The Farm Bar and Grille

Called the number posted on their website last night to order some takeout and the number wasn’t working. Stopped in on my way home from work and ordered 2 bowls of chowder and a chicken and cheese quesadilla. It wasn’t that busy there, plenty of open tables. I waited 50 minutes for my food. Some regulars at the bar who came in much later than I did were served food within 15 minutes of high fiving the bar staff. When I got my food they were out of take out bags. Worth the wait lol.

Been here many times and thier sister restarunts also. This review is for Kittery only. The food is so great, very much the best comfort around. The waitstaff is so hard working, accommodating, pleasent and on point. Their barkeeps and management are horrible. First put some more waitstaff on, they are spinning thier wheels they are so understaffed. Come on they get paid like $ 4 per hour dig deep management and put two more on from like 5 to 9 on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Everytime whether at the bar or table our mixed drinks are made wrong not weak just wrong. They are nothing fancy very basic. We reorder and they come back right, so they knew how to do it they just dont seem to ever get it right the first time. Bar always seems to be in the weeds. Dirty, bartender overwhelmed and disorganized with manager talking to his buddies not helping the obviously new to the industry bartender.
Look when somebody sits at a bar with his girlfriend. And only 6 other people are there first greet them with a towel in your hand wipe down the food that has fallen of others plates for the last 3 hours and ask how they are and would they like a drink and a menu.
Not done
When you give them a drink put it on a coaster.
Not done
When manager brings food ask if they want plates napkins and silverware.
Manager threw food down and walked away.
Come on my girlfriend is obviously way to pretty to be with me but don’t be pissed about it buddy.
Ask if we want something to dip chicken fingers in duh
Ask if I want any thing to top my tacos
Duh duh
Then when I have to beg for my bill and beg to pay it. Dont give it to us and disappear for 20 minutes.
Then make us try to pry the manager away from his bar buddies to no avail and leave a 7% tip because I could not pay to make change.
We are always 25% tippers no matter what.
We couldn’t do it unless we waited god knows how much longer.
Come on barstaff and management lets try to be pleasent, attentive, happy while working as hard as we can. Nothing good comes from laziness and uncaring.
Im rooting for you Farm bar and grill.
Im editing this review for the general managers prompt and professional response.
Thank you.

Two stars could easily turn to 4 stars if they got rid of the manager.
He creates a frat house atmosphere. He flirts with all the waitresses, and yuks it up with other staff. In no way do I feel welcomed or cared for by this manager or the staff.
Earlier this summer my husband and I stopped going to The Farm because we like to sit at the bar and there had a female bartender working with a missing front tooth. This was such a turnoff.
Meanwhile, the food is really good. We would like so much to have it be our favorite ‘go to’ place — good food casual atmosphere, convenient location and free parking.
I have been there about 8 times total and the last several times I walked away shaking my head and saying not again. Owners — please pay attention to this!

I so wanted to like this place, was excited about a new restaurant in Kittery. Took 2 friends who were visiting me for the weekend for lunch. I had the fish tacos, one of my friends ordered the baked haddock casserole that came with a side of mashed potatoes. This dish was far from visually appetizing, all the ingredients on the plate were the same color, but he said the meal was decent. My other friend ordered the maple bourbon half smoked chicken that came to the table actually half cooked, the inside was still pink. My tacos were meh, I’ve had better particularly on the seacoast. Thought it was pricey for the quality. Haven’t been back, don’t plan to, many other better restaurants on the seacoast to explore. Really disappointed bc, like I said, I wanted to like this place.

Meh. This is my second visit. First was good. This time there were a couple of things I found off-​putting. We sat outside and were surprised to find ourselves at cheap, wobbly plastic tables. The kind where your drink spills every time someone at the table moves. Second, was the hard, unripe tomato on my club sandwich. This is summer. In New England. On «gourmet alley». We expect juicy ripe flavorful tomatoes. The expectations are high around here, and there is some stiff competition. Kittery needed a place like The Farm, but not at the expense of a quality dining experience. Let’s hope they read and make good use of their customer dining surveys, where I provided the same feedback. I am not writing them off just yet since they are probably still working out the kinks.

The Farm in Kittery recently opened where the old Seaport Fish used to be. It’s smaller than their Dover location and has a vibe and energy all its own. Very friendly staff greeted us when we walked inside, and with all the glass windows, it’s nice and light and airy feeling with a casual fun atmosphere. Our waitress was Niki, and she was outstanding. She was there whenever we needed something, and checked on us several times. Her friendly conversational demeanor is a refreshing change from some waitstaff in the area. We’ll ask for her next time we’re in, and would recommend others ask for her too — she’s very good!
The menu is the same as the Dover restaurant, however the preparation of the menu items, at least those we tried and some we saw delivered to neighboring tables, has subtle differences in the Kittery restaurant. I had their Pulled Pork Quesadilla and an order of their hand-​cut fries, and my husband had the Crabby Patty BLT with onion rings. I’ve had the Pulled Pork Quesadilla a number of times in the Dover restaurant, and I favor the one in Dover over the one I had today in Kittery. Mine came out with shredded fresh Parmesan cheese on top, which I did not care for. Shredded Parmesan cheese just does not go with a Mexican quesadilla, not in my opinion. The one in Dover is just prepared a bit better. I love the hand-​cut fries at The Farm — so very good. I’m sad to say the ones I got today in Kittery were on the soggy side, not quite cooked enough. The taste of them was delicious though. My husband’s sandwich was very tasty however he said they could do with more crab and less of the filler they used to make the crab cake with. He really enjoyed the onion rings — hand-​battered and cooked to perfection.
We saw a table near us have the Chicken Pot Pie as one of their meals. We both did a double take as the Chicken Pot Pie served in the Dover restaurant is a nice flaky puff pastry topping. My husband had that the last time we ate at the Dover restaurant so it was pretty fresh in our minds. The presentation of this dish in Dover is far more impressive than the one we saw served in the Kittery restaurant today. It appeared the lady who ordered it might have had it at one of the other locations because of the expression on her face — she clearly was expecting something other than the flat over-​browned crust that it came out with on top versus the beautiful fluffy topping served in Dover. The menu describes it as ‘a light butter croissant puff pastry’ — not what we saw delivered today at all.
Whenever people who own multiple locations open a new one, we always wonder how the consistency will be. Our visit today showed us that while the menus are the same, the preparation isn’t quite consistent, which is too bad because we really enjoy the food from the Dover location. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, just a different preparation and presentation of the food at the Kittery location. Maybe with a little more time, the consistency will be better. We will most assuredly go back — we like The Farm too much to not go back, and we’ll try a variety of other things on the menu. And because this location is much closer for us than the other locations.