Category: Reviews

The Portland Phoenix has published a review of Tandoor on Forest Ave.

The beef version is a simple classic — the bread barely smeared with tahini and hummus, and stuffed with big chunks of tender meat, dark lettuce, tomato, and onion. The chicken shawarma has more complex seasonings, with the onions diced more finely, plenty of garlic, and a hint of something yogurty. A kabob sandwich fills the bread with dark patties of generously herbed ground beef.

The new issue of Imbibe magazine high fives two Portland establishments:

• Allagash’s coolship beers and Shipyard Pumpkinhead are both included in the cover story on “50 of the World’s Most Obsessed-Over Beers”.
• Speckled Ax is highlighted in the Scene Scout section. “Named in reference to a Ben Franklin biography (owner Matt Bolinder had to make use of his English PhD somehow), this New England cafe brews with the best”

Map & Menu has published a review of Otto Pizza.

You can order any of Otto’s flavors as entire pizzas, but one of the coolest parts of Otto is the ability to grab a few of their extra large slices and mix combinations. Like any pizza joint, Otto offers the standard pepperoni or cheese (and mighty fine versions of both), but where they truly excel is in the unique flavor combinations of pizzas like the bacon, mashed potato, and scallion (where the potato is the base), the four cheese tortellini and fontina, or the butternut squash, cranberry, and ricotta.

Photo Credit: Map & Menu

Schulte & Herr, Scratch Baking, Novare Res and Catch a Piece of Maine were all featured in an article about Portland on Cool Hunting.

At the same time, the harbor brings in some of the best seafood in the world, and alongside the scenic seaside and tucked away among the tourist traps are plenty of crackerjack restaurants, sandwich shops, bakeries and watering holes steeped in the local, unassuming character of Maine. Here, a handful of my favorite food and drink spots from four years as a local and frequent trips back to check out what’s new.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has published a review of the White Cap Grille.

Dining reviews practically write themselves when the experience is outstanding, and although less fun (since restaurants do represent a person’s livelihood), they are equally easy to compose when the experience involves a spectacular failure. The creative stumbling happens in the middle, when a meal is “meh.”

Since “meh” does not translate as a technical term in any culinary dictionary, let me explain.

Portland magazine has published a review of Eventide.

We learn that Winter Point Selects from West Bath are the most popular and order three, along with three Gliddens from Damariscotta, two Shallow Bays from Newcastle, two Ayock Salts from Washington State, and two Blackberry Points from Prince Edward Island. Hands down, these are the best oysters we’ve had. Accoutrements (red wine mignonette, kimchee, and angelica ice) are fanciful and fine, but we find the oysters need no enhancement.

From Away has published a book review of Portland Maine Chef’s Table.

Finally there’s a book that compiles favorite recipes from some of the most prominent, popular, accomplished cooks on the Peninsula. Portland, Maine Chef’s Table: Extraordinary Recipes from Casco Bayis perfectly packaged with glossy photos of the food, profiles of each restaurant, and insight from the chefs themselves. It is the cookbook that Portland deserves.

The latest issue of Maine magazine includes a review of Eventide Oyster Company.

According to [co-owner Arlin] Smith, the restaurant’s crudo dishes are almost as popular as the oysters, and standouts include a lightly cured arctic char served resting in a pool of raw egg yolk, and topped with creme fraiche, piquant capers, and sweet briny salmon roe. The dish is the garnished with “fried bagel”. Equally impressive is the buttery Tuna Nicoise, a raw piece of flesh crowned with a garnish of chopped hard-boiled egg and red onion most commonly found on caviar, and further complimented with a wonderfully salty and sweet taste imparted by dehydrated black-olive powder.

Unfortunately, the article is not available online, but you should be able to find a copy of Maine on local newsstands.

Map & Menu has published a review of Pai Men Miyake.

When Pai Men Miyake refers to their lunch as a tei-shoku lunch, a complete lunch, they’re hitting the nail on right the head. Of all the lunch choices in Portland, the menu at Pai Men Miyake has to be one of the best offerings.