Category: Reviews

The Portland Pottery Cafe received 3½ stars from the Eat & Run review in today’s Press Herald.

The egg sandwich comes with a fried egg, cheese and a choice of bacon, ham or sausage. It’s served on an English muffin or bagel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the egg wasn’t overcooked. The yolk still retained a little runniness, which is the way I like it. (It actually could have been a little runnier, and I would have been happy.)

The sandwich plus a medium coffee cost me $5 and change.

Also in today’s paper is the latest What Ales You column which includes a report on some recent press for Maine brewers and details on a collaboration between Maine Beer Company and Lawson’s Finest Liquids in Vermont to produce Collaboration Time I.

The beer had a large, long-lasting tan head and a caramel aroma. The rye adds a bit of spiciness, but I didn’t taste a lot of wheat. The malt is the dominant flavor, with the hops in the background, making it to my mind a wonderfully complex brown ale.

Diningsense has published a review of Fore Street.

The quail and the whole fish, as well as the warm service and our nice table, made this one of my favorite meals at Fore Street. The cuisine is not characterized by a dominant flavor profile so much as their oven-centric preparation method; this is not a problem, but our meal did reveal the limitations of a strict adherence to minimalist preparations. Most notably, the flavors of the dessert and the hake were more restrained than what one would find at a more experimental restaurant.

Portland Magazine has published a review of LFK.

Parisian, perhaps, but with Longfellow seated outside and Emily Dickinson vibrating within (see the poem inscribed on brass keys at the bar). Inviting texts in every nook add depth and volume; sounds register loud in happy cacophony, and we leave fully satisfied that LFK is decidedly Whitmanesque.

The August issue of Details magazine provides a 3-day eating itinerary for Maine that stretches from Scarborough to Belfast. The Portland area restaurants highlighted in the article are Bar Lola, 158 Pickett Street Cafe, Standard Baking, Pai Men Miyake, The Lobster Shack, J’s Oyster Bar and Rosemont. Further up the coast the article recommends well known spots like Red’s and Chase’s Daily.

Petite Jacqueline has been included in a list on Gourmet Live of 10 French restaurants across the country “where to eat and what to order to enjoy French fare sans fuss”. The recommendation of Petite Jacqueline to the list came via Jillian who writes for the Maine food blog From Away.

Petite Jacqueline presents a French paradox: As you stand in the narrow entryway, you will desperately wish you were more slender, yet you will soon stuff yourself silly on all the best things in life…

Map & Menu has published a review of Caiola’s.

The Caiola’s burger is sometimes easy to overlook as the last item on a menu stocked with tempting choices, but once you’ve had one of these juicy creations with bacon, cheddar cheese, and a few large mashed potato tator tots (they will absolutely leave you speechless), you’ll find that your eyes begin to drop to the bottom of the menu from the get-go on subsequent visits.

Map & Menu has published a brief review of Boda and a set of beautiful photographs from their visit.

The Beef Panaeng is a wonderful dish of braised Wolfe’s Neck Farm (just next to one of our favorite hiking trails) beef with coconut cream, that melts in your mouth, with a large helping of jasmine rice. I highly recommend the dish, but having tasted a few other items on the menu, I’d be willing to bet that you can’t go wrong with any of the choices.

Joe Ricchio had put together a list of 30 eateries across the state that go beyond the usual suspects that “you read about in Food and Wine, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, or damn near every other publication that seems to re-visit the same damn restaurants every time.”

Eventide and Schulte & Herr are the two Portland spots that made the list.

Spectrum Culture has published commentary on meals at Duckfat, The Merry Creperie, Bite into Maine! Morning in Paris, Fore Street, Gorgeous Gelato and Gelato Fiasco from a recent trip to Portland.

Fact: There is a restaurant every 3.8 feet in downtown Portland, Maine (that’s not a fact but I’d wager it’s pretty close). I can’t think of another town that I have been to where I’ve been simply overwhelmed by the sheer amount of dining choices. Take a walk through the old port district and you’ll find everything from taco stands to sushi joints with brew pubs, lobster shacks (of course) and cafés mixed in among the array of seemingly endless offerings. One could spend a month cycling through the city’s establishments and still not get to all of them. We only had five days. Thanks to the superior research powers of my wife, who did an enormous amount of planning while I was off gallivanting at a few pre-trip concerts, we were able to maximize our time in Maine’s cultural capital.