Lil’s Café

The coffee is kind of gross and overpriced. The food (bakery items) is pretty good but tends to be on the expensive side. Overall this is a nice place to do work — there’s usually always a place to park — and the ambiance is amenable to spending a few hours at a time without people breathing down your neck.

I go to Lil’s 3 – 4 times a week. Their lattes are the best. They also have great breakfast sandwiches on house made biscuits that are amazing.

Wasn’t planning on breakfast here but our two choices in Portsmouth were packed. This place was awesome! The egg sandwiches were great. Some of the best biscuits we ever ate. Not a fan of crullers but indulged. They were very good but don’t skip the biscuits.

Love, love, love this place! Great coffee, really friendly staff, oh and the crullers! Can’t compliment this place enough!

My daughter asked me to buy her the curler and also ended up getting the cornbread and biscuits with jam. Not everyone knows how to make cornbread and theirs is one of the best ones. Moist and very flavorful

The coffee is incred! I love the atmosphere. The veggie wrap is super tasty! I would go here everyday if the prices were a bit lower!

Awesome coffee. Awesome pastries. Great vibe! What more would you want…
Small coffee place in the Kittery Foreside. Somewhat limited parking options but who cares! Once you have your coffee (refular, decaf, dark, or espresso) and your light-​as-​air creuller, you’ll be so happy you might even forget you drive here in the first place.
It can get crowded on weekend mornings so get here while church is still in session!

Can’t beat the pastries at Lil’s. I willingly drive 20 minutes out of my way to get a Lil’s croissant. The weekends get pretty busy, but during the week Lil’s is my favorite place to sit and grade papers and get work done.

Review just for the ice coffee.
Blehgggg!!! By far the worse coffee I ever had.
Couldn’t finish it. RIP coffee. :(

I really liked my lunch as Lil’s today and if I lived nearby, I can imagine this place becoming a regular stop. The only odd thing is that for first timers, it’s hard to get the system right. There are two cash registers and people always seemed to be standing in the wrong place. If you order a sandwich and then go find a seat by the vault, you’ll never know when your order is ready. And when you’re done, do you clean up after yourself? There’s no way to tell.
But the place is full of happy regular customers so I’m sure I’d have no trouble figuring it out. It’s not an inexpensive place (a sandwich & a water was $ 12.10) but that sandwich was above average in both size and quality. Yes, I’d definitely go back. And if you go for lunch on a Monday, go early because quite a few places nearby are closed on Mondays.

Second time here, and totally worth the stop. Iced mocha is better than most places I’ve been. Baked goods are good, but these cruellers are amazing.

Hey, the cruller doesn’t have its own postcard for nothing! The crullers are so good sometimes I actually dream about them. They are light as air and slightly crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. The grilled cheese sandwich on focaccia is fantastic (you can add apples and bacon) and they serve delicious Tandem coffee. It is often crowded but is worth the wait.

Today, while at Lil’s Café, which was completely banged-​out, an unspeakable horror occurred. A man, presumably of pure evil, ordered ALL of the cruller’s (except 1 flavored cruller). The shock of this incident cannot be fully translated to the written word. I looked at the man and he was laughing. LAUGHING!!! The patrons in line were in a state of pure shock and disbelief. Their Patagonia jackets seemed less warm. Their Subaru’s seemed less valuable. They started to question whether Bernie might really be a good President. Indeed, I have seen this look before, as a child in Washington, DC at the Holocaust Museum. I started to laugh, but then realized that **I** had been specifically tasked to return home with a PLAIN cruller. I was now faced with a serious dilemma. Do I return home with zero crullers, or one flavored cruller? Only wrath was my future. The fate of this decision could set the course for the rest of my life. But is «a little» better than «none»? Is a little adderall better than NO adderall? Before I was able to ask myself «what would Joseph Campbell do?», a tall, lanky, bearded man with a small t-​shirt ascended the stairs of Heaven with a gleaming silver platter of the most glorious pastries, returning order to a situation that almost made the Foreside run red with blood.

This is my favorite ok w in Kittery! Adorable little café, fresh pastries. Highly recommend their crueller! Delish! Good for lunch as well, soups change daily, are so good, sweet potato, squash, black bean, tomato bisque you can’t go wrong! Neat feature is «the vault» (record vault) where you can browse/​purchase vinyls. Has a hipster feel.

We tried this delightful café this morning for the first time. It was 11:30am on a Sunday, so some of us wanted breakfast and others desired lunch. I had a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit that was absolutely delicious. The hot coffee was perfect and the cruller was insanely delicious. My wife loved the sausage, egg and cheese biscuit and my daughter had a BLT sandwich with homemade chips.
The atmosphere is perfect for chatting and is very comfortable. The staff was very friendly and helpful. Overall, we had a superb experience and would highly recommend Lil’s to anyone.

Donuts! Light delicious little donuts! Lils is great. Super location, so nice to have a little hangout spot in the area. Plus they serve tandem coffee from Portland. Yay!

When I was visiting Maine for a few weeks, my friend introduced me to this place. For a person who was missing her coffee at Paradocs, Verve, Assembly… it made me feel like I was back in LA.
They have the best latte in that part of Maine hands down and it’s nestled in a cute walkable area in Kittery. Something else you have to try are they’re crazy crullers. Holy crap. Amazing. Crullers are my thing so I was in heaven.
A must try.

My daughter and I went to Lil’s twice during our trip to Maine Labor Day week. We went out of our way on our trip home because Lil’s coffee, salads (fresh greens and fruit so tasty) and gluten free cookies were so fabulous. My daughter is used to artisanal coffee and Lil’s was that and more. Erica served us both times we were there. She was patient and efficient and helped us with our choices since we were headed back to Manhattan and NJ! I bought a light blue Lil’s cup as a reminder of our wonderful experience at Lil’s! I

— sandwich and salad looked great. Salad left something to be desired. Multigrain bread was cut a little think, dryness over came the ABLT.

We had a lot to eat here. The cruller is amazing! All the reviews said to try it and we weren’t disappointed. The monkey bread and cinnamon bun are just ok and the veggie quiche was good. We also had croissants to go and they too are amazing. Wife says they are the best croissants she’s had. If we come back to Kittery, we will definitely be back here.

Well I guess the cat is out of the bag. Apparently, everyone knows about Lil’s Café since the line wound around the room. Usually I’m not a fan of lines but this one moves quickly and there is deliciousness at the end!
The ham and gruyère croissant was legit! Super flaky like a great croissant should be! I got to take a bite of my sister’s almond croissant too and it was just the right amount of sweetness! The donuts should not be looked over, they too are notable. We got our food to stay and our drip coffees (which were on par) came in the nicely branded Lil’s mugs.
The servers were fast and friendly! There’s a Maine Squeeze right outside too separated by a pleasant seating area. Maine Squeeze being a juice and smoothie bar for those of you who are not in the know.
Oh! And did you know there’s a a little hidden record shop in there too?!

I love this place!!! I have made it a staple every time I go and visit my parents in New Hampshire. I have had the maple cruller, the peanut butter cruller and the regular cruller and they have all been so delicious. Their chai lattes and matcha lattes are amazing too.
Good thing I don’t live nearby – I would be going every day!

Best pastries ever. We are visiting from San Francisco and staying in Kittery and were blown away by this little café gem. Thanks for making our mornings start out right.

On a sultry August morning in beautiful downtown Kittery I have the pleasure of sitting outside at Lil’s, a lemon poppyseed muffin my treat today. I love the rich texture and bright, lemony flavor. But the real star this morning is the cold brew. Intense with almost a butterscotch undertone it’ll keep me alert for the drive back to Boston.

Love the cruller, satisfied with the little breakfast sandwiches, disappointed by the iced coffee. from now on, i’ll grab a cruller and head across the river to grab a cold brew…

Definitely start with the cruller! It’s their gateway pastry. Once you try the cruller it will lead you to a path of no return.
Next up was the almond croissant. The top of the croissant had a nice caramelized sugar + almond bark on top. The croissant is flaky and perfect. They somehow taste better when you leave a big mess of flakes all over the place. The croissant has a custard like filling as well!
My latest choice has been the gruyère and ham croissant. Another gem to try.
I have found my go to bread fix here. Compliments to the baker, they know what they’re doing.

It’s good, damn good but very yuppified pricing structure as has become the norm in Kittery/​Portsmouth.
Coffee and 2 donuts cost me $ 10…that’s absurd in my world. This isn’t London, Tokyo or NYC.
Atmosphere is good but nothing special.
I’ll most likely go back.

I loved everything about this place! But I must begin by saying… That was THE BEST donut I have ever had!!! If you like donuts, specifically, cruller donuts, this place is a must if you are anywhere near Kittery or Portsmouth. omGGGGGG!
Quiches, breakfast sandwiches, specialty coffees, muffins… All was delicious according to the group I was with. The seating is ample, but it gets busy quickly!
The staff is fun too. A sign outside said «guess today’s theme» by the music and their outfits. As you can see this place is five-​stars all around.

Liked it a lot.
Wife and I had cappuccinos and Lunch, she had the tomato Bisque and I had the Cuban sandwich. Both were very tasty. We split an Almond Joy Cruller, WAY Yummy.
Plenty of room to sit and chat. Steady stream of customers.
Great parking, right next door.
Total winner, will be back for sure.

THE BEST COFFEE AND ESPRESO drinks! I loved this little shop very local very nice and awesome! I will visit again!

I’ve never been to downtown Kittery – heck, I thought downtown Kittery was the ugly strip malls and outlets lining US Route 1 – I was wrong.
Actually, I knew the KIttery Naval Shipyard was in the vicinity, but since I’ve not been in the market for a warship, I’ve avoided the area – until last Thursday.
To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Wallingford Square, where Lil’s is housed, is basically the former Masonic building, which takes up about half of downtown Kittery. There are now restaurants and galleries, along with other small businesses in this small business block bordering Wallilngford Square, with parking.
I loved Lil’s. Brick-​lined, and warm (as in hospitable), with great coffee, efficient and free wi-​fi, and some amazing baked goods all made in-​house. I had the Earl Grey Latte, called a London Fog. It was frothy, and rich, and not coffee, which I can’t drink late in the day.
I met someone I was interviewing for an article, and while the place was lively and filled with energy late in the afternoon, we could hold a conversation and I got what I needed. I also found a place I’m planning to visit again the next time I’m in southern Maine, or the New Hampshire Seacoast.