It’s no secret the food in Portland Maine is to die for! It’s a total foodie city. If you’re swinging in for a quick few days, these 5 must try eats will get you the most bang for your buck while in town.
Portland, Maine is the type of city people swing into for a quick weekend getaway. Often they come for the beautiful scenery, but don’t underestimate the food in Portland Maine. Portland has an up and coming food scene for the modern chef. We only had a few days to eat our way through the city but we hit all the staples, which we’ll be sharing with you today. If you’re heading to Portland, Maine this summer read on to find some delicious, can’t miss eats!
This post is all about food in Portland Maine.
Dessert first, shall we…
1. The Holy Donut 194 Park Ave (downtown location)- 177 Commercial St.
Both locations are open daily 6:30-4pm.
The Holy Donut is a local favorite. What makes these donuts different??? One third of the batter is mashed potatoes, with the exception of the apple donuts. Those are made with applesauce instead. When we heard this we had to give them a try. We went to the original location on Park Ave. The line was long, but it moved along fairly quickly.
In general, these donuts were not as heavy as we expected. Although, they were heavier than yeast donuts. We both found them not as greasy as regular donuts. You would never guess there are mashed potatoes in the flavored donuts. Below we will share the flavors we tried:
Maple Bacon– Delish! It wasn’t overly maple-y. It was a bit crumbly but so worth it! I don’t even like maple syrup and I loved this donut, it was my favorite. MUST TRY.
Cannoli Berry– The cannoli filling wasn’t as sweet or gritty as regular cannoli filling. It had more of a cream cheese taste to it. My husband would recommend it if you like “cannoli type stuff.” 🙂 He’s the cannoli eater, not me.
Apple Cider– It was as good as I expected it to be. You could feel the applesauce texture in it. I liked it because it wasn’t too sweet. I would get it again.
Caramel Apple– Similar to the apple cider donut but sweeter. I preferred the apple cider to this one. My husband liked them both the same.
Chocolate Caramel Coconut (vegan)– Samoa Girl Scout Cookie mock. It was good considering it was a vegan donut. It was a white donut with toasted coconut flakes and dark chocolate stripes. I wish you could have tasted the caramel and chocolate more. The coconut overpowered the other flavors, as coconut usually does. But it wasn’t bad.
tip: Find The Holy Donut menu here.
2. Gelato Fiasco 425 Fore St. (Old Port) 74 Maine St. Brunswick, Maine (Flagship store) Food truck location open during the summer. Check the website for hours.
When we visited in the summer of 2021, the Old Port location was under construction. It is now reopened, and it’s within walking distance to most things in Downtown Portland. Portland is the type of city you can park and walk to pretty much everything, which is nice. Maybe they knew we’d need to walk the food off 🙂 This location has up to 30 flavors daily.
We went to the Brunswick location, which has up to 40 flavors daily. Let me tell you, these are like gourmet flavors too! I’m a plain Jane when it comes to eating ice cream. I essentially get mint chocolate chip on a waffle cone. I did get that, but I also topped it with another flavor so I could try something different. Below are the flavors we tried, all were AMAZING!!! We even drove back a second time during our quick trip for more. We should have tried new flavors, but we both got the exact same thing the second time. They were SO GOOD! I have a feeling you can’t go wrong with any flavor. They also let you taste to help you decide!
Mint Chocolate Chunk
Maine Wild Blueberry Crisp
Big Ol’ Peanut Butter Pint
tip: flavors can sell out so check the flavors online. They get updated daily at noon. Find the old Port location flavors Here. Find the Brunswick location flavors here.
Food in Portland Maine: Lobster rolls
Okay, so this probably should have been first on the list. You literally cannot visit Maine and NOT try a lobster roll. There is something about eating lobster you didn’t fight for. You feel like you’re cheating the system or something. Lobster rolls taste like a mix of lobster and grilled cheese. It makes lobster a bit nostalgic. Everyone should try them. This is the best place, in our opinion, to give them a try:
3. McCloons Lobster Shack 315 Island Rd Spruce Head Island, Maine
Read more about McCloons Lobster Shack in my lobster roll post:
The Best Lobster Roll in Maine | We Tried Them All So You Don’t Have To
Please head to that post for more information about McCloons and other places we tried lobster rolls at.
tip: Steamed lobster meat tends to be sweeter and more tender than boiled meat. We prefer steamed to boiled.
Food in Portland Maine: Mussels at Scales
4. Scales Maine Wharf 68 Commercial St. Only open for dinner
So this place is interesting because it looks like nothing special from the outside. However, once inside, it’s huge and has a clean, wooden, rustic design. The kitchen is open and the place is huge. Because it’s so open, it is extremely loud! It was difficult to even hold a conversation. If you’re looking for a nice romantic dinner or to catch up with someone, this may not be the place due to the noise level. But if you’re not concerned with the noise, I promise, the mussels are to die for!
tip: Make reservations. Most restaurants in Portland are booked ahead of time. so make your reservations early if you know there are places you want to try. We ended up waiting hours to eat here.
We went here primarily for mussels. They catch them right in the bay in Portland. They were so good, we got a second round! We also ordered dessert.
Bangs Island Mussels– Hard cider, Reye’s mustard, cream, dill, Served with a piece of sour dough bread. These mussels were hands down the best mussels we have ever had! They’re good sized and the broth they’re served in is amazing! The dill they use just makes these. So as not to waste the yummy broth, we also ordered the Cloverleaf Rolls to soak up the juice. We highly recommend this appetizer. (Pictured below, it was so dark the picture is not the best, but I wanted to share it anyhow).
Chocolate Hazelnut Chiffon Cake– This dessert was very light and delicious. There were layers of mousse topped with crunchy hazelnut wafers. It wasn’t too heavy and was a decent size if you’re following your dinner with dessert.
Mint Chocolate Frappe– My husband didn’t mind this. I wasn’t a fan. It was too thin and tasted more like milk than a milkshake. I don’t like milk, hence this was a problem for me. I prefer milkshakes to be thicker and have more of the ice cream flavor to them. Even though this was my dessert, he drank it.
tip: in the New England area, or at least portland, a frappe is a milkshake. Only the coffee flavored frappes have coffee in them.
Quintessential Maine eats with a twist
5. Eventide Oyster Company 86 Middle St.
I like that this restaurant caters to walk ups. They do book reservations for parties of 4-12 people. But they only take a limited number of reservations per day. We did wait a bit, but we ended up walking around the bay area for like 30 minutes and coming back to be seated. They offer a fresh, new take on traditional New England fare and an extensive list of cocktails. There is plenty of outdoor seating and the prices aren’t bad.
tip: Most dishes are made for bites. Like 4-5 bites or appetizer style. If you’re looking for bigger portions, the sandwiches are the way to go. We opted to get numerous small things to try more of what they offer. There are so many places to try, it’s nice to get small bites so we can save room!
New England Clam Chowder– This was the best chowder I have ever had!!! It had an Asian twist to it. The potatoes were cut up very small and it had salty pork and chives in it as well. I liked that the broth was thin rather than thick. I really kind of wanted a second bowl…
Maine Lobster Stew– This, like the chowder, was also a thin broth. There was plenty of lobster meat and it had some kind of mushrooms that gave it a hearty stew flavor. It was very good.
Preserved Mussels– Served with saltines, house creme fraiche, and pickles. This was not what we expected but it was good. The fraiche seemed to to taste like sour cream and the mussels were smoked. It is very hard to describe this appetizer. It was odd, but somehow it all worked together.
Eventide Brown Butter Lobster Roll– This is a lobster roll with an Asian twist. The bun is soft and steamed rather than toasted. I prefer the traditional toasted rolls, probably because I don’t like soggy bread. The lobster meat was warm and the flavoring and chives gave it an Asian taste. It was decent for a twist on a lobster roll and worth trying. We just prefer the traditional style more.
Overall this place was a hit! We described it as oddly good. We loved the ambiance and the outdoor seating. This is a must try for drinks and small eats!
Food in Portland Maine: Breweries
Okay this is so not my forte. That having been said, Portland, although a smaller city, is very well known for beer. So I knew we had to mention it. My husband will be more help here. I hate beer, LOL! I did find out you can take bus Brews Cruises. This would be a safe way to try a few breweries if that’s something you like. You can learn about this here. The two breweries we tried are listed below…
6. Allagash Brewing Company 50 Industrial Way
This is one of the large breweries in Portland. The biggest reason we hit this brewery was because they have a food truck on site that sells lobster rolls, Bite Into Maine. It was one of the places mentioned in my lobster roll blog, check that out here. While we were here, my husband did try a couple beers as well that he liked. I love that it is centered around being outside and it was very clean. You can kill two birds with one stone with this stop too, lobster roll and a beer! You heard it here people!
7. Maine Beer Company 525 US Route 1 Freeport, Maine
This brewery is outside of Portland in Freeport, Maine. It is very close to the Outlet Mall and L.L. Bean so I thought it would be worth mentioning, as most people would be heading this way if they’re in Maine. I loved that it was big and open and very clean. Also the limited menu they offered was well rounded. The pizza we ordered was good and the salad was huge and very good as well. It was nice they didn’t ignore the quality of the food even though it’s all about the beer in a brewery. My husband tried a flight of beers that he said were very good. It’s a nice change of pace after all of the seafood!
In my opinion, this is the can’t miss food in Portland Maine.
I hope that this was helpful to you. Portland is a foodie paradise and you can easily become lost and overwhelmed. Don’t let that stop you from trying some of the best food in Portland Maine. This post just grazes the surface and I cannot wait to go back when I have more time so we can eat our way through this beautiful city. If you have been to Portland and have any places to recommend, please comment below and share! Thank you so much for reading!
This post was all about food in Portland Maine.
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The Best Lobster Roll in Maine | We Tried Them All So You Don’t Have To
