Category: Reviews

Hop Culture has posted an eating and drinking guide to Portland.

Portland’s excellent food and drink scene has never been a secret, but whatever gems may have been hidden were unearthed when Bon Appetit named Portland its restaurant city of 2018 — a very well-deserved distinction. The beauty of a city like Portland, Maine, though, is that it never stops growing. Sure, your favorite little Portland joint may have blown up overnight, but there’s going to be a new crop of hotspots just around the corner.

The Hop Culture team spent a short weekend exploring the best food and drink in Portland, attempting to come up with our own beer-focused guide to the city. Many of our choices are “easy” (Tandem, Drifter’s Wife, Rose Foods Austin Street, etc.) but we hope you discover a few new favorites as we did.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed the N To Tail.

But Hur doesn’t stop at reinterpreting classics. His creativity and smart execution are in full flight when he devises his own dishes, like a French-style confit of rabbit ($22) he serves with North Korean-style sweet-savory soy-glazed ddeok (chubby, chubby, mochi-like cylinders). By slow-poaching the rabbit in oil, Hur transforms the ultra-lean meat. Touch it with your fork, and it succumbs. Every bite of chewy ddeok dipped into the jalapeño-oil demiglace underscores the rabbit’s tenderness further.

The Press Herald has reviewed Dizzy Bird, and

As I’ve already hinted, I discovered the meat was both tender and delicious. (It could have been just a touch more moist, but I feel like that’s nit-picking.) I remember thinking as I ate it, “I wonder how many modern kids raised on grocery store rotisserie birds even know what a chicken is supposed to taste like?”

the Press Herald has reviewed Bird & Co.

Unless you prefer to slog through life without even a glimmer of happiness, you should head straight to Bird & Co. Is it possible that soon the word tacocktail will be trending?

The Maine Sunday Telegram has published a review of 6 Portland area restaurant delivery services, and

2 Dine In’s roster of restaurant partners tops 100, offering food as varied as pork schnitzel (Other Side Delicatessen), Sicilian pizza (Slab) and cactus-blossom pupusas (Flores). Deliveries generally arrive when they are supposed to, although the back-end technology seems to sandbag expectations by frequently proposing wait times that exceed an hour, even when the actual delivery arrives far sooner.

The Golden Dish has reviewed local options for pancakes.

To me the perfect pancake is light and fluffy (not leaden and too floury) with crisp edges from being cooked on a well-greased griddle. The batter is lightened by folding in whipped egg whites to the flour, milk and egg batter.   They should be no larger than 4-to 5 inches in diameter, sensibly large compared to the dinner-plate size pancakes that some restaurant kitchens deem are likable by the dining public.

Northern Hospitality, a book by Andrew and Briana Volk, co-owners of Hunt & Alpine and Little Giant, is a finalist in the IACP awards in the Beer, Wine or Spirits category.

Congratulations to Novare Res for placing in 5th place in the USA Today beer bar readership survey.

The initial set of 20 nominees were selected by a panel of experts (names listed in the article) and then USA Today readers voted to rank their top choices.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed the Po’ Boys & Pickles.

Po’ Boys & Pickles has become an institution in Portland’s Deering Junction neighborhood. Opened in late 2009, the New Orleans sandwich shop has built up a loyal following for its Cajun-esque dishes. Some, like smoky red beans and rice with andouille sausage, and the Peacemaker po’ boy, a crusty French-bread roll stuffed to busting with deep-fried oysters and shrimp, are worth seeking out. Salads may not be particularly Louisiana-inspired, but they are also good, especially the falafel salad with a zippy, Creole-mustard-and-red-wine vinaigrette. However, the menu needs a thorough edit…

The Portland Magazine has reviewed the Top of the East, and

Great drinks aren’t the only offer at the Top. It serves up romantic city views of our illustrious skyline and Portland Harbor. Your prospects are up in lights from this Olympian perspective. If you haven’t been up here for a while, it’s twice as good as you remember it.

the Press Herald has reviewed the Amigos.

Not just a summer venue, Amigos is also a friendly place to hang out on weekdays after work before it’s warm enough for the patio, especially over a game of pool.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed the Empire Chinese Kitchen, and

With so much competition, Empire has made adjustments to its once-concise menu, inflating it from eight dishes to nearly 50. Among these are several insipid Americanized dishes. Don’t bother. There are also a few standouts, like crisp-tender wok-sautéed bok choy, super-savory dry-fried green beans and roasted strips of long-marinated pork loin roasted hot and fast. Dim sum dishes are generally good, especially fat, aromatic har gow and golden-crusted, pan-fried bao hiding ginger, chicken and bok choy.

The Golden Dish has reviewed the Sur Lie.

Excellent all the way with beautifully devised tapas and inventive larger plate under the expert guidance of chef Emil Rivera

The Press Herald has also published reviews of the Farm to Coast Cafe in Biddeford and More & Co in Yarmouth.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed the Piccolo, and

The new Piccolo still holds a maximum of 20 diners at a time, but it feels (and is) brighter, more colorful and best of all: more accessible. With the addition of half-portions of pasta to the menu, it is easy to imagine stopping in for a weekday meal of phenomenal Funghi (a stealth salad with a runny egg that creates its own carbonara-like dressing), a plate of pork-sugo-dressed strascinati pasta, and a half-dessert, half-digestif fior di latte gelato slowly melting into a fruity, herbal shot of Pasubio amaro. No special occasion required.

The Bollard has reviewed the LB Kitchen.

It’s definitely possible to make healthier choices than we made — the menu includes several whole-grain bowls, vegetable-heavy sandwiches and the like — but to me, LB Kitchen shines brightest when they put a healthyish spin on traditional breakfast fare. The prices aren’t the lowest in town, but the quality of both the ingredients and their preparation made the cost seem totally reasonable. I can declare without shame that I’ll be back soon.