Category: Reviews

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed El Rayo.

Standard menu items are more reliable than the specials here, so stick with familiar favorites like fried plantains served with a piquant chipotle mayonnaise. (That mayo is so good, it’s reason enough to order the appetizer.) Then dig into a bowl of guacamole with one of El Rayo’s thin, lightly salted tortilla chips: The guac is fresh, brightened with key lime juice, and pleasantly peppery, and you’ll plow through the crispy chips in no time. You can move on to empanadas and burritos served with rice and beans, or a quesadilla crisped on the griddle, but the tacos at El Rayo (it is a “taqueria” after all) stand out. Don’t miss the barbecued pulled pork taco served with cole slaw, crumbly cotija cheese and a red onion escabeche: It’s a meaty, sticky, messy winner.

The Portland Phoenix has reviewed the Portland Patisserie,

These desserts are lovely for a bit of shared decadence at the patisserie’s traditional small white tables. Or you can fill the table up with larger plates for crepes, soups, salads and sandwiches. The crepes are expertly done in the traditional style, with their handsome brown wedge topped by a jagged crown of crisp and chewy cheese. A crepe made with duck, gruyere, onion and stonefruit was built like the tricolor. At the point of the wedge the cheese mingled with the tart and sweet of the fruit. Where it widened the richer flavors of a chewy duck confit and tender caramelized onion dominated. The top was all terrific salty cheese.

and Peter Peter Portland Eater has reviewed Tomaso’s Canteen.

We ate and ate, stopping only to take short breaths and stare lovingly at our food. Eventually, it was nearly gone and we were filled to the brim. I reminisced about the past hour and realized that while I was well fed, the meter where I parked wasn’t. I asked for the bill and hoped that there wasn’t another one on my car. Our total came to a mere 31 bucks before tip. We didn’t have any drinks, but we had lots of food. It was all very good, and that app…that app was simply gorgeous. We were both smiling and raved about Tomaso’s Canteen as a great place to go and not spend all our cash while still getting top notch pub grub.

The Honey Paw was included in the Gear Patrol list of the 25 Best New Restaurants in America.

What to Order: Fry bread with uni butter; fried wings with coconut, lemongrass, tamarind and Thai bird chili; Vietnamese pork meatball soup with glass noodle, smoked pork broth, mortadella, roast pork and Thai bird sambal; fish head curry made with local cod, sweet potato, pickled okra, cashew, fresh turmeric, tomatillo sambal and jasmine rice.

La Liste, a new international guide to the 1,000 most “exceptional restaurants from around the world” was released on Thursday. 101 US restaurants made the cut. Per Se came in #2 overall and Fore Street, the sole entry from Maine, was ranked #935.

La Liste is based on the collective rankings from 200 guidebooks and online review sites. Each of the source’s weight in the overall score was based on their level of reliability as reported from a survey of 150,000 restaurant owners.

This graphic (click to expand) shows the national origins of the restaurants on the list:

You can learn more about the team leading the project, their sources and methodology on the La Liste website.

The Golden Dish has reviewed Fore Street.

Fore Street has not lost its luster one bit.  Yet its gloriousness is so subtle.  It doesn’t blaze with culinary fripperies. Instead its gastronomic Zeitgeist favors a less-is-more approach, maintaining a patina of refinement with everything that comes out of its kitchen.  From the food that’s grilled, spit-roasted or pan seared and roasted in great cast-iron pans to the utter fineness of its ingredients—nearly all locally sourced— it’s the simplicity  of its cooking that speaks with such exuberance.

The Press Herald has published a bar review of The Great Lost Bear,

The Great Lost Bear has an extensive beer list and maintains a hometown-bar vibe. Good for a burger and a beer, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays when it’s “talls for smalls” pricing.

and a lunch review of the Portland Food Co-op.

There are two kinds of organic soups ready to ladle into to-go cups (soups change daily) and the price was right ($3.50 for a small). I chose the mushroom barley, which was vegan (I felt instantly virtuous). Since that was so cheap, I also grabbed a couple of lunch-portioned salads from the cooler right near the soup: a half pound of “Awesome Chicken Salad” for $6.86 and an “Autumn Salad” with chickpeas, kale and pepitas, aka little pumpkin seeds, for $2.64.

Down East has reviewed Portland Patisserie,

The pastries, quiches, soups, and sandwiches at Portland Pâtisserie and Grand Café, in the Old Port, are well on their way to standing on their own, with authentic French underpinnings and just enough New World innovation to keep things interesting. This is thanks to 34-year-old pastry chef Catherine Côté-Eliot, enlisted by owners Steve and Michelle Corry (the duo behind classic Portland restaurants Petite Jacqueline and 555) to translate French patisserie conventions into innovative confections fit for Maine palates.

and the Press Herald has published a lunch review of The Works.

On a nasty late-fall noon hour with a hard rain falling, I dashed across Temple Street from One City Center to finally try what most of my co-workers know is one of the finest sandwich shops in Portland.

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Tempo Dulu.

Tempo Dulu isn’t for everyone. Much of the spicing is unapologetically intense; the tamarind in the curry, for example, or the chilies in the sambal. A few of the dishes (like the crab and shrimp cake) pale next to more flavorful options. And the place is definitely pricey for Maine: Couples who choose the most affordable of the three menus must still expect to spend well north of $150 dollars, excluding drinks. But if you’re dining out in search of something memorable, flavorful – and above all, sensual – Tempo Dulu is the place to go.

The Press Herald has reviewed Bull Feeney’s.

Open for nearly 14 years, Bull Feeney’s is an authentic Irish pub and restaurant known for its daily entertainment, particularly live music and quiz games and competitions. The pub serves local craft beer, as well as imported brews, and features Maine’s most extensive selection of single malt Scotch whiskies. This is the place to spend your holiday weekends, both for the pub fare, as well as the fun atmosphere. It’s hard to go wrong at Bull Feeney’s.