Portland Pie Company - Scarborough, ME

Looks can be deceiving. 

Restaurant Review – Portland Pie Company, Scarborough, ME

“It’s all about the dough” is a great moniker for the Portland Pie Company. The dough is great but the pizza, not so much.

We stopped at the Portland Pie Co a couple years ago and I guess we had forgotten why we hadn’t returned immediately. I remember now….

We arrived a bit after noon on a Sunday and the place was quite busy.  However, a hostess seated us right away; we ordered our “water with lemon,” a beer, and a cider and reviewed the menu.

The Fryeburg Fair
Portland Pie Company - Scarborough, ME
When the drinks arrived, we ordered our food. I’m still looking for great hamburgers and ordered what they call the Fryeburg Fair - Two beef patties topped with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickle, finished with a mix of ketchup & mustard it is served in their pie pocket.  I substituted a salad for potato chips for the side. I was a little concerned when the waitress didn’t ask me how I would like it cooked.

My wife decided upon the Mount Katahdin – A pizza with a pesto sauce, fresh spinach, artichoke hearts and sliced tomatoes woven in a three cheese blend.  She ordered the 14” thin crust so she could have some to take home.

Then we waited.  And we waited.  The waitress stopped by to tell us our order was “coming right up.” We waited some more.  After more than 45 minutes the food finally arrived. The pizza looked amazing.  The burger was one of the most pathetic looking ‘burgers I’ve ever seen. Clearly, they intend to present the burger with a side of fries or something, but when served with a side salad you just get an empty plate with a pickle spear and their burger stacked upon itself in a mistaken attempt to make it seem more like “tall food.” The side salad was served with the burger (not before like most places do) and was a beautiful mix of lettuces with plenty of tomatoes, onions and cucumber slices.  The salad was and excellent choice and well worth the $1.00 upcharge. The burger tasted better than I was expecting. The beef, although well done, was still juicy and tasty. The pita bread looking pizza dough pocket was quite good, better than most buns at other places.

Soggy Mount Katahdin
Portland Pie Co.
As I said before, the pizza looked amazing. However, it was one of the worst tasting pizzas ever. It was soggy and had a greasy taste only expected on a meat pizza. Neither of us could taste the basil. When you took a slice off the platter, it left a snail trail.

The server didn’t offer to put the remaining pizza into a takeaway box for us. But otherwise, she was okay, albeit quite busy.

Rating - 3.0

Ambiance: 4 (Nice “pizza joint” atmosphere but too noisy for conversation at midday.)
Food: 3 (Pizza was soggy, the burger was good.) 
Service: 2 (Server was okay – But a long wait for food.)
Price: 3 (Lunch was under $13 each, not including drinks)
Value: 3 (There are many pizza focused restaurants in the area. Better pizza can be found elsewhere.)

Conclusion


Pizza looked much better than it tasted.
The bottom line is that the burger looked weird but tasted quite good and the pizza, that looked really good, was not very good at all. Looks can be deceiving. I am sure it will be years before we return.

Location

We went to the Scarborough location, 499 Expedition Drive, across the parking lot from Cabella’s.


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