We were in Portland for 4 nights; the oysters above were consumed the night before we left (dining at Helm). There were a couple of other great dishes that night, but instead, let's go chronologically. Night one, the classic Fore Street...
Where I wasn't 100% impressed with the shucking (you can see how it's better at other places), but the quality of the shellfish was just fine.
For @rotuts:
This is the squid and the Tuscan style beans. My whole roasted sea bass was great. The following day, our niece and husband arrived; they've been to Portland a couple of times, but never to Scales. If one must, one must.
A much nicer shucking job.These oysters were fantastic. Full menu here for those so inclined.
My 1.5 lb. pan-roasted lobster was great - these people know how to cook a lobster just right. We had to try this...
The loaded Hasselback...it was okay. Looks as if the niece's baked haddock snuck into the picture too. After a night of perhaps one too many glasses of vino, the next day meant we had to head down to the water and the classic:
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I had a crab roll. Good, unadorned as it should be, but maybe a little too much roll. The pickle was horrendous (but that's because it's not the kind of pickle I grew up with), but probably classic up here...
Excellent potato chips, by the way. Head to Becky's!
Before dinner, we had drinks at The Danforth, the recently opened cocktail lounge from Gin & Luck and the Death & Co. family. Great, as to be expected.
And then headed to our niece's fave, Izakaya Minato:
Making it easy on ourselves, the whole table ordered the Omakase, which was the most generous omakase I've ever encountered. Lots of goodies, including...
The signature Motoyaki oysters, which were fab. Even the edamame was better than the usual run-of-the-mill edamame most places send out. The fried chicken was up there with some of the best we've had; discussions ensued about what a great bar snack that would be. Had to burn off some of the calories the next day, so off we went:
Portland Head Light.
Self explanatory.
Our final night's dinner in Portland was at, as mentioned above, Helm Oyster Bar & Bistro, where in addition to the scrumptious platter in the preceding post, we ate more.
As we usually do, we shared apps.
Johnny Cakes with trout roe, and the fried, chili-glazed sea bass collars, which may be the singularly greatest use of fish collars ever...and there are so many uses.
Fried until the fins are crisp and edible, just a great dish. Then I had their specialty, the whole Acadian Redfish ...
Served with a very cool gribiche (sugar kelp based) - another great dish. Wow - as I mentioned above, they should be breaking down the doors to get in here, and maybe they do once the season starts. Breakfast on our final morning...
Good enough. And not a long wait, even though we were quoted 30 - 45 minutes at 9 AM, we got in in 15.
I want to also mention Forage Market, where we had good to very good bagels and smoked salmon. Not that weird, considering there's good baking going on, and this place...
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Occupies a fair amount of real estate. Also great, The Cheese Shop of Portland, recommended to me by my friends at Formaggio Essex.
We like Portland. Because, you know, is there another intersection as copacetic as this one?
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Great little town.
