Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries in Portland from the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Portland
Leeward in the Arts District, Hugo's and Eventide Oyster Co. in the Old Port, and Scales in the Waterfront name a wine program or sommelier-led drinks in our guide.
Leeward is a contemporary Italian restaurant in the Arts District, cooking Italian-inspired seasonal food with house-made pastas and Maine-sourced ingredients. The room is a former men's department store. Its wine program has natural wine and an extensive wine list, and the formats are a la carte and small plates. It was a James Beard Award semifinalist in 2025 and in 2026.
Hugo's is a contemporary American restaurant in the Old Port, known for refined, locally sourced Maine ingredients and an open kitchen around a large red birch bar. Formats include a tasting menu, a la carte and small plates. Drinks are sommelier-led, with craft cocktails. Hugo's holds a James Beard Award for Best Chefs from 2009.
Eventide Oyster Co. is a New England oyster bar in the Old Port, built around Maine oysters, a brown butter lobster roll and a sunken granite shellfish display. Service covers a la carte, small plates and counter dining. The wine program has an extensive wine list, craft cocktails and a beer program. In 2026, Opinionated About Dining ranked it number 29 for Casual in North America.
Scales is a modern Maine seafood restaurant in the Waterfront, serving steamers, lobster bisque and halibut, with live oyster shucking. Formats are a la carte and small plates. The wine program has craft cocktails. It was an OpenTable Top 100 restaurant in 2025. In 2026 it was a James Beard Award nominee, semifinalist and Outstanding Restaurateur.
The Old Port holds 32 venues in our guide. Fore Street Restaurant, Central Provisions, Via Vecchia and Oun Lido's are restaurants in that neighborhood.
Fore Street Restaurant cooks wood-fired food with seasonal ingredients from Maine farms and fisheries in an open kitchen in the Old Port. A wood-burning oven, grill and turnspit handle the cooking. Formats are a la carte and small plates, with a wine list and craft cocktails. It was an OpenTable Top 100 restaurant in 2025 and a James Beard Award nominee, semifinalist and Outstanding Restaurateur in 2026.
Central Provisions serves modern small plates in the Old Port, in a tapas-style format built for sharing. Chef Chris Gould runs a New American menu, with a wine list and craft cocktails. In 2026 it was a James Beard Award semifinalist and a Condé Nast Traveler selection for Best Bars in Portland, Maine.
Via Vecchia is a modern Italian small-plates restaurant in the Old Port, in a historic brick building covered in ivy. Formats are small plates and a la carte, with a wine list and craft cocktails. Esquire included it in Best Martinis in America in 2025. In 2026, Condé Nast Traveler selected it for Best Bars in Portland, Maine, at 100 points.
Oun Lido's is a modern Cambodian-Chinese restaurant in the Old Port, serving a la carte and at the counter. It serves zero-proof drinks. Esquire placed it at number 15 on Best New Restaurants in 2024. Cooking is Cambodian and Cambodian-Chinese, with dishes inspired by Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love.
The Jewel Box in the Arts District, Blyth & Burrows in the Old Port and Chaval in the West End are cocktail bars, and Allagash Brewing Company in Riverton Drive is a Belgian-inspired brewery.
The Jewel Box is a cocktail bar in the Arts District, with boldly flavored drinks in a candlelit room and no exterior signage. It serves small plates. The wine program sits alongside craft cocktails. It was a James Beard Award semifinalist in 2025. In 2026, Condé Nast Traveler selected it for Best Bars in Portland, Maine, at 100 points.
Blyth & Burrows is a cocktail bar in the Old Port, with a raw bar and creative small plates in a nautical-themed room tied to historic sea captains. The format is small plates. In 2026, Condé Nast Traveler selected it for Best Bars in Portland, Maine, at 100 points.
Chaval is a bar in the West End, a casually styled brasserie serving seasonal French and Spanish small plates. Cocktails focus on sherry, gin, aperitifs and vermouths. In 2026, Condé Nast Traveler selected it for Best Bars in Portland, Maine, at 100 points.
Allagash Brewing Company, in Riverton Drive, is a Belgian-inspired brewery whose flagship is Allagash White, a hazy wheat beer brewed with oats, coriander and Curaçao orange peel. It pours craft beer. In 2019 it received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Producer.
The Old Port holds 32 venues in our guide, the largest neighborhood count in Portland. Restaurants in the Old Port include Fore Street Restaurant, with wood-fired cooking and a wine list, Central Provisions, with modern small plates and a wine list, and Eventide Oyster Co., with an extensive wine list. Via Vecchia, in the Old Port, pairs modern Italian small plates with a wine list and craft cocktails.
Our guide lists no Michelin-starred restaurants citywide in Portland, Maine. Other recognition includes the James Beard Award for Best Chefs held by Hugo's in Old Port and James Beard Award semifinalist recognition for Leeward in Arts District.
Hugo's, in Old Port, includes a tasting menu among its formats. The formats also include a la carte and small plates. It is a contemporary American restaurant known for refined, locally sourced Maine ingredients, with an open kitchen around a large red birch bar. Drinks are sommelier-led, with craft cocktails.
Across the venues covered in our guide to Portland, Maine, the citywide total for Wine Spectator awards is one, held by a venue with a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Portland
Selected entries from the current guide for Portland.
Portland, United States
Fore Street Restaurant has anchored Portland's Old Port dining scene for decades. The wood-burning oven, grill, and turnspit visible from the dining room are not theatrical props but working infrastructure that defines how ingredients are cooked..
Portland, United States
Scales sits at 68 Commercial St on Maine Wharf, next to the Casco Bay Ferry Terminal, serving classic New England seafood alongside creative landfood dishes in a setting that balances working-waterfront character with a more considered dining experience. For Scales Portland Maine reservations, booking ahead is advisable, particularly during peak summer months.
Portland, United States
Central Provisions on Fore Street is among Portland's most consistently recognized casual dining addresses, holding multiple Opinionated About Dining placements across three consecutive years. Chef Chris Gould runs a New American menu built around small plates designed for sharing and grazing rather than linear progression. Open seven days a week for both lunch and dinner.
Portland, United States
Eventide Oyster Co. on Portland's Middle Street has ranked among North America's top casual dining destinations two years running on Opinionated About Dining, rising from #25 in 2024 to #12 in 2023. Open seven days a week from 11am to 11pm with no listed reservation requirement.
Portland, United States
Standard Baking has anchored Portland's Old Port waterfront since the 1990s, earning consecutive Opinionated About Dining recognition through 2025. The bakery operates seven days a week from 7:30 am, drawing a cross-section of the city for laminated pastry, naturally leavened bread, and a format that treats morning as its primary act rather than an afterthought to dinner service.
Portland, United States
Duck Fat has held a place on Opinionated About Dining's Cheap Eats in North America list every year from 2023 through 2025, a track record that reflects something more than casual popularity. Located on Middle Street in Portland, Maine, the sandwich-focused spot run by chef Rob Evans channels duck fat into a tight, purposeful menu where a single ingredient defines both the cooking philosophy and the kitchen's approach to minimizing waste.
Portland, United States
Bite into Maine brings Maine's lobster roll tradition to a scenic perch on Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth, where the Atlantic sets the backdrop for some of Portland's most focused shellfish work. It belongs on any itinerary organised around what Maine's coast actually tastes like.
Portland, United States
Ranked on Opinionated About Dining's Cheap Eats list three consecutive years through 2025, Holy Donut has become a fixed reference point in Portland, Maine's casual dining conversation. The Commercial Street location puts potato-based doughnuts at the center of a format that attracts serious food critics and morning commuters alike. Founder Leigh Kellis built the operation on a distinctive dough recipe that separates it from the city's broader pastry field.
Portland, United States
Hot Suppa on Congress Street has held a spot on Opinionated About Dining's Cheap Eats in North America list two consecutive years, ranking #623 in 2024 and #636 in 2025. In a city defined by ambitious tasting menus and imported culinary traditions, it represents the case for à la carte Southern cooking done without ceremony.
Portland, United States
Hugo's at 88 Middle Street occupies a central position in Portland, Maine's fine-dining conversation, where the kitchen, floor, and wine program operate as a coordinated unit rather than independent departments. The restaurant sits in the Old Port district, a neighborhood that has anchored Portland's reputation as one of the Northeast's most compelling dining cities. Reserve well in advance; tables at this tier of Portland dining move quickly.
Portland, United States
On Free Street in Portland's West End, Leeward occupies the quieter, more considered end of the city's dining scene. The space and its editorial reputation position it among the restaurants that take the Pacific Northwest's ingredient-led tradition seriously, without the noise of the Old Port. For visitors working through Portland's tighter reservation circuit, it belongs on the shortlist.
Portland, United States
On Portland's East End, Luncheonette operates in the scratch fast-casual tier that defines much of the city's most interesting daytime eating. The menu draws on global small-plate traditions, tapas, meze, shared spreads, built around house-made sourdough and a kitchen that treats fast-casual as a format, not a ceiling. For a low-key celebration or a meal that rewards grazing, it holds its own in a city that takes casual food seriously.
Portland, United States
Few sushi operations in New England have built their identity as narrowly and as deliberately around a single fish as Mr. Tuna, where Atlantic bluefin tuna, sourced locally and broken down in-house, anchors everything from hand rolls to a tuna sashimi tasting that reads as a serious education in cuts and marbling. Started as a cart in 2017 and moved into a permanent Middle Street address in 2024, this is Portland, Maine's clearest argument for local fish handled with precision.
Portland, United States
Novare Res Bier Cafe occupies a basement space off Canal Plaza in Portland, Maine, and has built a following among locals who treat it as the city's most serious beer destination. With a deep draft and bottle selection spanning European and American craft traditions, it operates in a tier above the typical bar, a reference point for anyone who takes beer seriously in Portland.
Portland, United States
Otto Pizza has held a place in Portland's pizza conversation long enough to earn a 2025 Opinionated About Dining Cheap Eats nod, ranked #627 in North America. On Read Street in Portland, Maine, it operates in a city where casual dining punches well above its size..
Portland, United States
Oun Lido's brings Cambodian-Chinese fusion to Portland's Old Port at 30 Market Street, earning a spot on Esquire's Best New Restaurants list for 2024 at number fifteen. Under chef Masayuki Otaka, the kitchen reinterprets classic Chinese technique through a Cambodian lens, producing one of the more distinctive menus in the city's already competitive dining corridor..
Portland, United States
Papi Portland is a Puerto Rican Bar & Kitchen at 18 Exchange St, with craft cocktails, zero-proof drinks, and dishes such as mofongo and ropa vieja.
Portland, United States
The format is deli-counter direct: smoked fish, house-cured meats, and the kind of bagel architecture that invites comparison to New York's canonical standards. Book early or arrive at opening.
Portland, United States
Discover The Honey Paw, a chef-driven Asian fusion restaurant where silk-smooth noodles, bold spices, and seasonal ingredients meet modern technique. Expect inventive small plates, wood-kissed flavors, and a thoughtful cocktail program that pairs citrus, herb, and spice with precision. From crisp, caramelized bites to umami-rich broths, every dish tells a story—playful, elegant, memorable. Well-suited for date nights, celebrations, and culinary explorers seeking a polished, flavor-forward experience.
Portland, United States
Via Vecchia at 10 Dana Street earned a spot on Esquire's 2025 Best Martinis in America list, placing it among a small tier of American bars where the martini is treated as a primary discipline rather than a rote menu item. Portland, Maine's bar scene has quietly produced several nationally recognized programs, and Via Vecchia sits near the front of that group.
Portland
Selected entries from the current guide for Portland.
Portland, United States
A six-room Lark Hotels guest house on a quiet residential street in Portland, Maine, Blind Tiger Carleton Street earned a Michelin 1 Key in 2024 for an approach that deliberately strips back hotel convention. Rates from $459 per night, no televisions, and a self-serve breakfast bar signal a property designed for guests who want a base in the city, not a retreat from it.
Portland, United States
A nine-room inn on Danforth Street, Blind Tiger occupies a Federal-style house built in 1823 and takes its name from the Prohibition-era speakeasy that once ran in its basement. Renovated by Lark Hotels in 2020, the property sits in one of Portland's most walkable residential neighborhoods, with wood-burning fireplaces in nearly every room and a morning pantry that sets an unhurried, residential tone.
Portland, United States
Portland, Maine's first independent full-service hotel in over two decades, the Longfellow Hotel occupies a Victorian-era address on Congress Street in the city's West End. Its design draws directly from Maine's coastal character and the literary legacy of its namesake, positioning it among a small cohort of independent properties that treat local identity as a structural principle rather than decoration.
Portland, United States
Portland Harbor Hotel occupies a commanding position on Fore Street, steps from the working waterfront that has defined Portland, Maine's character for centuries. Recognised by the Michelin Guide's 2025 Selected Hotels list, it sits at the more polished end of the city's accommodation spectrum, a credible base for exploring one of New England's most serious dining and cultural destinations.
Portland, United States
A converted 1920s newspaper building on Exchange Street, The Press Hotel brings industrial editorial heritage into Portland's Old Port hotel scene. Part of Marriott's Autograph Collection, it sits in a specific niche: boutique scale with chain-level reliability, positioned above the waterfront commodity tier and below full-luxury flagships like The Ritz-Carlton. The property anchors well for exploring Portland's dense restaurant and bar corridor on foot.
Portland, United States
Positioned on Fore Street at the edge of the Old Port, AC Hotel Portland Downtown/Waterfront occupies one of the city's most walkable addresses for both the working waterfront and the dense concentration of independent restaurants that have put Portland, Maine on the national dining map. The property brings Marriott's AC brand format to a city whose hospitality scene increasingly rewards properties with a clear sense of place.
Portland, United States
The Francis Hotel occupies a carefully restored historic building on Congress Street in Portland, Maine, placing it at the centre of the city's most walkable stretch of arts institutions, independent restaurants, and galleries. The property sits in a category of design-led boutique hotels that treat the physical container as seriously as the hospitality programme, making it a reference point for visitors who want architecture to do some of the work.
Portland
Selected entries from the current guide for Portland.
Portland, United States
At 644 Congress Street, The Jewel Box occupies a corner of Portland, Maine's dining scene where the city's commitment to regional sourcing meets considered technique. The address places it in the company of a food culture built on proximity to the Atlantic and the farms of the Northeast, a context that shapes what lands on the plate and how seriously the kitchen takes its supply chain.
Portland, United States
Allagash Brewing Company has shaped Portland, Maine's identity as a craft beer city more than any single brewery of its generation. Operating out of Industrial Way on the city's western fringe, it built its reputation on Belgian-style ales at a time when the category was an outlier in American brewing. The taproom functions as a working brewery visit as much as a drinking destination.
Portland, United States
On Congress Street in Portland, Maine, Bennys occupies a position in a city that has built one of the Northeast's most talked-about drinking and dining scenes over the past decade. The bar sits within walking distance of the Old Port's dense concentration of independent venues, making it a natural stop on any serious exploration of what Portland's bartenders are doing right now.
Portland, United States
Blyth & Burrows occupies a converted space on Exchange Street in Portland's Old Port, operating as one of the city's more deliberate cocktail bar formats. The pace here is set by the drink program rather than the kitchen, positioning it within a small tier of Portland bars where the ritual of ordering matters as much as what arrives in the glass.
Portland, United States
Chaval occupies a Pine Street address in Portland, Maine, where the dining room draws on the kind of front-of-house and kitchen collaboration that defines the city's more considered mid-size restaurants. The room sits within a broader Portland scene that has developed a clear identity around ingredient-led cooking and program-depth wine lists. Plan ahead: demand at this tier of Portland dining consistently runs ahead of walk-in availability.
Portland, United States
Crown Jewel occupies a well-earned position on Portland, Maine's Congress Street bar scene.. It sits within a city whose cocktail culture has grown steadily more deliberate in recent years, making this address a useful reference point for anyone mapping the city's serious drinking spots.
Portland, United States
Positioned at 52 Wharf St, it occupies a slice of the Old Port's layered maritime history, offering a drinking experience anchored in the physical character of its surroundings rather than trend-chasing novelty.
Portland, United States
It occupies a reliable middle tier in Portland's cocktail scene, where craft discipline meets a room that handles a celebratory evening without fanfare.
Portland, United States
Its focus on craft beverages built around locally sourced and botanically driven ingredients reflects a wider shift in the American bar scene toward ingredient-led programming over spirit-forward orthodoxy.
Portland, United States
Après occupies a bar-forward position on Anderson Street in Portland, Maine, where the drinks program and food menu are designed to work in tandem rather than as separate offerings. The format sits closer to the serious cocktail bars emerging across the American Northeast than to a conventional restaurant with a bar attached. Portland's compact dining district makes it a natural stop before or after the city's better-known tables.
Portland, United States
On Congress Street in Portland, Maine, CBG occupies a position in the city's drinking culture that rewards those who pay attention to what's in the glass rather than what's on the walls. The bar sits within a downtown corridor that has grown more considered in its approach to spirits and cocktails over the past decade, placing CBG alongside a small group of venues where the program, not the décor, does the talking.
Portland, United States
On Exchange Street in Portland, Maine, Crispy Gai occupies a spot in the Old Port's increasingly confident drinking and dining scene. The bar draws a mix of regulars and visitors looking for something more considered than the neighbourhood's louder options, anchoring itself as a community fixture rather than a destination curio. For a city still shaping its cocktail identity, it represents a useful reference point.
Portland, United States
Cuties occupies a compact space on Market Street in Portland, Maine, positioning itself within the city's growing cocktail bar scene. Where Portland's drinking culture has increasingly split between brewery-forward tap rooms and more deliberate spirit-led programs, Cuties represents the latter tendency, a neighborhood bar with an edited focus that rewards the curious drinker over the casual one.
Portland, United States
Gritty McDuff's Brew Pub on Fore Street sits at the older end of Portland, Maine's craft beer timeline, a bar-format brewpub that helped establish the city's drinking culture before the current wave of taprooms arrived. The address places it in the Old Port, where the trade in local pints remains steady and the format stays resolutely informal.
Portland, United States
A Portland waterfront institution on Portland Pier, J's Oyster is the kind of raw bar that earns its reputation through consistency rather than ceremony. The setting is working-harbour casual, the shellfish comes straight off Maine's cold Atlantic waters, and the crowd ranges from longshoremen to out-of-towners who know exactly where to go when the oyster craving hits.
Portland, United States
Maine & Loire occupies a corner of Portland's Washington Avenue corridor where the city's French-influenced wine culture meets its appetite for serious, unfussy dining. The address sits in a stretch of the East End that has quietly attracted some of the city's most considered food and drink operations. Expect a wine-forward format that rewards return visits and patient exploration.
Portland, United States
On Danforth Street in Portland's West End, Ocotillo takes the city's appetite for ingredient-led, consciously sourced cooking and frames it through a Southwestern lens. The address sits within a neighbourhood that rewards deliberate dining choices, and the kitchen's approach connects to Portland's broader shift toward programs where provenance and waste reduction are built into the menu, not bolted on as afterthoughts.
Portland, United States
Oxbow Blending & Bottling occupies a distinctive corner of Portland, Maine's drinking scene, where craft brewing meets a serious approach to fermentation and blending. Located at 49 Washington Ave, this Washington Avenue outpost operates as both a working production space and a public tasting room, placing it in a narrower category than the city's direct taprooms. For visitors wanting to understand how Oxbow approaches its product, this is the place to start.
Portland, United States
Rising Tide Brewing Company operates out of Fox Street in Portland, Maine, placing it inside the city's working waterfront brewery corridor rather than its cocktail bar circuit. The taproom format draws a crowd that skews local and deliberate, and the industrial-meets-neighborhood character of the Bayside district shapes the experience as much as what's on tap.
Portland, United States
Room for Improvement occupies a Wharf Street address in Portland, Maine, where the Old Port's working waterfront meets a concentrated bar and dining scene. The name signals the self-aware register that defines the better end of Portland's cocktail culture, where technical ambition and low-key hospitality coexist more comfortably than in most coastal cities of comparable size.
Portland, United States
Terlingua on Washington Ave brings a Texas-influenced drinking and dining sensibility to Portland's competitive bar scene, drawing a loyal crowd that returns less for novelty and more for consistency. Situated in the Arts District corridor, it occupies a niche where smoky flavors, Southern American references, and a direct neighborhood-bar format coexist with Portland's broader appetite for craft specificity.
Portland, United States
Occupying a Congress Street address in Portland, Maine, The End sits at the intersection of the city's serious cocktail culture and its deep Atlantic pantry. The bar draws from the same local-ingredient ethos that has defined Portland's food scene for over a decade, channeling indigenous coastal products through rigorous technique. A focused destination for drinkers who treat a well-made drink as seriously as a course at dinner.
Portland, United States
On Portland, Maine's Exchange Street, The Highroller Lobster Co. puts Gulf of Maine lobster at the center of a focused, no-fuss format that suits the city's working-waterfront character. The model is deliberately simple: sourced local, served direct. In a state where lobster fishing is both economic backbone and environmental pressure point, that sourcing commitment carries more weight than it might elsewhere.
Portland
Selected entries from the current guide for Portland.
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