Kari and I sometimes do a dumb thing when it comes to eating. We get picky and pass up potential restaurants for one reason or another until we are starved and stop at the very next place. That place was Kathy's Breakfast and Chowder House in Trenton, ME.
The server informed us that the food might take a while since the cook was behind. We though it okay since they warned us, but we should have known something wasn't right since there were very few customers. The waitress was having some kind of conflict with the cook (who might have been the owner) because she kept saying the cook won't do this or that. She apologized repeatedly for minor issues and kept warning the hostess to stay at her station to avoid getting yelled at. All this in front of the customers.
After a VERY long wait we got our food. The only bright spot was Eggs Benedict that rated a 3.25. The breakfast sandwich was limp, uninspiring and ugly looking. It didn't taste very goo either. It gets a 2.0.
There were other weird things going on, too numerous to mention. We will not be going back here.
The next day, having learned our lesson, we committed quickly to the frst place that had a good crowd. This was Lori's Cafe in Liberty, ME. We were greeted by a friendly, funny and outgoing waitress who happened to be the owner. She joked that they don't let her out of the back often. She made the meal fun and the entire room had a great vibe to it.
The food was excellent. I had Eggs Benedict, again, and it was a solid 4.5. The oatmeal I had on the side was served with wild blueberries - tons of them. I didn't have to put any sugar in it - 4.25. The Hashbrown scrambler was excellent and the single blueberry pancake amazing. The toast was made with homemade wheat bread - thick and delicious. Kari called the whole meal 4.5.
The differences between Lori's and Kathy's were numerous and obvious. It was clear that the owner of Lori's cared about the customers and the quality of food and made sure her staff was onboard. Kathy's clearly did not and either had a hands off approach, or a bad hands on approach.
Either way, I would eat at Lori's any day, I will not be back to Kathy's.
Lori's on Facebook
Kathy's on Urbanspoon:
You have to do something special to get me to enjoy Eggs Benedict without meat. Esselon did that. I actually didn't look at the special board close enough and just assumed some sort of pig meat would be on the Benedict. There wasn't, and I didn't care. It was on ciabatta bread, had poached eggs, tomatoes, beet greens and homemade basil hollandaise. Absolutely awesome - 4.75
Kari had the Bagel Platter which included everything you could ever want on a bagel, plus a salad. We think it deserves a 4.0
The drinks were awesome too! I'm not sure you can get Matcha like this during the rush, but it was a nice touch. The fresh, local apple cider was quite good.
