Category: Reviews

The Salt Yard Review, Vegetarian History

| Posted in History, Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a review of The Salt Yard at the Canopy Portland Waterfront Hotel,

…It has done so partly through decor that incorporates work from local artisans, as well as through Maine-themed food and beverage options at its ground-floor restaurant, Salt Yard Bar & Café – a restaurant without a dining room. The lack of a dedicated evening dining space is not a liability when you’re able to sip bar ambassador Katrin Miller’s inventive, generally well-composed cocktails. Her Moxie Old Fashioned is a knockout and works well as a pairing for a bowl of poutine-like Korean Beef Fries made with Maine potatoes, or a delightfully messy Salt Yard Burger made with Pineland Farms beef.

The paper also shares the history and impact of the Good Day Market on the vegetarian food scene in Portland back in the late 20th Century.

A landmark vegetarian business called the Good Day Market that opened in Portland in 1970 would go on to cultivate at least five memorable vegetarian establishments and continues to flavor the city’s food scene today.

4 Star Review of Paella Seafood

| Posted in Reviews, General News

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a 4 star review of Paella Seafood.

His Valencian-style, traditional paella is smokey (even without chorizo), with patches of crusty soccarat rice on the bottom and precision-cooked proteins (chicken, shrimp, calamari, mussels) that highlight why this deserves to be the restaurant’s eponymous dish. Other standouts include dill-flecked seafood soup; a sandwich of fried pollock nestled into a home-baked roll; and turmeric-tinted, deep-fried whole belly clams served scattered with almost translucent discs of thin-sliced jalapeno peppers. Paella Seafood might be under the radar for the moment, but it won’t be for long.

Today’s paper also includes an article on how distilled spirits prices are set in Maine and on the variety of taco options available in the Portland area.

Top 10: Maine Day Ventures

| Posted in Reviews

Maine Day Ventures has been named to their list of the 10 Best Food Tours in America by USA Today.

Explore traditional seafood standards and gourmet bites along with craft breweries and artisanal distillers on this collection of tours with Maine Day Ventures. “Savor & Saunter Portland’s East End” is a tour featuring kale handrolls, kombucha, and more, or go traditional and learn about lobsters on an “Old Port Seafood Lovers'” tour. One of their several options is sure to get you salivating, including the “Doggy & Me” tour for you and your pups.

3 Good Food Award Winners from Maine

| Posted in Reviews

The Good Food Foundation announced the winners of their 2024 awards program last night. Of the 8 finalists from Maine, three were named as award winners:

  • Coffee by Design for their Costa Rica Danilo Salazar Finca San Cristobal Natural coffee
  • Maine Beer Co. for their Woods & Waters beer
  • Speckled Ax for two of their coffees – Costa Rica La Guaca Natural and Guatemala La Bonita

You can see the full list of award winners on the Good Food Foundation website.

Best New Bar: Papi

| Posted in Reviews

Congratulations to beverage director LyAnna Sanabria and the entire team at Papi on being named one of Top Ten honorees in the of Best New Cocktail Bars – East category in this year’s Spirited Awards.

The awards program is run by the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation which organizes the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference. A short list of honorees will come out in late May, and a winner will be announced at the conference in July.

Papi opened for business in March 2023. The Maine Sunday Telegram gave the bar and restaurant 4 stars when they reviewed it in September.

Bandaloop, Hop Water, Veggie Burgers, Scallop Aquaculture

| Posted in Fisheries, Beer, Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes articles about scallop aquaculture and hop water products by produced by Maine breweries, an overview of Maine-made veggie burger options, and a 3½ star review of Bandaloop in Arundel.

In Arundel, executive chef/owner W. Scott Lee and co-owner Bridget Lee have continued their 20-year tradition of offering wide-ranging food and beverage options: from vegan and vegetarian options at every course to quirky cooking that embraces dishes like a fanciful Samoan-inspired coconut-and-ginger “palusami” stew, or German-style pork-and-red-cabbage.

Review of Kuno

| Posted in Reviews

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a review of Kuno.

A few Thai dishes – a legacy of Yee’s time cooking at Boda – remain on the menu, but the restaurant’s true highlights are its Peranakan/Malaysian dishes. Highlighting umami-forward flavors, spice and smoke, and noodles galore, Kuno’s menu is small and charming, just like the restaurant itself. 

Kuno (website, instagram) is located at 166 Cumberland Ave and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 5 – 11 pm.