Flatbread Company — Restaurant in Portland

The Flatbread Company is a small chain of restaurants that have locations nationwide and was started in Massachusetts in 1998. We visited the Portland, Maine location on Commercial Street. This place is know for their flatbread pizzas and their clay ovens that take the center stage of the restaurant. This location is offering indoor and outdoor seating and they are right next to the water so you can get some amazing views if you're sat at the right table. They do take reservations as the wait would have been over an hour if our friends didn't make a reservation for our party of five. The atmosphere is large and open with the smell of wood fired ovens filling the air. Our server was attentive and helpful as well as friendly. The food was good but wasn't amazing. Seems as though when they're busy, presentation isn't a priority. Overall I would come back to try other unique flavors but would probably skip the flavors you can get anywhere else.

My wife and I both got small flatbread pizzas. I got the Mopsy’s Kalua Pie, which had, smoked free-range pork shoulder or oven-roasted free-range chicken (I got both), homemade organic mango BBQ sauce, organic red onions, fresh pineapple, Sunset Acres goat cheese, whole milk mozzarella, Parmesan, garlic oil, organic herb mix. This was an exceptionally good pie. I really enjoyed the mango bbq sauce as a base and the goat cheese with the mozzarella really made for a pleasant taste. I really appreciate the fact that they offer higher quality meats and toppings as it really imparts better flavor to the meal. The only thing I didn't like is the ingredients were kind of scattered about in clumps. (See pictures) some slices had a whole bunch of pineapple or onions and some didn't have any toppings at all. They must have rushed through putting this together as they were busy and just threw the toppings on. I would like to have onion, pineapple, cheese and meat on every slice, not just on half of the pizza.

My wife got the Pepperoni & Mushroom which had All-natural, uncured pepperoni with organic mushrooms, their organic tomato sauce, whole milk mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, homemade garlic oil and their blend of organic herbs. This pizza was topped better than mine and had pepperoni and mushroom on almost every slice but my wife mentioned that the center could have been cooked a bit more and was a bit soggy and flimsy. It could have been that our pizzas were coming out one at a time and hers was sitting at the table for at least 5 minutes before the last pizza had reached the table so she wasn't really able to try it fresh out the oven. The sauce was lacking a bit on the pizza itself as well. She really enjoyed the flavor and liked her pizza but it wasn't anything special to me. It satisfies the pepperoni and mushroom craving though.

Lastly, we had the shortbread with whipped cream and strawberries for dessert. Again, presentation was lacking. It was okay but I wish they had caramelized one side of the shortbread or toasted it in a pan with some butter and drizzled some caramel on top. They dusted with powdered sugar but you could hardly see it.

In the middle of the restaurant they have these big boards that show where they source their food here and also list specials and beer selection. Our server let us know what they were when he showed up to the table and gave us a brief rundown of everything. The wife and I had a couple drinks and we appreciate that most of the drink selection that they had was local to Maine. I like this place but maybe would like them better if we went when it wasn't so busy.

Food - 4 ⭐ Service - 5 ⭐ Atmosphere - 4 ⭐ Overall - 4 ⭐

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The food was great but the service was absolutely horrendous! If I ever return I will be staying far away from Dulce, because she does not belong in customer service. I was a server for 5+ years, and I would have worked this table (15 women having a good time celebrating, big check, automatic gratuity with the potential for a higher tip if warranted). We went to celebrate our friend’s upcoming wedding, we had a party of 15. Right from the beginning the server was rude, not personable, and just seemed irritated she had to serve a large party. It got worse when the girl sitting next to me and I tried ordering the same pizza. The server stopped and said in the most condescending tone “why don’t you just order a large?” I wasn’t looking to split a pizza, nor did I need her advice on what to do, but we felt obligated to split a large rather than order two small pizzas separately. Then when our drinks were dry she finally came around to asking if we wanted more. At that point we all just wanted to stick with the pitchers of water (which were also empty), instead of order refills of our cocktails. Our food was delivered. Dulce NEVER ONCE came to check to see how we were doing, if we were enjoying the food. One of the women in our group never got her pizza, so one of the us had to SEEK OUT Dulce and tell her we were missing an entire pizza, because Dulce NEVER came to check on us after the food was delivered. I’m so sorry it’s an inconvenience to do your job, Dulce. We finished eating, and Dulce came and dropped off the check. She didn’t offer any desserts, it was evident she just wanted us gone, so she just dropped the check without a word. I’m assuming she was rude and honestly the worst server I’ve ever experienced because an automatic 20% gratuity was already added to the check, so she didn’t have to work for the $80, but there is a possibility for more. But quite frankly the only thing she deserved was a notice for termination. Once I paid for the tab, she took the slip, and just dropped off the bill for me to sign, never once saying “thank you” or “congratulations” to the bride-to-be.

All in all, the food was great, drinks were okay. Just stay far away from the worst server in...

I almost NEVER EVER post bad reviews but I just had to here. Giving this place the waterboard award, because you couldn't waterboard me into suffering through the experience again. Went here for dinner, bc of rave reviews. There are no reservations, only a wait-list, the first red flag. The wait is only supposed to be 45 minutes max. The ambiance is just wood? I guess? Lots of wood everything. Which is fine, nothing spectacular. It was clean enough. We got there just before our time was supposed to be ready, only to repeatedly be told it's "only going to be a couple more minutes". We sat at the front for an hour. After lots of prodding, we were told the table needed to be bussed. Well apparently none of the staff know how or are willing to do so, bc another half hour went by before someone could be forced to clean the table off. We get seated an hour and a half after our expected time, immediately put our orders in so we didn't have to wait any longer. Was told the flatbreads would take something like an hour because of the backup. These things take a minute and a half to cook in a woodfired oven so I don't know what the holdup was but, I DIGRESS. I don't know what was worse about the service, the incompetence of the front of house, the attitude of our server Kylie, or her lip filler, but it was not an amusing time. The chicken bacon ranch salad was literally just iceberg lettuce with chicken, bacon and ranch dumped on the center. Revolutionary. I don't know what my friends were expecting. I couldn't be made to eat it. The flatbreads we got were the cheese and tomato one and the pesto one. They were okay, not nearly worth what we waited, but what you'd expect if you put store bought pizza sauce and pesto on a pita and threw it in the oven. Edible when you're starving. All in all I just asked them to keep the liquor flowing until I could get out of there. Do yourself a favor, just go grab a slice from a hole in the wall pizza place and take it to the least crowded bar. Your time will be...