As many of you know, my friends and I recently took a trip to Portland, Maine for Labor Day weekend and as I like to jokingly call us, the board of For The Love Of Sazon all went. Let me tell you, Portland, Maine is a hidden gem! It was such a wonderful city. Extremely clean and everyone was so pleasant. But the best thing about Portland, Maine was the FOOD and the BEER!
For those of you who do not know where Portland, Maine is, it’s located in the North-East coast of the United States. Not to get it confused with Portland, Oregon which is located on the West coast of the United States. Being that it is located on the water, the seafood is so fresh and delicious. And the best thing about the fresh seafood is the lobster rolls at the restaurants. Also, we learned that they are big beer producers. They are the home to Allagash Brewing Company, which makes Allagash White and the home to Shipyard Brewing, which is the producer of Pumpkin Head, that delicious pumpkin tasting beer that comes out in the fall.
One thing I have always wanted to do is review the places I have traveled to and the food that we try at those places, since we are pretty big foodies. I figured that my blog is the best platform to get it out there. So here is my Portland, Maine review!
Hot Suppa
We got to Portland pretty late on Friday night, so our food adventure started on Saturday morning where we ate at Hot Suppa for breakfast. The wait was two hours long, so we skipped the line and ordered takeout instead and ate it at a park near our hotel which was nice until we were attacked by wasps. Anyhow, the food from here was delicious and the perfect way to start off the weekend. I am not a huge breakfast person (yes, I know I am weird), so I started my morning off with The Mother Clucker. It was probably one of the best fried chickens I have had in a very long time. It was laid over their buttermilk biscuit and drenched in a sausage gravy which was amazing.
We also tried their Fried Green Tomato Eggs Benedict, which is another dish you cannot go wrong getting. It is your typical eggs benedict, but it has a crispy fried green tomato under the egg, and when it’s drenched in the egg yolk, it literally becomes gold. I definitely recommend trying this place for brunch while there.
The Porthole Restaurant & Pub
The Porthole Restaurant & Pub is located right on the water. The views are amazing, and the food is even better! On their menu they have a Lobster Spinach Artichoke Dip and it’s the best spinach artichoke dip you will ever try. It was creamy, flavorful, and so cheesy. Honestly, do not share it with the rest of your party, just eat it yourself, I wish I would’ve because I am still dreaming about this dish. We also tried their nachos which were extremely well made.
Since this was the first official restaurant we tried, two of us ordered the Porthole Lobster Roll and I don’t know if it was the beer talking at that point, but that lobster roll was one of the freshest rolls I have ever tried. Apparently, there are two types of lobster rolls, cold and hot, which we just found out about a few weeks ago. This lobster roll was cold, but you can ask them to add on melted butter which makes it slightly warm. You can also get it with mayo or lemon aioli, but I would recommend the butter. My wife got the fish tacos which were also extremely fresh and well made. I would rate this place a 10/10 and a definite must go to if you ever visit.
Central Provisions
Central Provisions was recommended to me by one of my co-residents who used to live in Portland, Maine. It was AMAZING! We were all a little hung over from the day before so we ordered A LOT of food and I will say there were no regrets.
We started off with their Frites, which were thin, crispy fries that you can dip in their kimchi aioli sauce which was fire. We also got some Lumpia (Filipino style spring roll) and it was probably the best spring roll I have ever tried. It wasn’t a regular spring roll with veggies, it was made with pork sausage and WOW it was so good! Their Thai Street Corn was also really delicious. I love Mexican street corn, so this play on it was amazing to try. It was topped with crunchy coconut, crispy chicken skin and fried shallots. You definitely have to try it. We also got the Main Lobster and Broccoli Tempura, which was good, but not the best. I would recommend the other three prior to the tempura. It was just missing something to tie the whole dish together.
Now for our entrée’s, we got a Coconut Fried Chicken Sandwich, a Bacon Cheeseburger, and two Smoked Pork Sandwiches. Now the Coconut Fried Chicken sandwich was okay. Steph rated it a 7/10. It was too much breading and not enough chicken. The Bacon Cheeseburger was good as well, but nothing out of this world compared to other bacon cheeseburgers out there. The crème de la crème came out in their Smoke Pork Sandwich. Holy moly, hands down the best sandwich I have ever tried in my life. The pork was delicious, the green tomato and the fontina cheese worked so well together and the dijonnaise just tied it all together. This dish was a 10/10 and would hands down get it again.
I would rate this restaurant an 8/10 and I highly recommend you going there.
Gross Confection Bar
We randomly stumbled across the Gross Confection Bar as we were waiting for one of our reservations and we all wanted coffee and a quick snack. Well we all ended up ordering our own dessert and coffee. From here, I would recommend the Gross Confection Mess and the Profiterole.
We also tried the Crumb Brulee and their Cherries, Chocolate, Coffee, which were both good but honestly not the best dessert out there. I would rate this place a 7/10. I am not too sure if I would return here, but their Gross Confection Mess was pretty delicious.
The Honey Paw
We ended up eating at The Honey Paw because it was another recommendation by my co-resident, and it was right next door to Eventide Oyster Co. They are owned by the same people. My plan was to eat here and order Eventide Oyster Co. lobster rolls as take out and have it after dinner. The plan was a success and the dinner at The Honey Paw was delicious.
We started our meal off with a few beers and the best Lobster Wontons you will ever have. If you love Ramen, their Chowder Ramen was to die for. Flavorful and probably the freshest noodles I have ever tried. My wife got their Mee Goreng, which contained mein noodles, smoked pork, and crab. It was slightly spicy but nothing you will not be able to handle. It was also full of flavor. Steph ordered the Khao Soi which is where the 20/10 rating for this trip came from. This dish was a combination of egg noodles, crispy noodles, smoked lamb, and coconut curry. It was so full of flavor and Steph rated it a 20/10. If you have people in your party who are not fans of ramen, and some that are, I recommend this place. My wife is not a big ramen person and I love it so The Honey Paw was a perfect compromise.
I would rate this place a 10/10 and highly recommend you stop by for a meal.
Eventide Oyster Co.
Eventide Oyster Co. was on our radar to go eat while we were in Portland but the wait was always extremely long. I kid you not, I showed up at 6pm to put our names down thinking that it would be a couple hours wait. Well, I was wrong. They told me the wait was 6-7 hours and let me tell you that at 11:45pm while in the hotel, I got a text message saying that my table was ready to eat.
The reason I am putting it on this review is because we did order their Lobster Roll as we ate at The Honey Paw, which is right next door to them. Ok, so this lobster roll will CHANGE your life! I swear. It was the butteriest most tasteful lobster roll I have ever tried. It legitimately melts in your mouth. Every bite you took you felt your troubles melting away. I would go back to Portland just to eat this lobster roll again and obviously try everything else on their menu. I would rate this place a 20/10 and a must go to place.
The Holy Donut
This place should really be called the Holy MF’ing Donut because holy hell they were amazing. There are three locations to The Holy Donut, one on Exchange Street, another on Park Ave and the last one in Scarborough. We attempted to go to the one on Exchange Street prior to finding out there are two other locations and we waited in line for about an hour trying to get into the store. We actually had to leave the line because our table was ready at Central Provisions. So, the next day, we put our order in online and picked our holy donuts up at the Park Ave location where the line was nowhere near as long.
If you love donut’s as much as my wife does, you have to go here. They make their donuts using Maine potatoes and don’t let this deter you away from going. They are probably the best donuts you will ever try. We got all got six different flavor donuts and they were all delicious, but my favorite one was the Plain Maple Bacon. It had every flavor you would want. It was sweet, salty, crunchy, etc. I am going to speak plain here. It was an orgasm in your mouth.
I would rate this place a 20/10 and a definite must go to if you are ever in Portland.
If you are looking for things to do while in Portland, Maine I would recommend going on a brew tour, but you should definitely try booking a BayCycle boat tour. You have to bring your own liquor, but it is so fun and well worth it. And don’t worry, you can either pedal your way around the bay or just allow the motor to work for you, whatever you want all while listening to your favorite playlists.
I am quite honestly looking forward to going back to Maine in the future, because it truly is a hidden gem and there are so many other restaurants that I would love to check out. I hope this post inspired you to go and when you do decide to visit, you have to let me know what you think!
