Thanks! I have a reservation!
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You have to take a boat, but Diamond’s Edge is a very special location, great for a celebratory lunch on a broad lawn overlooking the water. I can’t find my photos, but I did a blog post on it – as with numerous other Portland restaurants. I expect they have photos on their web site.
I expect Portland will be very crowded then, and you might have more flexibility in South Portland – that’s just a guess. The Saltwater Grille and North43Bistro in South Portland were quite good, and I has a bagel from Scratch Baking Co. in south Portland every morning. They’re excellent.
I would avoid the Holy Donut, which turns stale in record time.
Oh, and Wilson County BBQ actually cooks whole hogs over wood coals (as they should be cooked). That’s something you won’t fins anywhere else in NE.
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One of the great food areas in Portland is Washington Ave near the Eastern Prom: Ramona’s for sandwiches, Radici for pizza, Terlingua for Tex-Mex barbecue, The Shop for oysters, Forage for baked goods, Duckfat Frites Shack… there’s also a meadery, breweries, an OTTO pizza, other ethnic eateries… simply amazing area. Park once on a side street and you’re good to go!
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I live in Portland, so I’ll give you a rundown of what I like on the peninsula (but I don’t do lobster, coffee, beer, or dairy.) Your hotel might be on top of the new Friendly Toast, where I haven’t been yet but they have huge, extravagant breakfasts, so you should probably do that once.
You are also right near the Middle Street restaurant gulch. Eventide is definitely worth the wait but the lobster roll is tiny; I get fried things but if you like oysters that’s your spot. I’m not a fan of Duckfat, but the East Ender is supposed to be good, and people like the Honey Paw, although I wasn’t especially wowed the one time I went there.
In the Old Port, my favorites are Mami (Japanese street food, the okonomiyaki melts in your mouth) and Crispy Gai (Thai fried chicken–we’ve only gotten takeout so I haven’t tried the other dishes, but I’m sure they’re great.) On Fore Street there are two gelaterias, across the street from one another. My dairy-eaters prefer Gorgeous Gelato but I go for Gelato Fiasco for their wider range of sorbettos. Also on Fore Street, the flagship Miyake (best sushi in New England blah blah) has reopened so you could try to get in there if you want to splash out. Of course, at the other end of Fore Street is Fore Street, still solid after almost 30 years.
Heading west on Congress (you can easily do all this on foot), in Monument Square there are the actually great donuts at Hifi (we have quit Holy Donut). They have sandwiches too but I haven’t tried them. That’s right near Nura, which has excellent hummus and falafel. I think Sur Lie is in that same building–they were just nominated for a James Beard award but I’ve never been there.
You could stop into the Market House on Monument Square and peruse the various food vendors, which could change. Right now there’s Mr. Tuna, outstanding but pricey sushi; a Belgian fries place; and Yardie Ting, great Jamaican food from very friendly folks. (Mr. Tuna is moving to a new building on Middle Street.)
Continuing down Congress, definitely stop at Reny’s for a Maine adventure, with cans of Croatian smoked seafood and 69-cent chocolate bars. On the other side of the street is Empire, the first good Chinese restaurant in all of Maine as far as I’m concerned, but it’s been takeout-only since the pandemic so who knows if it will be open again. There’s also Otto pizza. Stop at the art museum, which has a great collection and art movies on the weekends.
Onward across High Street. Many good choices in this stretch. Green Elephant is vegetarian but everyone loves it. Szechuan Kitchen has dumplings that will burn your face off. If you want coffee, go to Coffee By Design, a local institution. Visit my friends at Sun Market for Japanese candy and onigiri to have in your pocket for when you get hungry.
You will soon approach Longfellow Square, where you have an abundance of choices–Boda for Thai street food (skewers and the like); Pai Men Miyake, the more accessible of the Miyake empire, for ramen and sushi rolls, definitely get the pork buns; and El Corazon has really good Mexican, but you probably have that where you live. Just a little further on Congress there’s Local 188 for tapas and paella, and Hot Suppa, Cajun and Creole, but truly great for brunch if you can get in. Still further is Wayfair, a cozy pub in a boutique hotel, which is supposed to have a fantastic burger on Sundays but we went on Saturday and had fine pastas and whatever. That’s also near Tandem Coffee, which all the coffee people love.
Or if you keep going on Pine Street from Longfellow Square you will get to Chaval, which I guess deserves the hype but I still miss the place that used to be there.
And yes, the Washington Ave strip is worth it–I rarely go east of Franklin St but I recommend Izakaya Minato (Japanese pub) and Cong Tu Bot (very spicy Vietnamese).
If there are specific things you want to eat, tell me and maybe I can recommend something. There are great scones at Standard, but the popovers are at Jordan Pond in Acadia, not here!
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Wow @sciencediet, amazing rundown which I will happily put to use, even though I’m not the OP. Thank you!
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I will second Hot Suppa! Worth the wait IMHO
Great post, thank you ! I immediately went to make a reservation at Sur Lie. Just as I was confirming there was a pop-up post : March 1 through March 12 is Maine Restaurant Week https://www.mainerestaurantweek.com
Sur Lie will be serving a 3 course prix fixe $65/person. Checked their Restaurant Week listing. Prix fixe listed at $55/person. Depending on menu could be reasonable at either price point.
Have a gift certificate for the Honey Paw as well as Tandem Coffee. Restaurant week may make a quiet weekend a bit busier. Will just have to plan ahead :))
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Just taking this opportunity to correct my mistyping: it’s Wayside in the boutique hotel, and here is a glowing review: https://www.pressherald.com/2023/02/12/wayside-is-a-winner/
Was just perusing a review of Ugly Duckling which just opened up & reviewer had a link to Tandem so checked their menu & see that they will be Closed 3/1 to 3/7.
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Oy, we’re only there a few days, how WILL we eat all this amazing food?!? Thank you❤️
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Hi all, just wanted to update and thank everyone for your suggestions. We have had some really excellent meals here in Portland and I’m sure the rest of our trip will be the same!
Had popovers in Portsmouth, the husband had a gluten free triple chocolate mousse cake that had him smiling for hours. Really liked the vibe in Portsmouth.
We had dinner the first evening in Portland at Scales and it was excellent. Great clam chowder, a fantastic asparagus salad with goat cheese and a Meyer lemon dressing, husband’s branzino was good and daughter’s halibut was excellent. We had Sunday brunch at the Maker’s Galley, it was ok, kind of pricey for the portion (hub’s frittata was teensy) but everything tasted good. Brunch is a hard ticket! We had some ice cream from Mount Desert Island which was great but no tastes allowed so some FOMO for a few flavors!
Also had a lobster roll at Luke’s on the water, nice view, roll was fine with the g-f bun.
We did enjoy Duckfat, those fries were fantastic, the rest was fine if not extremely memorable. Hub is gluten free and picky but they were able to do a Cubano as a salad so he was fine. I’d eat the fries every day!
Started today at Holy Donuts…they’re fine, I’m glad there was no line. The maple bacon wasn’t maple-y enough imo. But the savory bacon/cheddar with the sweet-ish donut dough was great.
Went to Boothbay Harbor today and did stop at Karen’s Hideaway…that was fun, a MUCH better lobster roll there and the fried scallops were to die for. Man they were good! I’d eat that every day.
Our dinner at Street & Co was outstanding as well, hub loved the whole dorade and we shared a tuna bolognese that was delicious and surprising. A really yummy smoked cod bruschetta with raisins was delish.
Will be hitting Hot Suppa tomorrow before the lighthouses, and I may sneak an early walk to SBC before everyone else wakes, I’m such a sucker for carbs. In the evening we’ll have dinner at Fox & The Knife in Boston. Will report on that as well as Contessa on Wed post-ceremony.
Sue
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@SueFH Wow — you 3 sure are maximizing your time here in New England. It’s exactly how we like to travel — thanks for the report thus far. Looking forward to hearing about Contessa. Congrats to your graduate.
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Great job stopping at Karen’s Hideaway on 27. It’s a funky little place with very good food.
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Got the recommendation for Karen’s here! While waiting for our food, 4 other people, all locals, came up to order too.
Hot Suppa was great this morning too. Love Portland!
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Final piece of the report:
Our dinner at Street & Co was excellent, just everything delicious. They have a tuna bolognese which sounded odd but was really good. The smoked cod pate was great, raisin relish really elevated it and my daughter’s asparagus soup was delicious. My husband loved his salad, and the dorade, which he’d never had before. The pot de crepe dessert was fabulous, lemon and sour cherry tart wasn’t tangy enough for us but still good.
We had a terrific breakfast at Hot Suppa…great benedicts, the grits were fantastic, hash browns perfect. Tip for seating, although the booth window view was great, we had “bouncers” (knee bouncing throughout the meal) sitting on the booths on either side of us and it got so bad I had to request a chair because the vibration was making me nuts.
In Boston we had dinner at Fox & the Knife. Very cool place, loved watching the kitchen in the center of everything. Food was all really good. Did find it odd that they offer an app of potato chips that were just…potato chips. Like Lay’s or something. We expected homemade for some reason. Anyway. Broccoli Caesar was OUTSTANDING, we should javelin ordered a second one. Husband’s branzino was excellent, as was my salmon with a celeriac purée. Cooked medium rare it melted in your mouth. Daughter’s pasta with pea shoots was good, not my favorite but she enjoyed it. We had an olive oil chocolate cake with pistachio brittle that was good, and a “creamsicle” with vanilla gelato and orange granita that was spot on, really yummy.
Finally, our celebratory lunch at Contessa: what a lovely space! Attentive service. Nice skyline view but the park view is basically blocked by the rooftop valance or whatever it’s called. We couldn’t see the park unless we stood up to look out over it.
The food was good, service delightful. They refilled our water glasses often, brought us ice regularly (we love ice and so many places set down a water bottle and we never get the requested ice). The artichoke, almond and Parmesan salad was amazing. I loved the complimentary olives, the mustard seed sauces meatballs were unique and tasty, and they graciously brought focaccia to the table along with some gluten free bread for the hub. Entrees were good, he had a boar ragu with gf pasta, we shared veal Milanese with arugula salad. It was very tasty if nothing special. Dessert was a chocolate cake torte with pistachio…again good but not special. A very nice special occasion atmosphere, lots of other graduates and families there.
A few additional thoughts and then we can close my very long blog post lol. Logan airport food choices are woeful, at least in terminal C. Service in all the restaurants overall was excellent. We spend winters in FL and haven’t seen the amari trend reach us here yet, though we saw it everywhere on this trip. Will be looking for it in chicago when we return for the summer.
The 3-4% kitchen appreciation fees led to several conversations. We fully support living wages (duh) for restaurant employees, but my husband was annoyed by the additions. He felt that prices are high enough that another buck or so on the menu price wouldn’t be stifling and the restaurants could then just pay everyone fairly. I figure there’s some tax reason for the additional charges. I admit I thought servers typically pool tips and everyone, including kitchen personnel, got a piece of the gratuities, so I was surprised by how frequently we saw
the added fees. I think he doesn’t tip quite as well when the fee is added. I always tip more than he does, but he’s usually the one paying.
Finally, as I mentioned, we winter in St Petersburg FL (remote work and travel let us avoid chicago winters). There’s a ton of restaurants here but not an especially foodie vibe imo. Most places here are “fine.” The highly recommended spots tend to underwhelm or our experiences aren’t typical. Portland was a complete opposite experience. Everything was great, service (mostly terrible here in FL) was attentive and accommodating. I’d happily return to eat there any time, while I’d not generally encourage St Pete as a foodie destination.
So thanks to all for your many suggestions and guidance. Should you find yourself coming to St Pete I’m happy to return the favor and try to steer you right!
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Appreciate your awesomely detailed trip report! Even happier that your dining experiences were joyful.
I agree with you about restaurants in/around Portland overall. My husband and I don’t get there often enough to be “regulars” anywhere, but we wish we did.
Hope that you visit Maine and/or Massachusetts again sometime for further dining adventures.
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Thanks for your wonderful reports! I’m particularly glad you had a good experience at Contessa, as I recommended it despite some others’ slightly raised eyebrows. Our experiences there jibe exactly with yours: maybe not a foodie destination, but definitely a lovely meal for a special occasion.
I worked as a waitress years ago, and we never even thought about sharing tips with kitchen staff. It simply wasn’t done. This was in a fairly nice suburban Westchester NY restaurant in the early 2000s, so maybe the norms have changed, but that was my experience back in the day. Also, at that time, our restaurant was pretty unusual in pooling tips among servers. It makes for better service for diners, but there was definitely this one woman who was a total rock-star life-time server and whose take at the end of the night was always double mine, so I always felt a little bad when she had to throw it into the pot.
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I’ve read that it’s not legal for restaurants to pool the tips so that the non-tipped employees, the kitchen staff, get part of them. Maybe that’s only in Massachusetts, and I’m not sure if it’s true or not.
This is what one of my favorite restaurants in Somerville, MA, posts about their fee. I have read similar statements on other the websites of other restaurants in our area.
What’s with the tipping and wages stuff?
Come on, give me all the details on this service fee!
A 20% service charge will be added to all transactions. This charge is shared evenly among our whole staff, based on hours worked. Traditional tips cannot be shared with kitchen workers per state law, but our service charge can be shared equally with everyone. We do not pay the allowed, separate, lower hourly rate for service workers, therefore it is important to us that everyone has the opportunity to share in the incentives created."
Here is a link to what is allowed and not allowed in Massachusetts.
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