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Restaurant Reviews

The Little Tap House gets sizeable praise

Small name, big delivery
Little Tap House seems to be what it sounds like: a welcoming, affordable spot for local draft beer and accessibly interesting pub food.

By: BRIAN DUFF | June 13, 2013

Blue Rooster goes high-end informal

Park it here
If you want to know what making a food truck into an actual restaurant will be like, check out the new Blue Rooster Food Company

By: BRIAN DUFF | May 16, 2013

At Buck’s, naked is the way to be

Just the meat, please
At Buck's Naked BBQ the meat is cooked plain — without being infused or coated with in any particular sauce. This is meat we can relate to.

By: BRIAN DUFF | May 09, 2013

Bohemia for business folk

Nietzsche thought that "however vigorously a man may seem to leap over from one thing into its opposite, closer observation will nonetheless discover the dovetailing where the new building grows out of the old." So it is at the North Point, a new Old Port restaurant and drinking spot run by a transplanted New York restaurateur and his brother.

By: BRIAN DUFF | April 17, 2013

Kushiya Benkay finds lovely harmony

A beautiful blend
What is most pleasing about Kushiya Benkay, a sort of skewer-pub from the folks at Benkay Sushi, is the way it brings together several impulses without going too crazy about any particular one.

By: BRIAN DUFF | April 10, 2013

Saco star: Luis’s phenomenal arepas

Delicious inside and out
You might want to hug Luis, or at least flirt with the guy, because he is creating first-rate arepas in his charming little shop.

By: BRIAN DUFF | March 20, 2013

Entering the club at 91 South

In praise of privacy
There was a time when private clubs existed to meet a pressing need: maybe as a way to keep out parvenus, or to discreetly get into some gay stuff.

By: BRIAN DUFF | March 13, 2013

Eventide’s superior oysters, and imaginative cuisine

Slurping with delight
When you take the helm of a great institution, it can create a paralyzing fear of screwing things up.

By: BRIAN DUFF | January 16, 2013

Review: Gather

Community, local flavors, and expert preparation
As we continue to withdraw from the institutions that once organized modern life, we fill the abandoned spaces with restaurants.

By: BRIAN DUFF | November 28, 2012

The new Salvadoran spot on Congress is a must-taste

Flores blooms in fall
No restaurant in Portland captures the look of a good hole-in-the-wall better than Flores, a new Salvadoran spot next to Bodega Latina — right where Congress Street starts to curve and head downhill, so to speak.

By: BRIAN DUFF | October 31, 2012

Review: Spread Restaurant

Spread ’em: A new restaurant celebrates smooth tastes
There is a certain sort of space that, for the very reason that it seems doomed, summons hopeful strivers who expect to redeem them.

By: BRIAN DUFF | October 03, 2012

The newest best reason to go to Brunswick

The Tao of deliciousness
Early this year on this page I urged Mainers to stop complaining about our choices for Chinese food — to cease wishing for "a transcendent Chinese place that surprises and delights."

By: BRIAN DUFF | September 26, 2012

Tandoor’s full menu is well worth the trip

Beyond the bread
As you may remember, we went to war with Iraq in the name of freedom.

By: BRIAN DUFF | August 29, 2012

Legendary Maine Jamaican restaurant reopens

Farmhouse welcome
If, four years ago, you read in the Phoenix a story about Jamaican-born chef and artist Alva Lowe, you probably had one regret.

By: BRIAN DUFF | August 08, 2012

Review: LFK

Drinking and dining at portland’s newest hot spot
One of the clever decisions made by the proprietors of LFK, a new bar and eatery on Longfellow Square, was forgoing a literary name.

By: BRIAN DUFF | August 01, 2012

Review: El Rayo Cantina

Stepping up
There are two traditional ways for folks from the US to encounter Mexico: get down and dirty, or really polish it up.

By: BRIAN DUFF | June 13, 2012

A new crop of restaurants open in time for summer

Reap the delicious bounty
Just when you thought the Portland food scene couldn't get any better, a handful of new restaurants and bars are gearing up for the summer.

By: AMY ANDERSON | June 21, 2012

Tasting excellence at Miyake

Flavor frenzy
There is a theory about the extreme inequality found in American culture and economy that goes something like this: inequality is the price of a culture designed to identify and reward great talent.

By: BRIAN DUFF | May 16, 2012

Review: Holy Donut

Holy potatoes! Yep, spuds are the not-so-secret ingredient in these doughnuts
All cuisines rely on the experience of regression for their deepest appeal.

By: BRIAN DUFF | May 09, 2012