Jay N.
Yelp
Well rated and over rated.
While excited to come here for our first dining experience in Portland and our vacation in Maine, I couldn't help but leave thinking this city is starved of good dining.
We arrived a few minutes prior to our reservation of 730 pm. The hostess told us to take a seat in the lounge and that we would be seated at 730. She seemed a bit annoyed at baseline. While surprised by the delay in seating we obliged. A waitress came and offered us a cocktail order, again, appearing annoyed that we didn't make any decision in the three minutes of our presence. We order a drink and upon arrival are rushed to close out the check because now it is 730 pm and we can be sat.
The dining area we sat in was across from the kitchen, which was lively and open for patrons to watch. Certainly dense and with minimal ability to comfortably walk. It is clear that Street & co is trying to maximize their limited space. Upon seating at our table, a generic hasilty written happy wedding anniversary greeted us. Surprisingly our waitress didn't wish us a happy anniversary. I will say otherwise she did an outstanding job: she had great timing, table side manner, and solid knowledge of the menu. Certainly this waitress is a positive.
We ordered espresso to wake up, grilled octopus, lobster diavolo, and several desserts. The octopus admittedly was perfectly tender, mixed with appropriate acid, and with a sweetness from red onion and red pepper. The lobster diavolo, a restaurant specialty, is a rather dramatic presentation, creating high expectations with a split 1.5 lb lobster, clams, mussels, calamari served over a large quantity of linguini with a spicy tomato sauce. This dish alone could serve a party of four. While quite dramatic in presentation, and while every piece of seafood was fresh and masterfully cooked, this dish falls flat on it's face for a lack of cohesion.
Finally we move on to dessert. We ordered a scoop of ice-cream to have at the restaurant and a couple to go. The vanilla ice cream was smooth and rich but lacked balance and depth. It tasted like there was almost soap accidentally mixed into the ice-cream. Similar to the vanilla ice cream the one, all of our desserts were lack luster.
I hastily asked for the check so as to be done with this experience. Surprisingly, though, not expected, not a single dessert comped for the wedding anniversary.
Simply put the service and food at points were subpar and could be improved upon. The money spent doesn't match the quality of food. Needs improvement