Category: Reviews

Hunt & Alpine is on the Find Eat Drink list of the top 50 places to drink at in 2014.

This Old Port craft cocktail bar is new to the Portland nightlife scene. Bartender and owner Andrew Volk worked at Clyde Common in Portland, OR. Volk says his cocktails are “seasonally changing and spanning from pre-prohibition drinks to recipes sourced from some of our favorite bars.” They also have a Scandinavian-influenced food menu with oysters, deviled smoked trout, open-faced peekytoe crab sandwiches and cured meats from Olympic Provisions.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Twenty Milk Street.

For solid steak-house, American bistro-style fare, the kitchen excels with simple yet well-prepared dishes. Their unique stone-heated bread basket holds a delicious house-made cranberry wheat bread. The lobster stew is classic, and steaks and chops are simply prepared in the Continental style. Fillet of beef from heritage Piedmontese beef is highly prized, as are grilled local lamb chops and Kurobuta heritage pork chops. Desserts are house-made, and the wine list is well represented with bottlings from the major wine-producing regions.

The Golden Dish has reviewed Pai Men.

The next dish was revelatory.  Listed under ramen, “mazeman” was a breathtaking bowl filled with scallops, aka miso dashi — a luxurious soup broth enriched with spicy porchetta, yam croquettes, miso cured egg, uni cream, wakame and menma (seaweed and simmered bamboo shoots).  This was certainly the evening’s highlight…

Map & Menu has published a list of their favorite meals from 2013.

The food scene in Portland outdid itself once again last year with plenty of new openings and the continued excellence of many of the city’s existing establishments. And while we tried our best to continue eating our way through town, keeping up proved to be a very tough undertaking. It’d be almost impossible to list all of our favorites, but from our meals of the past year, here are a few of the memorable ones that stood out to the two of us.

Photo Credit: Map & Menu

Booze, Fish & Coffee has reviewed the C-Squared restaurant at the new Westin.

C2 at The Westin Portland Harborview, Portland, ME — Do you know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baby. You can’t bring this kind of food here and hope to compete with the amazing restaurants in this town. While not truly horrible, C2 is just kind of…meh. We’re in Portland, Maine, a wondrous playground of dynamite local seafood and world-class farm-to-table choices, not to mention a craft beer scene that’s exploding right now. But at C2, you’d never know it. The menu is uninspired, a collection of ho-hum offerings that are perhaps a step above the national chain restaurants, but not much above.

Piccolo has made it on to the Find Eat Drink list of the top 50 restaurants they “want to eat at in 2014”.

Aptly named (piccolo translates to small) with a handful of seats, chef Damian Sansonetti is cooking rustic Italian cuisine from Central and Southern Italy and using all local ingredients. Sansonetti worked as the chef de cuisine at Bar Boulud in New York and his wife, Ilma Lopez, is the pastry chef and worked at Corton, Tailor, El Bulli, Cafe Boulud and Le Bernardin. “It’s delicious Italian food and desserts in an intimate setting we love. This is one of our favorite date nights in town,” says Andrew Volk of Portland Hunt & Alpine Club.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Hugo’s.

The dining experience is unique and exceptional with a changing menu of dishes served nightly. Some recent standouts have included local pheasant, mussel salad, cornmeal mousse, glazed parsnip, lamb leg and cauliflower risotto. The dessert menu offers such enticing choices as Maine apple, chocolate and beets and puff pastry with custard and caramel. The comprehensive wine list offers distinctive choices from all of the major wine regions.

Serious Eats has reviewed Empire Chinese Kitchen.

As much as Portland, Maine, has become an unlikely destination for Thai food, ramen, and sushi over the past few years, I continued to mourn the city’s absence of good Chinese food. But it was only a matter of time before that changed.

The Bollard has reviewed the Portland Pottery Cafe.

My daughter and I both chose the New Englander Wrap ($9.95), a wheat tortilla stuffed with corned-beef hash, homefries, scrambled eggs and cheddar cheese. We found it immensely satisfying and perfectly seasoned, with crispy bits of beef, onion and flecks of carrot throughout.

Several Maine venues made it on to the Star Chefs list of the best cocktails and dishes of 2013:

Top 10 Cocktails: Firecracker
Cold River Vodka, Lime, Royal Rose’s Three Chile Simple Syrup from Mixologist Andrew Volk from Portland Hunt & Alpine Club

Top 10 Cravable Dishes
Pig Heart Pastami, Arugula-Parsley Salad, Caperberries, and Herb Vinaigrette from Chef Melissa Kelly of Primo

Top 10 Savory Dishes: Drunken Pad Ke Mao
Rice Broad Noodles, Onions, Shiitake Mushrooms, Spicy Chiles, and Thai Basil from Chef Ravin Nakjaroen of Long Grain