Long Grain opened around 2010 serving “honest food” which was mostly Thai based but also made use of other Asian cultures.  A husband and wife team owns it, Ravin Nakjaroen and Paula Palakawong, both from Bangkok with he being a self-trained cook.   In 2014 he was a semifinalist for the Best Chef Northeast James Beard Award.   Located in downtown Camden parking is as you can find it but there was a small public lot across the street.  Over the years the place has expanded in size, which helps as it’s pretty popular.  Large windows look out to the street and inside it’s divided into 2 rooms by an open bookcase with things for sale.  A few seats are also available at the counter in the back.  There’s lots of light in addition to the windows with the addition of skylights and there is music in the background.  The servers were very friendly but service was slow, I think due to being overwhelmed by customers.  They do take reservations and serve lunch and dinner Tues through Sat. The food was worth waiting for – everything we had was excellent.  Put this one on your list for your Maine vacation.

Set Up

Food

We started with the Peek Gai Tod which were crispy fried chicken wings with crispy garlic and Jaew sauce.  The chicken was hot, juicy and very crisp with a combination of wing pieces.  The sauce looked spicy but it wasn’t particularly so – just added a nice flavor to the chicken.  These were very good.

The Hoi Mangpu was steamed Maine mussels in a spicy coconut lemongrass broth.  This was terrific.  The large plump mussels were excellent with the lovely broth with a mild touch of spiciness to the dish.  A few peppers were floating in the broth so take care what you scoop up if you’re sensitive.  It was a messy dish to eat but oh so worth the mess and effort.  Divine.

Gang Keaw Whan Gai was a green curry with Maine farm chicken, summer squash, bamboo, peppers and Thai basil.  The chicken was mostly de-boned and nicely moist.  The server warned of the hotness of this dish but I did not find it overly spicy.  It had a kick but you got used to it and it was just so good.  Inside were large pieces of well-cooked zuchini and greens and it came with a side of white rice. Eaten together it was great.  My complaint was that we had no spoon but I simply took over the rice serving spoon, which you can do when you’re eating with your spouse.

Pad Kemao was a housemade wide rice noodle in a stir fry of Thai basil, organic farmer greens, egg, mushroom, bamboo, onion and pork belly (you had a choice of meats).  This was another really tasty dish.  The mushrooms were very flavorful and the noodles so tasty, especially where they were browned and mixed with bits of egg and seasonings.  The farmer’s greens were kale which could have been cooked more or cut with the rib taken out to make it more tender.  Even so, it was great.

They ordinarily have a custard dessert that I wanted to try but they were out and instead had a lemon something or coconut cake with chocolate ganache which we passed on.