Category: Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a 4½ star review of Yolked in Windham.

Both Bouchards are preposterously good in the kitchen, and Jesse Bouchard’s deft touch with seasoning deserves special mention. With barely a misstep, the duo pulls off dishes like rack of lamb with a panko crust and sundried-tomato relish, maple-vinaigrette-dressed salad of local baby greens and roasted fall vegetables, and a stunning hazelnut-and-chocolate crème brulee. Prices are justifiably high on the food side of the menu, and perhaps less so with respect to bottles of wine, but the couple are canny and have engineered a menu that allows for a spendy special-occasion meal or a moderately priced weeknight supper. Yolked Farm to Table is unmissable.

It also has a feature article on the growing number of Jamaican restaurants in Maine, and a wrap-up of vegan news from around Maine.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a review of Thames Landing.

After nearly four months in business, Thames Landing is finding its feet, albeit slowly…If you visit, order the expertly fried salt cod croquettes, the autumn salad, and perhaps the Statler chicken. And if you’re lucky enough to drop by in the winter, try to score one of the 36 seats in Thames Landing’s new heated, plexiglass “hyperdomes” that allow for a cozy outdoor nosh, even in winter.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a 4 star review of Lil Chippy.

Don’t miss the classic fish-and-chips, prepared here with local hake dunked in a vodka-and-beer batter and plated up with crisp, dark golden skin-on French fries. And don’t ignore the “Buddies” section of the menu, where you’ll find a few of Portland’s best sandwiches, all served on Little Spruce milk bread rolls. In particular, the mushroom buddy is excellent, with its layers of crunchy fried oyster mushroom, miso mayonnaise and a generous portion of cilantro. But perhaps the best dish on the menu is the fiery, beautifully balanced chicken buddy, a crunchy, deep-fried chicken thigh drizzled with charred onion ranch dressing and homemade Calabrian chili hot sauce.

Lil Chippy was launched by Ashley Wolf and William Durst on June 28th.

This week’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a review of Camp Pennant,

“Camp” is a unique conceptual theme for a restaurant, but Fraser not only makes it work, he and his front-of-house staff bring a transportative levity to the experience. Chef Max Mejia’s menu of comfort foods is also solid, especially a Caprese-style sandwich bookended by pizza dough baked in the restaurant’s enormous Le Panyol wood-fired oven, crisp-tender roasted broccolini topped with garlicky bread crumbs, and warm soft-baked pretzels to dunk in hops-infused mustard. It’s not perfect yet, but Camp Pennant is already a charming diversion.

and an article on how breweries are using technology to adapt to capture carbon dioxide produced during fermentation for reuse at the brewery.

The funny thing is, breweries also produce CO2, or carbon dioxide, in the beer-making process. Recently, a few Maine breweries have turned to technology newly adapted to small craft breweries that allows them to recapture the CO2 they produce and reuse it to make their beer. These closed-loop systems can save the breweries money, offer security in the event of future CO2 shortages and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a 4 star review of Bread & Friends.

Standout dishes include executive chef Jeremy Broucek’s wood-grilled Broad Arrow Farm pork chop with miso-like rye cream, pickled mustard seeds and lacto-fermented cherries; and a remarkably meaty, braised sunflower blossom plated up with brothy local cranberry beans and capers. Head baker Tanner Rubin gets a turn in the spotlight, too. His dark-and-crusty mini country loaf with homemade cultured dulse butter is a winner, just like his brunch-meets-dessert riff on custardy, house-baked brioche French toast that arrives sticky with Dunn Family Maple syrup and a scoop of smoked rosemary ice cream. Pricey perhaps, but completely worth it.

The New York Times has included The Alna Store in their 2024 restaurant list. The list represents the paper’s “50 favorite places in America right now.”

Over the last 12 months, reporters and editors traveled to nearly every state scouting restaurants for our annual list. This year, it was about spaces as much as places. We ate hyperlocal dishes served out of a trailer in a rural Virginia field, experienced one of America’s most refined seasonal tasting menus in one of San Francisco’s most refined rooms, dined on Creole fare in a strip mall down the road from NASA in Texas and joined a party behind a tattered ranch house in Johns Island, S.C.

With regards to The Alna Store, food reporter and columnist Melissa Clark wrote,

…And in front, an ambitious restaurant serves a thoroughly of-the-moment, local menu that’s full of sophisticated touches without being at all pretentious. The house margarita is made with mezcal; the buttermilk wedge salad is dusted with crispy fried shallots and capers; and the shrimp topping a mound of creamy grits are coated in warm, fragrant spices, then seared until caramelized…

The Alna Store is located in the Midcoast town of Alna. It opened in late December 2022. The Maine Sunday Telegram gave the restaurant a 4½ star rating in a review published last year.

Boston Magazine has published an article about where to eat and drink in East Bayside.

Perhaps you’ve already spent some time exploring the incredible food and drink scene in Portland, Maine. But one area you may have overlooked is East Bayside—an increasingly delectable neighborhood inside the parameters of Congress Street, Washington Avenue, Route 295, and Franklin Arterial that’s home to young families and a vibrant East African community.

The article highlights The Cheese Shop, Forage, Hardshore, Lil Chippy, Magissa, Maine & Loire, Minato, Moonday Coffee,  Onggi, Quanto Basta, Ramona’s, Red Sea, Rising Tide, and Root Wild, Sticky Sweet, Terlingua, and The Shop.

The Infatuation has included Banh Appetit in their list of the 13 Best Banh Mi Across America.

Banh Appetit is a straightforward and reliable Vietnamese takeout spot in Portland, Maine. But leaving it at that would be like saying Costco’s just a grocery store. The excellent lemongrass beef bánh mì is the type of meal that can turn an awful day around. Stop by on Saturday evenings to check out the Mama Le menu, where you can get a bunch of different vegetarian and vegan dishes like the banh mi chay—a sandwich stuffed with rice powder, glass noodles, sweet chili, and vegan mayo—freshly prepared by the owners’ actual mama.