LFK — Restaurant in Portland

LFK in Portland, Maine, strives to be a hip haven for diners seeking an offbeat culinary experience. The reality, however, is somewhat more mundane, save for a few standout elements.

The atmosphere at LFK embodies the spirit of ‘odd’. It feels like a Dickensian curiosity shop got lost and found itself in the realm of dining. The mismatched chairs, eccentric lighting, and curiously varied menu can leave you feeling somewhat bewildered.

The food is, for the most part, serviceable. It runs the gamut from 'decent' to 'I might eat this again if there were literally no other options'. However, the real stars of the show are the French fries. Golden and crispy, they’re seasoned to perfection and a safe bet amidst the chaos of the menu.

The staff's demeanor mirrors the overall experience - lukewarm with an undercurrent of the peculiar. They're not overly friendly nor particularly indifferent, creating an aura of ‘controlled chaos’ that teeters on the edge of 'just strange enough'.

For those seeking an average evening, LFK does serve its purpose. It's not a destination that will set your heart alight with culinary fervor, nor will it entirely disappoint. You’ll leave with a full belly and a shrug of the shoulders, saying, 'That was fine.'

In essence, LFK is the embodiment of 'meh'. It’s not a culinary catastrophe, nor a gastronomical gem. It’s just a place where you can grab some good fries on an average night when your expectations are as modest as the ambiance. It's the culinary equivalent of a beige sweater: not particularly stylish or exciting, but it gets the job done when...

We had a rough experience here recently. The place looked interesting, so we stopped in for a drink before our dinner reservation at a nearby restaurant. Coming from a city with a very high hipster population (Minneapolis), this appeared to have a similar vibe to places we like to frequent. The difference is that every bar/taproom/distillery/music venue in Mpls. seems happy to take my money, even if I am now middle-aged and balding. At LFK, we sat down at the bar, and the bartender clearly saw us and walked by without acknowledging us. I then made direct eye contact with the bartender who proceeded to ignore us for another 3-4 minutes. My wife and I discussed walking out, but at that point, I was definitely not leaving; if the bartender was annoyed with us sitting at his bar, then I was going to keep sitting whether I got served or not. Finally, he walked over, and literally threw coasters at us. After that, everything proceeded more or less as normal, but we were certainly never made to feel like welcome customers. A little advice -- Get over yourselves. You really are not that cool, and even if you were, you still need to treat all customers the same. Maybe the issue is that you want to keep LFK for the locals, because Portland seems to be full of drunken bachelorette parties, but that is really not my problem as a customer coming into your...

I’ve been to LFK many times before and had a great time, but this last visit left a really bad taste in my mouth. I came in on Saturday night, so it was busy but not slammed. I waited at the bar patiently for ten minutes, during which time neither bartender made eye contact with me. A table freed up, so I sent my friend over to grab it and proceeded to wait at the bar. Still no acknowledgement. After another five minutes, my friend was feeling tired (and we didn’t know how much longer it was going to be), so I joined her at the table and called a Lyft. At this point one of the bartenders came over to ask us what we wanted and we said nothing, we were about to leave. Less than a minute later, he was back and said we had to leave immediately if we weren’t going to order anything. To recap: I sat for fifteen minutes without a glance in my direction, but sitting at a table for less than two minutes was enough to earn us an extremely rude attitude even when we told him we were waiting on a ride. It would have been one thing if he had approached us without a nasty attitude— I worked in food service for over ten years, and I get having to flip a table. It was really more his demeanor and attitude after fifteen minutes...