Q Street Diner — Restaurant in South Portland

This place was really, really bad. Don't blindly follow these 5 star reviews, this is one of the worst places I've ever been.

Apart from being a vintage diner traveler, I also run a kitchen in Boston that feeds 500 people in 4 hour services, so there is nothing they could respond to me with that would change my outlook on their restaurant or system.

The exterior is nostalgic enough but the deep interior is actually really goofy and has a strange color scheme separate from the initial dining area that looks like it couldn't even be any older than the 70s or late 60s....most of the decor seemed forced and designed to mimic a true diner, as it's just a rectangle shaped building that was never a box car.

There was a massive line waiting to seat which is not abnormal on weekends for iconic diners around 11am but in my opinion the line was formed by inefficiency of the BOH and FOH and a incredibly ill-advised "seat yourself" sign that should never be allowed to exist in a restaurant that has two separate dining areas and gets backed up enough to even form a line out the door to begin with. On top of that the sign would be much better off saying "cash only" as there is no other indication of that until we got our bill, in which case you're directed to an ATM in the back that charges a fee. People were in absolute chaos looking past people at the front of the line to spot a table that sat their number so they could grab it before other customers who were already waiting for bussers to clear the next table.

Waitress took almost 13min just to ask us for a drink order, and she kept coming by to say "I'll be right with you guys," and literally used that line 3 times to the point me and my wife were like, please don't say that again unless you're actually coming back.

An hour....HOUR....later we finally received this pathetic excuse for a half tuna sandwich, a grilled cheese, and two tomato soups. This especially made no sense because the kitchen had pushed out a 4top order before a 6top that had sat down before them, so how ridiculously bad do you have to be at your job to take 60+min to ladle two soups that should already be prepared and hot before service, put cold tuna salad that should already be prepared before service on a piece of bread that comes out of a bag, put two pickles that come out of buckets on plates, pour a handful of potato chips that come out of bags on plates, and toast a grilled cheese on both sides on a flat-top?

This was so hilariously bad that I'll forever remember it as the worst diner I've ever been to in the 50+ vintage diners I've hit in New England. It is 100x more likely that this place is "popular" because of people seeing a crowd that was formed by a disaster of a kitchen and dining crew, which then overwhelms their inabilities, which then perpetuates into a cycle of mediocrity rather than "good food" because this was...

Was very excited to stop again at one of my favorite breakfast places here in Maine. Of course I knew it was busy but had no problem waiting it was a morning off from work for me. We usually sit up at the counter so we waited patiently until this kind gentleman offered us a seat near him so we waited to get attention of wait staff to see if that was ok they said yes until a very un pleasant busy man came up and made rude remarks about just sitting when it wasn’t cleaned up yet. I was a bit taking a back and uncomfortable being called out since I thought I had done everything properly and was no where near complaining about a plate in front of me. I have worked in the service for as long as I can remember. I felt so uncomfortable and out of place I left and it really disappointed me on a day off to not feel welcomed. And missing out out on great food and company. Thanks you for responding I do love coming and eating and letting people know where I went and great service . Do I truly appreciate the response!...

Terrible service, my son and I went there on a late morning/early afternoon. We got lunch, I had a super dry Pastrami and Swiss and very soggy fries had to drink 2 glasses of ice tea to eat the sandwich. The thing that really pissed me off was after having a bowl of chili with our lunch, my son and I decided to get one to go to have with our supper. The waitress informed us she would have to check to see if there was any life. She brought us out our to go containers, to getting ready to sit down for supper we found the containers to be less than 1/4 full of chili. I feel like I was robbed, if you don't have enough food don't put any in or don't charge full price, you people are crooks. Will never go back again, nor would I recommend going again. Suggestion should offer Military and 1st responder discounts. Especially with the price of your outrageously over priced and cash only...