Mandy & Matt's Café — Restaurant in Portland

We went here the weekend of Back Cove Music Festival 2025 on a Sunday morning (high tourist season for Portland).

Overall, the service was very slow and took nearly an hour to get our food with our coffee never refilled while we were waiting. The waiter covering the outside patio was not coming out regularly to flag her down for refills and we were never provided water at the table either.

The food was nothing really to write home about. My scramble was a bit greasy and my wife's potatoes were not fully cooked and barely seasoned.

Typically we would say something in this situation, but after waiting so long with almost no attention, we felt it better to cut our losses as we decided we wouldn't be returning anytime soon.

The food is pricier than what all the Google reviews have it at (no where near $10-20 a person if you are having a main and a drink).

Expect to spend about $25 if you want a standard breakfast and a coffee (with tip and tax!), which is on par with many other Portland brunch spots. If you want to spend less than this, you have to drive up probably past Oxford (45 min) here in Maine.

If the owners see this, please post your menu online so that people can see these prices for themselves. As of early August 2025, you can't see any prices the Google page or any old posts on their instagram page.

I think what was most disappointing though was the incongruity with all of 5 star reviews they have accumulated within their first few months of opening and the actual experience we had. We came here because of that and this mis-match is now what prompted me to write this review (as someone who really relies on google reviews to chose where to eat, been reviewing places for maybe 8 years now).

Looking at the distribution of ratings (about 55 now with 4.9 average), even something like Fore Street ranks less than this, making me think that a lot of the initial reviews here are coming from friends and family and do not really represent what it's like to dine here at the moment.

Scrolling through, the reviews with fewer stars are unfortunately closer to our actual experience.

As one of these other reviews stated, I'm not trying to hurt the business to write something that's not great. This area needs better places to eat and I'd like to see it do well. But it kind of just suffers from many of the problems that some new restaurants experience (e.g. having waaayyy too many options on their menu which is going to bog down the kitchen staff, even tho we also went on a day they were only doing breakfast).

Hope some of these things get ironed out in the coming weeks so this place can stay a diner. But, they've got a great location if you're heading up either 302 or going to I-95 and will probably stay busy...

I’ve been here twice now and I feel like none of the reviews capture the real experience.

I’ll start with the good - I love that this place is in my neighborhood and I really want them to succeed because Morrills corner needs more good businesses. I also think the food is good! It’s not going to blow you away but it is on par with other diner/breakfast places in the area, and I’ve enjoyed everything I ate both times that I’ve been here.

Ok let’s move on to the not so good. The most notable thing is service is really slow, like every part of the experience from waiting to be acknowledged when you walk in, waiting to get your order taken, waiting for the food, and waiting to pay the bill. I’ve sat at both the bar and at a table and both times were slow but the bar was slightly faster. My husband even drank his whole coffee and had it sitting empty and had to ask for more, we go out to breakfast often in Portland and other places and usually there is always someone walking around offering more coffee/water. Probably the second most notable thing detracting from the experience is just how close together the tables are. They have so many tables crammed in that people are constantly bumping into your chair just to get by. It really is a tight squeeze. The first time I came in was shortly after opening and I came back recently to see if anything improved and it doesn’t seem like it has. I will keep going back because I want to support this business but I think taking out a few tables would help give more room for walking and help the staff be able to service the tables better. If not taking out tables, at least hire one more person because all of the staff looks very busy running around but it’s still noticeably slow service. The first time I visited people were walking out the door after waiting for a while without being acknowledged. I hope they continue to improve on the staffing/wait times because I really like having a breakfast place...

Amanda did not disappoint ! We have been waiting for her return. The food was so good, atmosphere was nice with soft music playing in the background. Service was prompt, and our waitress was amazing, friendly and on top of things. The place is so bright and homey! This will be our Saturday stop for now on. Bringing friends tomorrow to show off the place.

6/7/2925 I haven’t missed a Saturday since opening day! Each week I see all the hard work everyone is putting in and it gets better and better each week. I have had an amazing breakfast each week… and as each week goes by you see the confidence in the workers keep growing…you can’t ask for a better place to start your day… Bravo to you and your team for an...