Vinland -- Portland, ME
Posted: May 18th, 2015, 12:23 pm
My wife and I ate at Vinland last Thursday. For those of you who are not familiar with the restaurant, it's chef/owner is attempting to create the Noma of Maine: all ingredients are sourced from New England, with 90% from Maine. That means no pepper, no olive oil, no lemons, etc. It got a lot of buzz both locally and to some extent nationally when it opened.
We'd hesitated for awhile mostly because the restaurant has a reputation for preachiness. The restaurant website doesn't do it any favors; it includes a nineteen point, several page manifesto. But we'd also heard good things about the food. The restaurant has been open for a little over a year.
The setting is not a strong suit. The decor is very bland, frankly. It kind of looks like a Starbucks inside. Its in an old building, and the eating space has a nice, vaulted tin ceiling, but everything is painted various shades of beige. There about 12 tables, all yellowish pine. The kitchen is partially open and merges into the bar.
When we arrived a little before our 8pm reservation, we were surprised to find that only one other couple was seated at a table, and one solo diner was seated at the bar. There were a few waitstaff and kitchen staff, but they were all congregated in the bar, chatting, seemingly with nothing to do. Not a promising start.
Our waitress, however, was wonderful. Helpful, knowledgeable, and less preachy than we feared. She seemed well trained and well-versed in the menu. We ended up ordering off the menu (they have a chef's tasting menu as well). I ordered give courses; my wife ordered 3.
Our food was fantastic from beginning to end, with one exception. I had a salad of locally foraged greens, a filet of seared monkfish, beef tartare, and pork belly, with cheese to finish. My wife had a carrot, ginger, and coriander soup, oat and corn polenta, and the mussels. But frankly, that list does not really describe what we ate. The flavors were excellent, the ingredients -- lots of stuff like yogurt, whey, oats, etc. that was transformed to serve the role of more typical ingredients that cannot be sourced locally -- were used in very interesting and effective ways, and the portions were well sized. My only real complaint was the cheese plate. I received two local cheeses, with some oat bread crackers, honey, and some apple slices. It wasn't much to look at, and I wasn't impressed by the cheeses at all. The crackers were bland too. Overall, it was not a successful dish. Kind of a bummer to end that way, but by then we'd already decided that the cooking is a success overall.
In total, we had a nice dinner. The food was great, and our waitress was excellent. Prices were decent too, at least if you are used to the big city. We each got a glass of wine, and I also had an apertif. We have only two real complaints: the setting is really pretty poor, and the place did not feel like it's succeeding, which really does affect you as a diner. We found ourselves wondering why no one was there throughout the meal.
I'd go back and would recommend Vinland to just about anyone, with the caveat that it's not really a great date night restaurant. At least right now, it's really only successful has a gastronomical experience. For many people, that's the only thing that matters.
If you do want to go, you might consider going soon. Maybe it was a fluke, but we were there for almost two hours on a nice Thursday night, and only two more couples came in to eat the entire time.
We'd hesitated for awhile mostly because the restaurant has a reputation for preachiness. The restaurant website doesn't do it any favors; it includes a nineteen point, several page manifesto. But we'd also heard good things about the food. The restaurant has been open for a little over a year.
The setting is not a strong suit. The decor is very bland, frankly. It kind of looks like a Starbucks inside. Its in an old building, and the eating space has a nice, vaulted tin ceiling, but everything is painted various shades of beige. There about 12 tables, all yellowish pine. The kitchen is partially open and merges into the bar.
When we arrived a little before our 8pm reservation, we were surprised to find that only one other couple was seated at a table, and one solo diner was seated at the bar. There were a few waitstaff and kitchen staff, but they were all congregated in the bar, chatting, seemingly with nothing to do. Not a promising start.
Our waitress, however, was wonderful. Helpful, knowledgeable, and less preachy than we feared. She seemed well trained and well-versed in the menu. We ended up ordering off the menu (they have a chef's tasting menu as well). I ordered give courses; my wife ordered 3.
Our food was fantastic from beginning to end, with one exception. I had a salad of locally foraged greens, a filet of seared monkfish, beef tartare, and pork belly, with cheese to finish. My wife had a carrot, ginger, and coriander soup, oat and corn polenta, and the mussels. But frankly, that list does not really describe what we ate. The flavors were excellent, the ingredients -- lots of stuff like yogurt, whey, oats, etc. that was transformed to serve the role of more typical ingredients that cannot be sourced locally -- were used in very interesting and effective ways, and the portions were well sized. My only real complaint was the cheese plate. I received two local cheeses, with some oat bread crackers, honey, and some apple slices. It wasn't much to look at, and I wasn't impressed by the cheeses at all. The crackers were bland too. Overall, it was not a successful dish. Kind of a bummer to end that way, but by then we'd already decided that the cooking is a success overall.
In total, we had a nice dinner. The food was great, and our waitress was excellent. Prices were decent too, at least if you are used to the big city. We each got a glass of wine, and I also had an apertif. We have only two real complaints: the setting is really pretty poor, and the place did not feel like it's succeeding, which really does affect you as a diner. We found ourselves wondering why no one was there throughout the meal.
I'd go back and would recommend Vinland to just about anyone, with the caveat that it's not really a great date night restaurant. At least right now, it's really only successful has a gastronomical experience. For many people, that's the only thing that matters.
If you do want to go, you might consider going soon. Maybe it was a fluke, but we were there for almost two hours on a nice Thursday night, and only two more couples came in to eat the entire time.