Tag Archives: restaurant review

City farmhouse?

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We tried a new restaurant the other day which is something I love to do. If it was up to my husband we would go the same three every time we eat out because he’s an absolute creature of habit.

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City Farmhouse Kitchen and Bar in South Portland.

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The description was urban style with farm to table food. Sounded intriguing, so away we went.

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On first glance the cocktail menu looked stellar. Fresh fruit purées, homemade bitters and local herbs.

Yes please!

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I started with the strawberry basil mojito… which was so good I ordered two.

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I could happily have emptied a pitcher with my less than palatable crab cakes. The tiny things came out of the kitchen in a flash and had that hard crunchy coating that screamed frozen.

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On the plus side my husband’s lobster bisque was divine.

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It was an attractive place, modern with a few strange “farmy” touches.

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Like the fake grassy turf above the bar televisions.

🥴

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Sadly the main portions of our meals were disappointing. The husband’s roasted squash ravioli with root vegetables and sage brown butter were hard as a rock and dry….

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While my chicken tagliatelle with spinach, mushroom and pine nuts was dull as toast. The porcini cream had no flavor and the pasta was pasty.

My third cocktail however, the Indian Summer, was lovely.

Bombay Sapphire Gin, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, Fresh-Pressed Lime, Splash of Cranberry, Muddled Pink Grapefruit, Splash of Bubbles.

Conclusion?

Go for drinks and not much else.

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The blog where I eat tilefish and am completely underwhelmed.

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After an interesting but not nearly long enough tour of Fort Sumter, we disembarked the ferry and spotted a resort with a highly recommended restaurant called the Fish House.

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Arriving at 4:00pm since we’d skipped lunch…

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We had the place to ourselves for a short while and moseyed up to the bar.

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One Harborview with Cathead Honeysuckle Vodka, Lemon Simple Syrup, Prosecco, and fresh basil in… things were looking good.

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The view on one side was the USS Yorktown… which I wanted to tour but with only an hour before it closed and $100 for two tickets the husband said no. He’s lived on those ships and had no desire to pay to see another.

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Low country shrimp appetizer? Yummy.

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A Siren’s Mule with Mount Gay Rum, Ginger Beer, Lemon Simple Syrup, Mint Leaf, Lime and Blue Curacao?

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Even better.

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We had to laugh at the menu typo and passed on the She Carb soup.

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Husband had the lobster ravioli which he said was wonderful and silly me… who thought since I was down south I should try local seafood… ordered the tilefish.

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Word of advice – do not order the tilefish.

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The sauce? Flavorful. The risotto? Creamy. The charred lemon broccoli? Perfect.

The tilefish?

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I think this fish made out of actual tile in the rest room would have tasted better.

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This one as well.

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Yup. Those too.

Lesson learned? If you don’t know what it is, don’t order it.

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Bad fish aside, it was a nice place.

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It must have been because we stayed until after dark and the beast of a Lincoln was lighting our way when we left.

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At least we had good timing for some beautiful Charleston skies on the way back.

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😊

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Ragin’ Asian Cajun?

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My girlfriend and I went shopping last week and were excited to discover a new Cajun seafood restaurant had opened in South Portland. Mouth watering for shrimp ettouffe or crawfish gumbo, we entered The Shaking Crab.

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Why was the crab shaking? I have no idea. But the place being nearly empty at the height of the lunch hour should have been our first clue something wasn’t quite right.

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Six dollar drinks went a long way to calm our suspicions…

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Though the Cajuns I’ve known wouldn’t be caught dead drinking a watermelon-tini.

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Giant plastic crabs were everywhere. As were plastic starfish and randomly placed hanging plastic water bubbles.

All the waitstaff were Asian. 9/10ths of the customers were Asian. The scent of the room was reminiscent of an Asian kitchen. The menu? Not an ettouffe, Boudin, or jambalaya in sight.

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Though you could order “coleslow” and “braccoli ”. (These appeared twice, spelled incorrectly both times.) I didn’t bother taking pictures of our meals, they were just typical fried seafood baskets as the only other choices were giant plates of steamed things in a plastic wrap bubble you had to crack, and we didn’t feel like making a mess. I did try to catch a shot of one being delivered to another table, but missed.

Imagine a giant Jiffy Pop balloon encircling a metal dish, only its clear plastic instead of foil. It was an absolutely bizarre presentation of what I’m assuming was meant to be a crawfish boil.

I lived down south. I had Cajun friends and neighbors. I’ve sucked heads. Whatever The Shaking Crab meant to be? It sure as hell wasn’t Cajun.

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