Kee's #Loaded Kitchen — Restaurant in Portland

Kees had such a good reputation that my friend had ordered a lot of food for her friends. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the food was not anywhere as good as it had been before. It was barely touched by seven people who were there rhat night. I I arrived late that night with other food just by coincidence, not knowing and my friend told me why she wanted return food because nobody barely touched it and it was near $150 worth food. Now to be fair, I don't usually return food and would rather just not go back again or maybe try again after some time, but my friend insisted that she wanted give Kees another chance. Like perhaps they had an off night. Maybe something happened. We are human; maybe someone else or maybe folks were dealing with some circumstances or distractions in life that contributed somehow.

However what happened was most disappointing. My friend went down there after being told on phone she could next day. I went to park car. It was my day off and last thing I wanted do, so we wouldnt have drove all that way( 45 mins it took) with all that traffic for nothing. So i park car while my friend brings the food back. I approach my friend and she is sitting on bench with food still and told me owner didnt even let her speak. She told her most rudely that the food was always great and that she wasnt doing anything to make up for her poor experience, which contradicted what she had said previously night before.

So my friend let me go back and cool down my car because she was going to get food cart pod number/ cards and call that owner About her experience. She asked another woman who seemed to be a part of management or another owner of another establishment because she was wiping down tables and presently walking around. She retrieved some cards for my friend as i went to cool my car down in prep for us leaving. As I am leaving I start to hear from Kees food cart area all these insults and rude comments being voiced passive aggressively about my friend's appearance / shaming her and needing to leave and just rude and disrespectful language around families walking by and there. When back inside my car, with windows rolled up with AC on, suddenly i hear louder voice yelling and i look over across street and see someone standing over my friend all upset while my friend is sitting down all still and quiet. I didnt want to but i got out of my car to try to de escalate whatever was going on. The person yelling then did go away with help someone maybe from her business urging. When i found my friend she was calm and quiet but clearly shaken and traumatized from the experience. She began to tell me about how owner ripped business cards from her as she held them up against her chest. It took me a while to process the situation myself because it was confusing how calm my friend was just sitting there enduring the insults. She hadnt said anything while being berated. I think we were both in shock at the whole experience and I just wanted us to leave and remove ourselves from it because i felt most uncomfortable&I did not want things to escalate. I just wanted get home. On our way back, the woman who retrieved business cards for my friend apologized for how my friend was treated. When back at my car,. my friend broke down and i could see that she had been in shock and was indeed traumatized and shaken but also deeply saddened and incredulous at how she had just been treated. I agreed that it was not right and was horrible. I expressed sorrow and remorse for not fully understanding what had just transpired but also admiration at how she could be so calm and quiet while owner had been insulting her and yelling at her. My friend had been blameless. She remained calm and respectful from the moment she arrived to when she left. She never returned insults or showed anything but common decency, so it was unfortunate and shameful how she was treated. Was not good customer service. She had hoped for better outcome and instead endured a far worse than...

I want to preface this entire review with the fact that the staff were cherry and kind. Warm folks doing hard work.

My partner and I got to Kee's about 20 minutes after they opened, and the line was already around 40 people deep. We decided to wait, and the vibes in line were great. The cart pod is nice and has some quirky decor. It took about an hour to get to the front of the line-- no problem, it's popular and it's supposed to be fantastic, we can wait.

We ordered the pork chops and chicken. About an hour and a half after we'd ordered I got called up to be informed they were out of pork chops. Again, no problem, we've waited this long, and they offered fish or more chicken instead. Deal, gimme fish.

Another hour goes by without food, and we start hearing people being told they're running out of fish. Okay, we're solidly deep in this experience now, and it's busy. We'll get what we get, fine. Vibes in the pod are worse by now-- everyone has been waiting for at least an hour and a half at this point, and there's a pound, clearly drunk man making a scene. Food is slowly trickling out. A few people got refunds. We decided to wait. They're making everything fresh, so it's going to take time. It was longer than we'd wanted to spend, but again, we're in deep now.

Another 45 minutes goes by until our order is called. No one said anything about further substitutions, but I assume at this point that there probably were some and just roll with it. At least we got food.

We got some extra chicken, but only one piece of fish. Instead of Mac and cheese we got a side of lasagna (which they have as a main, so I'm guessing they ran out of mac), along with some green beans. Plus a garlic roll and a slice of cinnamon pound cake. The portions of everything but the fish were huge. This plate could have easily fed 4 people.

The chicken was good. Nice and crispy, and cooked well. It seemed to have mostly lemon pepper on it, which isn't inherently a problem, but it was a lot of it. The chicken was easily the best part of the plate.

The fish was nicely cooked but strangely lacked salt? It was fine.

The lasagna also needed salt pretty badly. It was definitely homemade which was nice, and the texture of the noodles and meat were delightful.

The green beans were canned and seemed to be seasoned heavily with mostly lemon pepper? It was a lot of lemon pepper across the whole meal. They were fine.

The roll was cold but had a nice texture. I wish it had more garlic, but I can't complain too much.

The pound cake was delicious. Very well done.

Overall, it was good food. I can't ignore that we waited 3 hours for it, and that taints the experience more than a little. Had it even been an hour and a half this would have been a fantastic quality and amount of food for the wait. 3 hours is a long time though, especially to not end up with what we actually ordered. My understanding that they were making things fresh doesn't functionally change the outcome-- this would have tasted better had it not taken half of our day...

Very friendly people. And the proteins were mostly really, really good. But I wouldn't come here again.

If you've never been, their schtick is they have a semi-rotating menu of large plates, each including ALL of their extensive list of sides, for between $35 (I believe this was the chicken wings) to $125 (a combo plate of all of their entrees).

And right off the bat that $125 "Everything" plate is a lot of food and included a pork chop, prim rib, smoked ribs, cat fish, chicken wings AND all of their sides, 2 small deserts and 2 drinks. It's a fine value if you like it all.

My issue is simply...I didn't.

The catfish was excellent. Legit the best I've ever had. And the prime rib was great. Chicken wings were a bit small for the price, but the breading was delicious and while I wasn't in love with the sauce for the ribs, they were cooked perfectly. The worst main was probably the pork chop and...that was still really good.

But the sides? The sides were just...kinda bad. The beans were good. As were the little mini pies. But the emulsion on the mac and cheese had split, making it greasy and bland. And the green beans were canned and unpleasant. Even the potato salad wasn't to my taste.

And that's fine. I don't have to like everything on a restaurant's menu. But THIS restaurant? Here I'm PAYING for everything. It's not cheap and that's made up for by it's extensive portions but...if I don't like all of that food then the value proposition stumbles a little bit. And if I get the smaller plates the value just becomes worse as more of my meal are those sides I didn't enjoy.

I can 100% understand why people like this place. And to be fair, I could have just caught them on a bad day where stuff had sat on the heat for too long. But unless they changed up their sides or--better--reduced prices and let me just choose my sides from an expanded list of options like a traditional restaurant...I don't think I...