Category: Reviews

The East Ender has received 3½ stars from today’s review in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

Barflies and dinner guests alike will want to dig into the traditional and novel items on the snack menu. Tasty trout fritters ($7) served with caper aioli and lemon have a good portion of smoked trout inside light dough. Even better are the mussels mirepoix ($10), the carrot/celery/thyme/parsley aromatic adding a subtly sublime flavor. A hunk of grilled bread is served alongside. Include a salad, and you’ve got a lovely dinner.

From Away has published a review of Deux Cochon.

And boy, did I like it. This is barbecue unlike any we have seen in the Portland area, with big, pull-apart chunks of moist, mouthwateringly slow-cooked pork shoulder piled high on a warm, fluffy bun, and speared with two pieces of pickled okra. The sauce (which I insist you add by the ladleful) only enhances the natural flavors of the meat, with the mustard, the acid from the vinegar, and just a tiny bit of heat combining marvelously with the fat and the smoky flavor of the pork.

Scratch Baking in South Portland received 4½ stars from the Eat & Run review in today’s Press Herald.

The bagels alone are worth the trip. I had a sea salt bagel ($1.25) that was as big and as good a bagel as I’ve had. I’m not the world’s biggest bagel fan, but this one made me want more.

It was chewy (but not too chewy) and buttery tasting on the outside; light and airy inside. The sea salt added a warm flavor, and was not as salty as I thought it might have been. Cream cheese cost $1 extra, and came in a container big enough to cover a couple of bagels at least.

The Golden Dish has published a review of Norm’s.

In some ways Norm’s on Congress Street in Portland is the perfect hangout to find highly seasoned fare from an eclectic bar menu. Whether it’s grilled lamb and feta with onions and tomatoes served over greens or big burgers, nicely charred and gutsy, the flavors inspire and are easy to take.

The Portland Phoenix has published a review of the East Ender.

The balance at East Ender will work best if customers learn to reinforce the equilibrium themselves. The French-fancy stuff on the menu pulls you to a mindset of fine dining that is slightly out of step with what the East Ender is trying to do. So make sure someone at your table skips the wine for a $4 draft beer, and skips the entrée for the terrific burger (made with meat ground in-house, with enough beef cheek to keep things incredibly juicy and tender). Do French fine dining and New England casual cuisine present some irreconcilable differences? Perhaps. But as the French say about what it is impossible to reconcile between the masculine and the feminine: vive la différence.

The Bollard has published a review of The Merry Table.

From start to finish, The Merry Table did a fine job creating an authentic Parisian vibe. With its old-school, painted-wood sign hanging over the cobblestone alley, and cheesy French pop music playing in the background, this place felt like it had been airlifted from the City of Lights and dropped into the Forest City. And though our meal wasn’t inexpensive by Portland standards, it was a whole lot cheaper than a trip to France.

Vin et Grub has published a review of Hot Suppa.

A double bacon cheese burger with a side of mac n cheese.  Was I asking to go into cardiac arrest immediately? Maybe… but I felt that after a long week, I deserved a little bit of bad cholesterol.  The hamburgers were delicious- cooked perfectly- medium, nice and pink on the inside, still a bit juicy, with a mild cheddar cheese, caramelized vidallia onions, and thick cut bacon from a local farm.  The bacon was nice and smokey, and the onions were sweet and soft.

The ongoing burger of Portland series finds the O-Rama review group fanning out this month to try burgers at Portland’s pubs and bars with visits to 6 local establishments. For more mouth-watering burger reviews see the group’s survey of diner burgers and fine dining burgers completed earlier this year.

Chubby Werewolf – Rosie’s

So, will I wait another three years to visit Rosie’s Tavern? Definitely not. The delicious blue cheese stuffed burger and surprising steak fries are enough to warrant a repeat visit all on their own. Plus, there’s that Kobe beef burger that needs trying out. I’d love to see Rosie’s make some improvements to the bacon and the bun, but these shortcomings are not a deal-breaker.… read the full review

Edible Obsessions – Nosh

So, when I finally shut my brain off and just bit into the damn thing… well, I thought I heard those little piggy angels singing. I loved it. I loved the juiciness and the flavor of the ground pork in the patty, which was reminiscent of a garlicky Italian sausage, but the red meat was near impossible to pick out. The bacon and thick cut pork belly were crispy and fatty, though the foie and cherry jam was completely lost in the pile of pork…Luckily, all together, it reached beyond being a novelty and made for a pretty satisfying bite.…read the full review

From Away – Dogfish Bar & Grille

If anything, then, that is my only complaint about the burger at The Dogfish. While all of the individual components of the burger are delicious and well-prepared, that is just so MUCH of everything that it all becomes kind of indistinct. At eight ounces, the hamburger patty itself overpowers almost all of the other flavors on this sandwich; it’s one of the few burgers I’ve had where I found myself wishing for less meat…read the full review

Soooo . . You Really Like Cats, Don’t You – EastEnder

But now with the phenomenal experience I had at Back Bay Grill etched into memory, I’m mildly disappointed by the Eastburger. Although satisfying overall with the house-ground beef cheek patty, the abundance of the whole grain mustard, and the somewhat amusing interjection of caraway with every other bite, the Eastburger is almost easily forgettable in the long run.…read the full review

The Blueberry Files – Gritty’s

Next Wednesday night: you, Gritty’s burger special. Do it. You won’t regret it. You may not come away thinking that it was the best gourmet burger you’ve ever had. But assuming they don’t overcook it (and they’ve been pretty consistent in my experience), you’ll get a great meal for under $20- that includes your beer too, of course.…read the full review

Where is Jenner’s Mind – Downtown Lounge

so this was a good burger experience. i think the price played a roll in my review. at $4 i am more forgiving then at $12. when i go to dtl i have lower expectations and so they are usually met. if i am at a finer establishment with a higher price point i expect more…i think if you need a burger fix with a beer and you only got a few bucks in your pocket, dtl will do the trick. …read the full review

Eat Here. Go There. has published a review of Bintliff’s.

Overall, it was a great brunch with great friends. My husband, Mark, thinks they have the best eggs benedict in town! Unlimited cups of coffee are $1.99, bloody’s are $6.99, the lobster dishes were $14.99, and the plain benedict’s were $11.99. So, reasonably priced for the large amount of food you get. We left there so full we didn’t eat until 6:30 p.m. Now that’s what I call a hearty brunch!