Reviews Archives - Page 4 of 246

Top 10: Maine Day Ventures

May 2, 2024 | Posted in Reviews

Maine Day Ventures has been named to their list of the 10 Best Food Tours in America by USA Today.

Explore traditional seafood standards and gourmet bites along with craft breweries and artisanal distillers on this collection of tours with Maine Day Ventures. “Savor & Saunter Portland’s East End” is a tour featuring kale handrolls, kombucha, and more, or go traditional and learn about lobsters on an “Old Port Seafood Lovers'” tour. One of their several options is sure to get you salivating, including the “Doggy & Me” tour for you and your pups.

Magnus on Water Pinned

May 1, 2024 | Posted in Distilling & Cocktails, Reviews

Congratulation to Magnus on Water. The Biddeford cocktail bar has been recognized by The Pinnacle Guide for the excellence of their bar program. Magnus is one of 37 cocktail bars in the world and one of only 10 in the US to be honored.

The Pinnacle Guide requires bars to submit a detailed self-application and then the establishment is evaluated by a series of anonymous auditors.

3 Good Food Award Winners from Maine

April 30, 2024April 30, 2024 | Posted in Reviews

The Good Food Foundation announced the winners of their 2024 awards program last night. Of the 8 finalists from Maine, three were named as award winners:

Coffee by Design for their Costa Rica Danilo Salazar Finca San Cristobal Natural coffee
Maine Beer Co. for their Woods & Waters beer
Speckled Ax for two of their coffees – Costa Rica La Guaca Natural and Guatemala La Bonita

You can see the full list of award winners on the Good Food Foundation website.

Mazzat, Fujimoto, Too-Late Love

April 28, 2024 | Posted in Closings, People, Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an article about Atsuko Fujimoto and her business Norimoto Baking, a review of Mazzat in Morrill’s Corner and a look at how a restaurant closure announcement often makes an eatery insanely busy in their final days.

Oak & Ember, All-Day Dining

April 21, 2024 | Posted in General News, Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a review of Oak & Ember, and an article that looks at the all-day service model and the changes that are making that appealing to restaurants and customers alike.

Best New Bar: Papi

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 | Posted in Reviews

Congratulations to beverage director LyAnna Sanabria and the entire team at Papi on being named one of Top Ten honorees in the of Best New Cocktail Bars – East category in this year’s Spirited Awards.

The awards program is run by the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation which organizes the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference. A short list of honorees will come out in late May, and a winner will be announced at the conference in July.

Papi opened for business in March 2023. The Maine Sunday Telegram gave the bar and restaurant 4 stars when they reviewed it in September.

Bandaloop, Hop Water, Veggie Burgers, Scallop Aquaculture

April 14, 2024 | Posted in Fisheries, Beer, Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes articles about scallop aquaculture and hop water products by produced by Maine breweries, an overview of Maine-made veggie burger options, and a 3½ star review of Bandaloop in Arundel.

In Arundel, executive chef/owner W. Scott Lee and co-owner Bridget Lee have continued their 20-year tradition of offering wide-ranging food and beverage options: from vegan and vegetarian options at every course to quirky cooking that embraces dishes like a fanciful Samoan-inspired coconut-and-ginger “palusami” stew, or German-style pork-and-red-cabbage.

Review of Kuno

April 7, 2024 | Posted in Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a review of Kuno.

A few Thai dishes – a legacy of Yee’s time cooking at Boda – remain on the menu, but the restaurant’s true highlights are its Peranakan/Malaysian dishes. Highlighting umami-forward flavors, spice and smoke, and noodles galore, Kuno’s menu is small and charming, just like the restaurant itself.

Kuno (website, instagram) is located at 166 Cumberland Ave and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 5 – 11 pm.

2024 Beard Awards Nominees from Maine

April 3, 2024June 10, 2024 | Posted in Reviews, Maine

UPDATE: you can watch the awards presentation via this Youtube Livestream.

The list of final nominees for the 2024 James Beard Foundation Awards season has been released. 4 of the 10 chef and restaurant semifinalist announced in January are 2024 nominees. Congratulations to:

Outstanding Bakery – ZU Bakery, Portland (Barak Olins, bottom right photo)
Outstanding Hospitality – Woodford Food & Beverage, Portland (upper left photo)
Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker – Atsuko Fujimoto, Norimoto Bakery in Portland (bottom left photo)
Best Chef: Northeast – Jake Stevens, Leeward (upper right photo)

The 2024 award winners will be announced on Monday June 10th in Chicago.

Related information:

Maine Award Winners, Nominees and Semifinalists – a complete list of Maine award winners and nominees from 2008 to 2024.
Award and Nomination Process – learn more about the award nominations process.
Award Categories – see the 2024 list of categories and eligibility requirements.
James Beard in Portland – read about the time James Beard taught a set of cooking classes in Portland.

Food & Wine: Best Food City, Best Restaurants, Best Bakeries

April 2, 2024April 3, 2024 | Posted in Reviews

Food & Wine has released the winners of their Global Tastemakers Awards. Maine is recognized in three of the award categories:

Portland is on the list of the 10 Top US Cities for Food and Drinks.

Aragosta on Deer Isle is on the list of the Top 20 Restaurants in the US.

Portland is on the list of the 10 Top US Cities for Bakeries.

How the award winners are selected:

This year, we asked more than 180 food and travel journalists from across the globe to nominate their favorite restaurants, bars, bakeries, markets, cities, hotels, airports, airlines, and cruises around the world. We then entrusted that feedback to an expert panel of judges to rank each category’s winners. In many categories, we’ve included a Plus One, hand-selected by our expert panel, to shout out more culinary destinations we don’t want our readers to miss.

Category: Reviews