Category: Reviews

The Portland Logbook has published a list of Portland Maine’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The list includes 16 different bakeries with the top rated cookies coming from Luncheonette, Belleville, Onggi and Bread & Friends.

Afar magazine has published an article about Portland’s bakery scene entitled “Portland, Maine, Is America’s Best Bakery Town”.

Portland has long been synonymous with seafood. The compact peninsula on Casco Bay is anchored by a functional waterfront and a density of raw bars and lobster shacks, drawing tourists who roll in like the tide each summer. But more recently, the city has become a year-round food destination—one now defined by what comes out of the oven as much as what comes out of the ocean.

The article highlights Bread & Friends, Night Moves, Norimoto, Onggi, Standard Baking, Tandem, and Zu Bakery.

Food & Wine came out with their 2026 Global Tastemakers lists this morning.

• Portland came in first place on the Top 10 Small US Cities for Food and Drink list. “Portland frequently crashes national best-of lists stacked with heavyweights. Chalk it up to a working waterfront hauling ultra-fresh seafood into a lively arts district or a genuine off-season (though it’s shrinking), which ensures a steady stream of newcomers trading big-city grind for a tight-knit community of artisans constantly refining tiny-town charms.”
• For the third year in the row Aragosta on Deer Isle has been recognized on the Top 10 US Hotels for Food and Drink list. “Tucked on a serene, forested island, this cluster of nine cottages cocoons guests in the restorative rhythm of Maine’s midcoast, with food acting as both anchor and compass.”

In 2018 Bon Appetit named Portland the Restaurant City of the Year, and in 2009 the magazine had named Portland the America’s Foodiest Small Town.

The 2026 list of nominees for the James Beard Awards has been released. Congratulations to our Maine nominees:

•  Thomas Takashi Cooke from Izakaya Minato in the Best Chef Northeast category
• Dana Street from Fore Street, Scales, Standard Baking, and Street & Company in the Outstanding Restaurateur category.

The list of semifinalists was released back in January with seven from Maine this year. Elsewhere in New England there were 2 nominees from Rhode Island, 1 from Vermont, 3 from Connecticut and 2 from New Hampshire.

The awards ceremony will take place on June 15th in Chicago. This year is the 25th anniversary of the first Beard Award won by a Maine establishment—an America’s Classics award for Waterman’s Beach Lobster in 2001. Hopefully this year’s ceremony reveals additional award winners for Maine to continue the legacy.

For your reference:

• A list of Maine award winners, nominees and semifinalists, 2001 – 2026.
• A list of the chef and restaurant awards categories
• An overview the chef and restaurant awards process
• James Beard in Portland – Read about the time James Beard himself taught a set cooking classes in Portland.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has published a 4 star review of Luncheonette.

…Among the best are roasted sweet potato salad with North African seasoning, cabbage “Caesar” with creamy tahini dressing and puffed rye berry furikake, and potato salad with French fines herbes and Japanese Kewpie mayo. LeBlanc’s sublime milk bread puts the tofu katsu sando over the top, and the dough also serves double duty in one of the best cinnamon rolls around. Get there early before the cinnamon rolls and first-rate roasted pork with mustard and apple gastrique sell out…

Owners Alex LeBlanc and Angela Lee launched Luncheonette last June. The pocket-sized eatery is located at 147 Cumberland Ave in the space formerly occupied by Union Bagel Company. Eater included Luncheonette in their list of the Best New Restaurants in America in 2025.

The Adventurist has published a dining guide to Portland.

There are cities that appear on my work calendar and inspire all the excitement of a dental appointment. Portland, Maine, is not one of them. Even in February, when the harbor air seems designed to punish me for wearing an ankle-length dress, I’m happy to go back, because this city keeps adding some new restaurant, new chef, or new dish worth folding into the list.

The article features: Aomori, Central Provisions, Cong Tu Bot, Crispy Gai, Fore Street, Izakaya Minato, Magissa, Miyake, Mr. Tuna, Papi, Regards, Scales and Twelve.

The Adventurist has also written articles highlighting Winona’s in Camden, Aragosta on Deer Isle, and The Lost Kitchen in Freedom.

The Bollard has published a review of Mandy and Matt’s Cafe in Morrill’s Corner.

I opted for a veggie breakfast sandwich ($8.99) of egg, cheese, spinach, tomato, and onion on an English muffin, which I doctored up with a little salt and a splash of Cholula hot sauce. As with most breakfast entrées on the menu, the price included either home fries (griddled or deep fried) or my favorite: hash browns, pressed flat on the griddle until intensely crispy. I ordered a side of meaty, salty, homemade corned beef hash ($9.99), which was also griddled to a delightful crisp (canned hash is available for those willing to trade excellence for nostalgia).