The Press Herald has reviewed Casa Fiesta.
Casa Fiesta in Portland is a kitschy, corporate Mexican restaurant on Forest Avenue that has surprisingly good margaritas, free house-made chips and salsa and excellent service. Don’t knock it until you try it. This might be your next go-to Mexican restaurant.
The Bollard has published a breakfast review LFK,
So while I may come back to LFK some evening for a burger and a beer, I probably won’t return for brunch. In a city like Portland, there are just too many other places serving brunch I do love.
and a review of JP’s Bistro.
The dishes are executed without any particular finesse. Sourcing local, ethical or organic ingredients doesn’t seem to be important at JP’s. And a mediocre meal doesn’t cut it when the tab for two approaches $100. That said, plenty of folks don’t share my qualms. If you decide to check out JP’s, make sure you make reservations — the place gets packed.
The Frog & Turtle recently was named by AAA as one of the 70 best comfort food restaurants in the country.
The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Samuel’s.
The quintessential neighborhood bar and grill, Samuel’s is a popular watering hole and casual restaurant serving very decent no-frills pub fare with a super-friendly vibe. They’re famous for the chicken wings and rightly so. Pizzas are good, as are a list of daily lunch and dinner specials. Don’t miss, for instance, the chicken tostada with chili verde – a half-foot-high pile of chips, dips and chicken.
Drink Up and Get Happy has reviewed Zen Chinese Bistro,
Staff were friendly and attentive to our group, joking with us and patiently explaining what each specialty drink was. It was a great night filled with everything that happy hour should be, delicious beverages, tasty food, and great friends.
and The Golden Dish has revisited and re-reviewed Salvage BBQ.
On the whole, I liked Salvage a lot. Some of my comments reflect personal preference perhaps, but the place is great, the ribs were terrific and most everything else was good enough. And for about $20 you can’t beat the price.
Booze, Fish & Coffee has reviewed Central Provisions.
Aside from the forethought about design and flow, we also really, really liked the food. Chef Chris Gould brings some familiar classics, and reimagines them by adding a single unconventional but brilliant ingredient, such as the nutty brussels sprouts with pecorino and pine nuts, but also with a hint of horseradish. The bread and butter is truly transcendent, both for the creamy, slightly salty butter and the genius inclusion of a raw farm egg on the plate. The porchetta board includes not only slices of swine heaven in the porchetta, but also sunchokes, soft rolls, and a tangy apple-dijon mustard sauce that made the dish sing.
This week’s Portland Phoenix includes an article about the invasive green crab and the impact its having on the Maine shellfish industry,
They’re green, they’re mean, and they’re endangering not only Maine’s soft-shell clam population, but also oysters, mussels, lobsters, and eelgrass. This menace is known as the green crab (a/k/a carcinus maenas), an invasive, omnivorous species that has been in Maine for 114 years but only recently began affecting the productivity of clam flats in places like Freeport, Brunswick, and on down the coast.
The new issue also includes a review of Eventide and Street & Co.
The Press Herald has published a bar review of Empire.
Dragon’s Milk, Shiso Crazy, Yellow Fever. These are a few of the cocktails you’ll find at Empire Chinese Kitchen in Portland’s arts district. Scorpion bowls don’t cross the menu, nor do cocktails with tiny paper umbrellas.
The Press Herald recently polled a set of local chefs and random other food experts, including yours truly, about their favorite dishes from the last 12 months.
This year, once again, I’ve asked some local chefs, food writers and bloggers to weigh in and name a favorite restaurant dish they discovered in the state during the past 12 months. And judging by the number of exclamation points in their responses, they found some real gems.
The full list of recommendations was published in today’s paper. They range all over the board from fish chowder at Pizza Villa to the squid tappanyaki dish at Long Grain.
The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Siano’s Pizzeria.
This is the quintessential Italian-American comfort food dining establishment that’s both a pizzeria made in wood-fired brick ovens and a full restaurant menu serving gutsy, well-made fare. The veal cutlet Parmigiana is one of the best in the Portland area, rich with sauce, cheese and buttery tender veal. Other dishes excel too, like their homemade ravioli and creative pasta dishes, chicken cacciatore and an array of very good pizza made with their homemade red sauce and pizza dough.