Duffy’s Tavern & Grill

We visit Duffy’s almost weekly. Enough that our usual Sunday lunch server, Shelby misses us when we skip a day. She is GREAT! Nestled inside the historic Kesslen Shoe building (The Lafayette Center) the menu is your typical pub fare, with delicious perfectly cooked wings, salads, burgers, and some heartier favorites like shepherd’s pie. My go to favorite is the French Dip, with tender roast beef on crusty french bread. Keep tabs on their Facebook page– they have fun events happening often!

The worse experience I have had in a long time anywhere! As soon as I walked in I had a bad feeling about the place. I was never greeted by the hostess, only given a dirty look, the bartender was extremely rude and kept rolling her eyes, I saw the hostess and another server talking about my girlfriend and I as we was sitting waiting to be served. I will never go back to this place and I highly recommend people not to venture inside if you haven’t gone there before. Extremely disappointed. This place is only a 30 second walk from my house I just moved into and have been looking forward to going in. Safe to say I’ll be saving some money.

Came in to have a few cocktails and enjoy some food at the newest restaurant in Old Orchard. My fiancé, and I sat at the bar. The Drinks were reasonably priced and delicious. Served nice and cold as we like em. Also strong which made them even more favorable.
We started off with the quesadilla and calamari. The quesadilla was cheesy and delicious. Calamari was hot, and full of flavor. Which coming from a restaurant background, calamari can be tough and tasteless. Duffy’s does it right.
For our entrée, we decided to try the pizza and built it from scratch. We were not disappointed! Lots of fresh veggies and the perfect amount of sauce and cheese.
We Will definitely come back. The service and food was outstanding. The manager, I think her name was Trish? came and greeted us and we had a lovely chat with her as well. Total sweetheart!
After visiting quite a few restaurants in this area, Duffy’s beats them all. Will definitely be back!

Monday Night Football has always been a big deal and the opening Monday Night Game of the 2015 – 16 season is no different… even if I am 3,000 miles from home!
Staying at The Red Apple Campground, we knew we had to find «the spot» to watch the game and spotted Duffey’s Tavern and Grill on the map the campground gave us. Off we went, sporting my 49er Jersey and Ellie in her Chargers Jersey (both winners this weekend and a perfect 1 – 0 record for each team — yeah).
We arrived to the old brick building right on the River, and thought «how cool». The inside was not what we expected it to be — rather the space carved out for Duffey’s was new and modern. The décor was simple with a well lit dining room and the 3-​sided bar in the back with lots of TV’s showcasing golf, baseball and of course our beloved Monday Night Football.
The bartender was busy but found time to make us feel welcome and at home. Eventually, during halftime she spent a few minutes listening to our story of life on the road and learned from her a bit about the local area.
Both Ellie and I started with a cup of their clam chowder and a shrimp cocktail. Their chowder was very creamy and buttery, full of fresh clams and potatoes.
Then the shrimp cocktail was unique in that you could order based on the number of shrimp you wanted — with both had 2 and again enjoyed the freshness of shrimp paired with a nice spicy cocktail sauce.
Since it was Monday Night Football I passed on the lobster roll, clams or any of their other local delicacies for an order of Buffalo Wings that were just spicy enough to make you want more without having to call out the fire department.
Ellie had a Dinner Salad that was full of fresh seasonal local produce, that she enjoyed.
All in all, a good place to go and enjoy a meal with the family or to go and hang out at the bar and catch ‘the game’ — regardless of what game that may be.

Very sterile boring décor… but a nice stop nonetheless for a good lunch and a beer. Wife had a decent haddock sandwich… but my turkey dinner was the star… awesome stuffing… great gravy… and a huge pile of buttery mashed potatoes… sweet bartender too.

Went to the new OOB restaurant.
Ordered spaghetti and meatballs and burger.
Spaghetti was mushy, bland, prob precooked.
Burger under cooked and it still had wrapper attached. Pointed flaws and paper to server, she shrugged it off and gave us bill.
Will not return.

My wife, myself, sister and brother in law were in Kennebunk, ME for two day visit and came across Duffy’s. This place is the best I have been to and would recommend it to everyone. Patty and Marty could not have made our visit any better. A true pleasure to be in such great company.
Scott, Pat, Erin and John
Los Angeles, Ca.

It’s your friendly neighborhood pub. The food is not bad. They have a lot of your typical pub food.
Me and my wife got the Patty Melt Burgers. It was a good size cheese burger but the sautéed onions that were supposed to be on it had hardly any on it. The onion rings we ordered were only battered once and were very greasy.
Service was friendly and prices were reasonable. Lots of TVs on the walls if you go to watch a game.

Finally found it. Directions from Unilocal for this place on maps and Verizon navigation take you into the middle of a farmer’s field. Be wary of the glitch. Had to find it on Google to get here. Worth the adventure. Food is great as is the service.

Great food. I had the chicken brie sandwich, out of this world good. My wife had fish and chips and said it was awesome. The hostess screwed up for our wait but lucky for her the great food made up for it. Nice atmosphere great view of a damn from the bar.

I eat here fairly often. I love the atmosphere, it really casual. The wait staff is great. The food is pretty good. I really like the pizza, some of the sandwiches, and burgers. But I have have a couple things, such as the eggplant parm that was just ok.
The prices are great and they can accommodate large groups easily. I have also been here for catered events, such as a baby shower, and it was great. Very family friendly.

I don’t get to Maine often so my objectives for this visit were very straightforward — lobster roll and chowder. If you are of like mind, you have to partake, especially of the clam chowder. I used to work for Campbell Soup Company, so I have consumed vast quantities of every kind of soup you can imagine, so it takes quite a stellar candidate to earn serious praise from me — but this New England Clam makes the grade in major way. Perfect thickness, amazingly plump, tender, delicious clams, and the ideal balance of saltiness and creaminess to the base. I only regret getting the cup and not the crock. The lobster roll? Check out my photo – generous hunks of top grade lobster. I abandoned the roll and just ate the tasty shellfish. Put this place on your must-​visit list.

We visited the Kennebunk area this summer with my sisters family — so there were nine of us in all. We went to several fine places to eat during our stay in Maine, but by far Duffy’s was the best experience for us! The atmosphere/​décor was not too «touristy» — which could be viewed as a negative I suppose. But the food was uniformly excellent — from the pizza my niece had to the burgers to the full dinners. The salads were also top notch. The wait staff were friendly and patient with our picky group, yet they made sure we all enjoyed our meal. Our family stayed in the area an extra day, and bypassed all choices to return to Duffy’s for a second night. We knew it would be excellent again — and it was. A great find.

We had lunch here. The sandwiches were great. I had the special, a pastrami Reuben that was the best I ever had! We were greeted and immediately seated. The service was fast and efficient. The only problem we had was a couple of the orders had incorrect sides. Definitely recommend Duffy’s to anyone looking for a great place to eat in Kennebunk!

Very nice place to eat. Relaxing and nice atmosphere. Have had a number of dishes and all were good. Good place for the family as well. Definitely recommend for a family or casual meal.

This place was great. Great atmosphere, great service, and top notch food. Our table of 4 had 3 different meals French dip, Fried Haddock sandwich and 5 cheese grilled cheese sandwich. We all cleaned our plates. Would recommend highly the onion rings and sweet potato fries.

Found Duffy’s on out wat to Central Maine. We jumped off 95 and used the GF Registry application.
We were very pleased with the experience, it was convenient off the hwy, good selection of GF food, staff were really friendly and the service was quick.
The food was very good, a definate must next time we’re traveling through.

fiancé found this place using his gluten-​free app; it’s only 0.1 mile from the Kennebunk Inn where we stayed.
walked there on a chilly Sat night around 8:30−9pm. plenty of street parking (the streets were a little dim though as the joint seems to be located at the edge of the town center); there were quite a few tables occupied inside. greeted and seated promptly once we entered.
menu is in a newspaper form, which is cute. decent amount of GF items to select from, including GF buns and pasta (so none of those «burger w/​o a bun» crap). ordered the potato skin and shrimp scampi from the GF section, and a regular order of «lobster roll & chowder». server was friendly and knew what she’s doing.
food came quickly. potato skin was thicker than just skin; appears to be a side of the potato being sliced off, topped with cheese and bacon of sorts, accompanied by sour cream in a to-​go cup (which is bizarre at first sight but as i continued to observe during my stay, prepping condiments in to-​go cups seems to be a norm around here). the dish was tasty, but we felt like it missed some chives or scallion, and the top was a bit oily w/​the melted cheese. we were stuffed by the sheer portion of it, though.
GF shrimp scampi consisted of a sizable share of shrimps, cooked al dente as well, by which i’m impressed! i didn’t personally try any pasta but it looked GF alright — came out a bit choppy (what corn pasta usually cooks out to).
my lobster roll was FANTASTIC (and i rarely use that word); i think it has a lot to do w/​the butter-​toasted bun which is warm enough to contrast the generous leap of al dente lobster claw meat, lightly dressed in mayo. if picking bones, maybe a sprinkle of fresh cracked black pepper on top would be the icing on the cake.
the cup of chowder that came along, on the other hand, was a bit…“off”. there are a handful of chopped clams and potatoes; broth is slightly thinner than, say, Campbell’s cream of mushroom consistency – but still a OK. what i found «off» was the taste. i wouldn’t say it’s «sour» but it’s not «creamy», either. every sip till the end (and i’d have bites of the lobster roll in between), i felt like being thrown off every time the spoon hit the tongue. the food hadn’t gone bad; but it just tasted…“different”.
onto atmosphere: it looks like a family restaurant/​pub sort of fare; don’t expect it to be prom-​date romantic. soon after we sat down, though, we realized our window looked right into the dam next to the building! it was a pretty awesome view (and i REALLY don’t use this adjective!), and the accoustics it provided for our meal!
for all that, bill came right under $ 45 for two (we didn’t order drinks), not a bad deal! given their decent GF offerings, would consider to return shall we appear in this town next time!

My food was fine, but my companions were awful. I got the fried haddock sandwich. Something simple, it was fried perfectly, not greasy and good size fish. Weird thing, they didn’t serve it with tartar sauce? Hmm
My friend got a gluten free chicken sandwich. After she picked up the sandwich to eat it, the bread completely FELL APART. It looked like the bread exploded. She ended up eating it with a fork and knife. It was literally 2 pieces of bread with chicken. nothing else. Hmm… and then another got a veggie wrap? It was just a gross looking mess. She unwrapped the wrap, and it was wet, and the veggies just looked unappealing.
Our waitress was friendly enough. Oh and I think its a waste and hurtful to the environment that they use newspapers as their menu.
I guess if you’re looking for basic, simple food… maybe come here? I don’t know, it just had a chain restaurant feel and menu (but maybe a bit cheaper?). Nothing special about the menu.

If you’re looking for a solid neighborhood restaurant in Kennebunk, head for Duffy’s. Run by a former Kennebunk firefighter, Duffy’s serves up a good selection of well-​cooked, though not fancy, food. It has a very friendly atmosphere and easy parking, and a great view of the dam next to the Lafayette Center building.
I’ve been there a couple of times and intend to return. On our most recent visit, our family of five had a range of dishes including baked haddock, steak tips, fish & chips (with great sweet potato fries) and patty melt, and everybody enjoyed their dishes.
So, if you’re looking for high-​end cuisine, keep looking, but if you’re looking for a simple, well cooked and tasty meal in a friendly neighborhood setting, Duffy’s is definitely worth a visit.