Leeward ★ 4.7
Leeward on Free Street, since 2020, from Jake and Raquel Stevens, with a chef-driven fresh-pasta program inside a brick-and-tile Italian dining room.
Chaval is a fine-dining restaurant in Portland.
Chaval on Pine Street in the West End, since 2017, from the Piccolo team of Damian Sansonetti and Ilma Lopez. Spanish-French cooking around the wood oven.
Address: 58 Pine Street, Portland, ME 04102
Leeward on Free Street, since 2020, from Jake and Raquel Stevens, with a chef-driven fresh-pasta program inside a brick-and-tile Italian dining room.
Solo Italiano on Commercial Street, since 2016, from Chef Paolo Laboa. Genovese cooking with house-made pastas, breads and pesto from a stone mortar.
Piccolo on Middle Street, since 2013, from Damian Sansonetti and Ilma Lopez, a 28-seat Roman trattoria with house-made tonnarelli and saltimbocca.
Izakaya Minato on Washington Avenue, since 2017, from Thomas Takashi Cooke. A small izakaya with binchotan-grilled yakitori, donburi and a sake list.
Fore Street has been Portland's flagship wood-fired dining room since 1996, with a wood-burning oven, open hearth and turning spit at the kitchen's heart.
Twelve at Portland Foreside, opened 2022 by Prentice Hospitality and now led by Chef Hannah Ryder, runs a Maine tasting menu on Thames Street.