Any suggestions for Portland, Maine? Seems Drifters Wife and Vinland have both closed.
Following, as this will be one of our destinations this summer.
It seems like there are solid seafood or wood oven type options (Fore St?), but it would be great to have a high end meal. Old pix from Vinland in particular looked really good. Maybe someone reopens in the next few months??
Here is what I have come up with so far with assistance from Maine and Loire a great wine shop:
Sur Lie Portland - https://www.instagram.com/surlieportland/
Leeward - exceptional fresh pasta that travels well, and they may have outdoor dining
Boda Thai - is the real deal and they have limited inside seating (no wine, though, and Maine doesn’t allow BYO
The “regional concept” award probably goes to Mr. Tuna. He runs a sushi roll/Bento stall out of the Public Market downtown.
Radici does woodfired personal size pizzas; stick to the classics there
Miyake - Best Sushi (a la carte and Omakase)
I will be sure to report back!
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Robert - Had a great series of tapas style dishes at Sur Lie pre pandemic. Interesting list as well. I really like seafood at Scales, great raw bar as well.
Thanks. My son goes to school in Orono, so we fly into Portland and now there’s a nice hit list. After drop off last January we stayed at the Press hotel, which was cute and at their restaurant, Union. We had just dumped off the rental and ubered there and it was cold (at least to us) so it was a nice surprise to get that tasty meal.
This will be our third year in a row heading up there as my brother has a cabin in Fayette. I pretty much just eat as many lobster rolls as possible. I buy beer at Allagash and was rather impressed with Bissell Brothers last year. If you’re into beer try out Novare Res. In case you’re the adventurous type, one of my favorite things to do in Portland is take a lobster boat out and pull up traps.
Thank you very much!
Is Fore Street still a thing? We loved Duck Fat for a casual lunch.
We had a lovely two days in Portland and can’t wait to go back.
The highlight of the trip was dinner at Little Giant. There were a number of NYC restaurant scene alums in the kitchen and in the front of the house so we got full VIP treatment.
We also went to Mr. Tuna and Pai Men Miyake for lunches. Both were very good with a slight nod to Mr. Tuna. Miyake also has a higher end Omakase spot that is currently closed but I am told is excellent.
For our other dinner we went to Sur Lie. Keep in mind they just switched chefs and it was very busy with only two people in the kitchen. Not on the level of Little Giant but the Chef clearly has talent. He has a penchant for adding a sweet element that we thought was unnecessary for example maple syrup on a great carrot dish and actually sugar powder on the outside of a very inventive Korean corndog dish. We love the dishes that were full savory. My guess is this will get a lot better.
Overall we were really impressed with the food scene despite it still being partially shut down.
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