after the reviews.

Famous Fruit Tea.. famous for what now? Watered down and weak. Not even worth a to-go.

Overall I had an underwhelming experience, but I think they can do better. Everyone has off days.. but I'm really concerned about the chicken salad. The staff was very nice and attentive, though I'm not sure how seriously she took my comments about having someone check on the...

...nov. 10, 2022 Lunch with a relative today. Fried green tomatoes was one of my lunch items. I was pleased to get them. Asked for them to be crunchy and they were. EXCEPT...for the hair I found and pulled out of one of the tomatoes. I showed it to my sister in law so she could see it as well...Gravely disappointed in this. And, as a result, DID NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO EAT ANOTHER THING ON MY PLATE. Left it all. I KNOW THEY WERE REMARKABLY BUSY AND THAT WAS AWESOME, FOR THE RESTAURANT OWNER. BUT, NOT FOR ME AS THE CUSTOMER. NOT WHEN MY BILL WAS OVER $27 BUCKS TODAY. I chose not to take anything home...COULD NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO EAT ANOTHER THING. YES, I TOLD THE WAITRESS. NOTHING FURTHER WAS SAID. SO, TODAYS RATING, I GIVE THIS A 1.

GRAVELY DISAPPOINTED. I LEFT EVERYTHING ELSE AND TOUCHED NOTHING ELSE. I DO NOT APPRECIATE SOMEONE'S HAIR BEING COOKED WITH MY LUNCH. WILL I BE BACK? WHAT...