So my husband and I moved to Maine several months ago and we don't really get out much. I'm still still getting used to the area and finding places that make me feel homie. So one of our adventures in our new home was going to a restaurant called Ninety Nine or 99. I had never heard of it before and to my knowledge there are none where I used to live. It appears to be a New England chain of roughly 100 locations.
Long story short, my husband and I were in Biddeford, ME and starving. My husband is originally from the New England area and hadn't been to a 99 in several years, so he decided that's where we were going to eat.
First I must tell you that I was a little confused with the outside layout. The building is located near a shopping center. You know the ones that are all connected, creating a shape similar to a horse shoe? So all the shops face each other right? You pull into the parking lot, conveniently located in the middle and you can see every shop store front. Not, however, Ninety Nine. Instead you see the back of the building and we didn't see a sign anywhere. My husband couldn't even find the front door. It was located at the back or the front? Anyway it would have been nice to have at least a sign. I'm not quite sure why they built so close to the hill and not facing the other stores but we eventually found our way in.
Now even though the location is strange, I have to say the service was excellent. As soon as we entered the building a young woman was there holding the door open for us. She welcomed us and asked how many. They were not extremely possibly because of the snow storm of 8 inches that was slowing occurring. So we immediately got a booth. The inside seemed like any restaurant and there was a bar that was separated from the dining area.
Our waitress was another young lady who was pleasantly sweet. Not the overly fake sweet, but the genuinely happy to help kind. Because my husband hadn't been to a Ninety Nine in years and me not at all, we had a lot of question. The waitress was patient with us. One of my husband's questions was "How big are the hamburgers?" My husband likes double burger if the patties are super small. The answer; "8 ounces." My questions was based on the Vermont Cheddar Burger which came with Maple Mayonnaise. You can guess my question. The waitress was honest and said she gets mixed reviews on the maple mayonnaise and that we would put a side regular mayo and the maple so I could try it.
Not going to lie, the best part about date night was the food! The Vermont Cheddar Burger comes with a huge seasoned 8 oz burger, Vermont cheddar cheese, smoked bacon, caramelized onions, and the maple mayonnaise.
In short IT WAS AMAZING. I ended up loving the maple mayonnaise so I put that on the bun. The bun was great too. I'm a bread person, I love bread. My husband laughed at me when the waitress set my plate down the first thing I said was the bun was pretty. It had an imprint with breading flakes speckled over the top. It looked delicious. The burger was excellent, it was thick and I could taste the seasoning. Not an ordinary plain burger, the seasoning gave it flavor and was actually really juicy. Despite the strange location, the food and the service was awesome. It's rare to find a burger that actually tastes like meat, let along meat that has flavor and not just beef and cheese. I also liked that at the end of the meal the waitress thought to ask me if I ended up liking the maple mayonnaise and also told us to drive safe in the storm.
All and all a very good meal for date night as well as a new adventure for us Non-Mainers. So if you're ever in the New England area, I defiantly suggest you find a Ninety Nine near by and get yourself a real burger.
Thanks for Reading
My
Thoughts!
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Have a Sweeter Day
Than
Yesterday
