Organization
Oun Lidos
Oun Lido's is a Cambodian-Chinese restaurant in the Old Port of Portland, Maine, opened in 2024 by the team behind Cong Tu Bot.[1][2] Its kitchen brings Chinese technique to Cambodian and Khmer flavors.[3][4] Oun is an affectionate word for a younger sibling or a sweetheart. Lido's was the name of an inclusive dance club in San Jose that co-owner Vien Dobui remembers.[5]
History
Oun Lido's is the second restaurant from the team behind Cong Tu Bot, which opened in 2017.[1] In early 2024 the Press Herald named Bounahcree "Bones" Kim as the chef and co-owner, with Vien Dobui of Cong Tu Bot as his partner.[6][7] Kim was raised in Portland and is half Cambodian and half Chinese.[5] Restaurant listings in 2026 name Masayuki Otaka as chef and owner.[3][4]
The team leased the former Old Port home of Pat's Pizza at 30 Market Street in May 2023. The building has three floors and about 480 square meters (5,200 square feet).[7] Kim planned to open in the fall of 2023. Repairs to the heating system and the kitchen floor, mold removal and a new water heater delayed the work by months.[8][7] Meanwhile Bon Appétit put the restaurant on its list of the most anticipated openings of 2024.[1][9]
Oun Lido's opened on May 9, 2024, with takeout only from its basement counter.[1][7] Over the summer the unfinished upstairs dining room opened to counter-service customers.[8] By September 2024 the restaurant offered takeout, delivery and counter service, was furnishing the upstairs room, and had applied for a liquor license.[5] Esquire named it to its list of the Best New Restaurants of 2024, at number 15.[3][10] Table service on weekends followed a few months later.[8] In May 2025 the owners were planning to turn the unused third floor into a lounge and event space.[8] On April 3, 2026, Oun Lido's opened a bar in its second-floor dining room and began dinner table service, while the downstairs counter kept serving takeout.[10]
Food
The menu joins Cambodian and Cambodian-Chinese dishes.[5] Kim takes inspiration from the Wong Kar Wai film In the Mood for Love. He takes risks with classic dishes while staying, in his words, "always respectful to the culture."[5]
The hot lemon chicken is chicken thigh fried twice, with a turmeric crust and a citrus caramel sauce.[5] Banh chao fresh rolls wrap glass noodles, herbs and pickled vegetables in rice paper with a coconut-milk rice-flour crepe. They come with teuk trey or a vegan lemon herb sauce.[5][11] The neorm is a salad of cabbage, mung bean noodles, green beans, mint and fish-sauce dressing, served with a chicken and wood-ear mushroom egg roll.[5] Kim built the kathew cha, rice noodles with chicken and shrimp, from the noodles he ate growing up at parties and weddings.[5]
Other dishes include lemongrass beef skewers; mi goreng, egg noodles in a sweet soy curry sauce; and loc lac, shaved sirloin with a garlic glaze, lime-pepper sauce, rice and an egg.[2][5] The pork potstickers are fried with a crisp skirt of cornstarch and vinegar. Oyster mushrooms are grilled in a marinade of lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, garlic, lime leaf and honey.[5][8] The menu also lists plea sach ko, a beef salad with anchovy prahok sauce, and kuyteav cha, a stir-fry of rice noodles.[11] The dessert cha houy teuk is made with pandan coconut milk, agar jellies, lychee and jackfruit and changes with the seasons.[5] Many dishes are vegetarian, and the opening menu included gluten-free and vegan dishes.[5][1]
Community
Portland has a large Cambodian American community, which began to arrive in the late 1970s.[2] The Infatuation called Oun Lido's the most interesting Cambodian food in the city.[2] The Press Herald critic saw Kim's cooking as a way in to Cambodian food, a cuisine still unfamiliar to many people.[5] The restaurant has held dance nights and cocktail collaborations in its loft on Market Street.[12]
Visiting
Takeout is ordered at the downstairs counter, and dinner is served upstairs.[12][10] In September 2024 the building was not wheelchair accessible.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Portland Food Map, Oun Lido's opening for takeout (May 2024)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 The Infatuation, Oun Lido's review (June 2025)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Pearl, Oun Lido's, Portland
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 En Primeur Club, Oun Lido's, Portland (2026)
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 Press Herald, Oun Lido’s setting is a work in progress, but the food is already 4-star (September 15, 2024)
- ↑ Press Herald, Meet the Kim brothers, 2 young chefs ascendant in the Old Port
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Press Herald, Chinese-Cambodian restaurant Oun Lido’s opening Thursday in the Old Port
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Down East, Does Portland's Oun Lido's live up to the hype? (May 2025)
- ↑ 94.3 WCYY, Maine restaurant named among the most anticipated openings in the nation for 2024
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Portland Food Map, Dinner and drinks at Oun Lido's (April 2026)
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 2 Dine In, Oun Lido's menu
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Oun Lido's, Instagram