Category: Reviews

Eater has named Not a Bakery in their 2025 shortlist of Best Bakeries.

Georgia Macon found a sweet home when she moved to Portland, Maine, from St. Louis during the pandemic. The pastry chef quickly rose through the ranks within Prentice Hospitality Group, which includes restaurants like the Good Table and Twelve. After creating a local following for baked goods at the latter, Macon and other pastry chefs from the lauded restaurant launched a food truck — not a bakery — near the restaurant, offering a range of pastries inspired by Macon’s time in France, memories of her grandmother, a reverence for Southern cooking, and a love for the baking traditions of her newfound New England home.

Macon recently left her position at the Prentice Hospitality Group, but you can experience her baked good by placing a pre-order with her directly for sweet potato pie, apple butter stack cake, or dinner roles to enjoy for Thanksgiving.

Yankee magazine has named Ocotillo as New England’s Best New Brunch as part their 2025 food awards. Ocotillo was opened in April 2024 by the owners of Terlingua.

Sister restaurant to Terlingua, the popular Tex-Mex barbecue spot in Munjoy Hill, Ocotillo brings the same warm vibes and south-of-the-border accent to Portland’s West End. Start with a smoked brisket breakfast taco or the huevos rancheros (red and green chili salsas, eggs over easy, corn tortillas, refried beans). Tuck into buttermilk-masa pancakes with caramelized pineapple syrup and maple butter. And don’t forget to finish with the churros.

Two other Maine businesses were also recognized in the Yankee awards list Backriver Blends in Topsham for their Blueberry Jerk Marinade and Skordo in Brunswick for their Cook New England Spice Set.

CN Traveler has published their list of the 15 Best Restaurants in Portland.

If you ever hear anyone ask why teensy Portland, Maine, has such an outsized reputation in the food world, remember two things: First, those people clearly haven’t eaten here yet, and second, the answer lies in a philosophy ingrained in Maine itself. The state’s proud lack of pretense and its close-knit community of small farms, working waterfronts, and independent restaurants are long-held traditions that predate (and frankly, eclipse) hype phrases like “locavorism.” And that means widespread access to far better food for everyone. Even celebrated fine dining here tends to eschew anything high-concept and instead just keeps it real.

The article highlights: Cong Tu Bot, Douro, Dry Dock, Fore Street, Honey Paw, Leeward, Miyake, Mr. Tuna, Papi, Sur Lie, Terlingua, Twelve, Union, Wayside, Woodfords.

The online reservation system Resy has released their inagural Resy 100 list. Resy describes the list this way, “This is a curation of restaurants that thrill us, that serve exceptional food that alternately might be comforting or daring, traditional or completely new. These are places that make us want to return again and again, and define the best of our dining culture today.”

Cong Tu Bot is restaurant #64 on the list.

…It’s not just their vibrant space (or their eye-popping website), but also a menu that’s endlessly dynamic, as with salat nuoc mieng, or “mouthwatering salad,” with red-eye sauce, crispy rice, chile oil and more; or cured scallops with a fermented-tofu green sauce; or Rancho Gordo beans in a turmeric-lemongrass curry…

The New York Times shared some Portland dining guidance as part of the launch of their 2025 Restaurant List. As part of that effort they published this guide to eating in Denver, San Diego, San Antonio, Minneapolis/St Paul, and Portland.

The Portland section highlights: Bite INto Maine, Bread & Friends, Franciska, LB Kitchen, Luke’s, Minato, Mr. Tuna, Ocotillo, Sur Lie, Tandem, The Shop, and Zu Bakery.

The New York Times has included Sammy’s Deluxe in Rockland and Pilgrim’s Inn on Deer Isle in their 2025 Restaurant List of the “50 best places in America right now.”

With regard to Sammy’s Deluxe  they wrote in-part (right photo),

The chef Sam Richman ditched the haute cuisine halls of Jean-Georges and the Fat Duck for Midcoast Maine, opening Sammy’s Deluxe with a clear mission: to celebrate the state’s pristine ingredients without any high-end fuss. Mr. Richman forages his own mushrooms, pickles local alewives (those overlooked fish from the herring family) and smokes his own haddock snacks, which you can order with a side of sweet homemade brown bread…

With regard to the Pilgrim’s Inn they wrote in-part (left photo),

…A lobster and fennel chowder, with diminutive hush puppies scattered throughout, made the culinary connection up the seaboard. Ruby-red tiles of Maine bluefin crudo hummed with salted radish and Aleppo pepper. And the roasted monkfish with clams and tomato broth had a bouillabaisse-goes-Down East notion to it. The menu in the cozy tavern room, including the unmissable grilled skewers of local eel, stays relatively constant.

The Times shared this about their perspective on list making.

What does it mean to be a “best restaurant”? And what to make of a list as wide-ranging as this one? Can a storefront barbecue spot in Kansas specializing in turkey legs sit next to a tiny jewel box of a restaurant with a tasting menu in the Bay Area? What about a sultry new Miami steakhouse and a rustic 135-year-old dining room on Deer Isle, Maine?

The answer is yes. And when you read the list, you’ll see why. These places all have delicious food and a mastery of craft, but also a generosity of spirit and a singular point of view.

This isn’t the first time Maine restaurants have appeared in the list. Cong Tu Bot was featured in 2021. Leeward and Twelve in 2022, Tinder Hearth in 2023 and The Alna Store in 2024.

Travel & Leisure magazine has published an article about the Portland dining scene.

As we chatted I tried Fujimoto’s Danish pastry, made with Maine butter and speckled with cranberries; after that came a flavor bomb of a Chinese mooncake. Her version, she says, is similar to a rich gâteau basque, but unlike its French counterpart, it’s filled with savory adzuki beans. Blending European and American techniques learned at Hayward’s establishments with Japanese flavors and Maine ingredients adds up to something Fujimoto called “deeply Portland.” 

The article mentions Bite Into Maine, Tandem, Rabelais, Fore Street, Leeward, Norimoto, Cantina Calafia, Magissa, Twelve, Burundi Star, Zu Bakery, Sur Lie and the Longfellow Hotel. The article will appear in print in the September issue of the magazine.