8 splurge places in Portland, editor-picked. Tasting menus and the full big-night-out treatment in Portland. All Portland food.
8 places
Order Roasted Maine mussels in almond, garlic and vermouth from the wood oven.
Fore Street opened 1996 in a converted Old Port warehouse and built modern New England cooking around a wood oven, open hearth and turning spit.
Order The full chef's tasting; choose the supplement courses if the kitchen is running uni or sea urchin.
Twelve at Portland Foreside since 2022, now led by Chef Hannah Ryder, runs a Maine-ingredient tasting menu around an open kitchen on Thames Street.
Order Trofie al pesto Genovese with potatoes and green beans, the canonical Ligurian plate.
Solo Italiano on Commercial Street opened 2016 from Chef Paolo Laboa, with Ligurian cooking, hand-cut trofie pesto and house bread from a Genovese-style oven.
Central Provisions at the top of Fore Street, opened 2014 by Chris and Paige Gould (Beard nominee), with rotating small plates of crudo and pork belly.
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.
Izakaya Minato on Washington Avenue, since 2017, from Thomas Takashi Cooke. A small izakaya with binchotan-grilled yakitori, donburi and a sake list.
Via Vecchia on Dana Street in the Old Port, a brick-and-ivy small-plates Italian room with handmade pasta, Maine seafood and a velvet-booth wrap-around bar.
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