The Porthole received 3½ stars from the review in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram.
Check out casual Porthole for fresh seafood that comes from the market right on the wharf, as well as soups, salads, grilled sandwiches and other land-based items, including flatiron steak or poutine with hand-cut fries. All this is served in a no-frills atmosphere — a working wharf in downtown Portland. The food is very good, the experience fun and the prices not too heavy on the wallet. Breakfast is popular here, too.
Her attempt to illustrate the feel of Custom House wharf is very weird: ‘It’s not particularly attractive in a traditional sense. A rusty sign with the Coca Cola logo marks the Porthole, an eatery set along a crumbling cobblestone street that’s really a byway along the wharf. Harbor Fish Market is right here, its ramshackle stalls boarded up at night.’
There are no ramshackle stalls as you enter Harbor Fish Market through, gasp!, a door. This ain’t Pike Place Market with its charming stalls with seafood for sale though I did see a worker at Harbor Fish Market toss a fish to another worker once.
And Port Hole actually did an extensive renovation several years back which resulted in a clean, not so ramshackle space.
On the corner of Market and Middle street on the basement floor(Space side by side with that Christmas shop) the windows are covered up and each one has a quote or old proverb involving Salt. Any news on that being something foodie? To me it would be a bakery or some sort of spice shop but who knows.
On a side note, The Rosemont produce store on commercial street now has premade sandwiches to go like their other locations. One veggie and one meat sandwich selection. Good to know in case anybody likes grabbing those like I do. Also now carry a few other things like pasta salads and whatnot.
It’s the new shop for this enterprise
http://www.portsmouthsaltcellar.com/
(I asked the ladies in the Christmas Shoppe.)