New restaurants in Portland, Maine: openings and dining choices

How this list works, and where it breaks

Nobody publishes a reliable, current opening-date field for restaurants. What is measurable is a restaurant's review footprint: how many people have rated it. A room that has been feeding the Old Port since 2011 has thousands of reviews. A room that opened eighteen months ago has a couple of hundred, no matter how good it is.

So this list filters the 61 Portland-area restaurants in our directory down to the ones rated 4.5 or better with fewer than 500 reviews (the low-footprint tail, which is where new arrivals live) and then ranks inside that pool by rating weighted against review volume, so a 4.8 that 400 people have tested outranks a 4.8 that 90 people have tested.

Here is the honest part. That filter cannot tell a new restaurant from a small one. A twenty-eight-seat room that has been quietly excellent for a decade produces the same footprint as a hot opening. Two entries below are firmly in the second category, and both are flagged. Use the list as a map of Portland's low-profile, high-scoring rooms (most of which are recent, some of which are simply small) rather than as a dated opening calendar. If you want the city's established heavyweights instead, that is a different list entirely.

The ten highest-scoring low-profile restaurants in Portland

1. Paella Seafood

Out on upper Forest Avenue, well away from anything a visitor stumbles into, cooking the dish it is named for. Rice, saffron, shellfish, a room with no pretensions and a rating almost nothing else in the city matches at that review volume. If you have a car, this is the strongest argument on the list for using it.

4.8 · 491 reviews · 865 Forest Ave · paellaseafood.com

2. CBG

The initials stand for cold beer, cocktails and comfort food, which is the entire concept and is delivered without irony. It sits on the Arts District stretch of Congress Street where the theaters are, which makes it one of the few genuinely good pre-show options downtown.

4.7 · 487 reviews · 617 Congress St · cbgportland.com

3. Schulte & Herr

German, tiny, and holding the highest rating of any restaurant in the city at this review count. Schnitzel, spaetzle, potato pancakes, a room that seats a few dozen. Not new (see the flag below) but very much the kind of place this method is good at finding.

4.9 · 336 reviews · 349 Cumberland Ave · schulteundherr.wordpress.com

4. Leeward

Pasta made in-house, a bar you can eat a full meal at, and a Free Street address that puts it two minutes from the Old Port without the Old Port's crowd. This is the room on the list most likely to be booked out on a Friday, which is the clearest sign it will not stay low-profile.

4.8 · 377 reviews · 85 Free St · leewardmaine.com

5. Papi

Puerto Rican food and drink on Exchange Street, founded by LyAnna Sanabria, whose stated project is bringing both Puerto Rican hospitality and equity to the bar side of the business. It is the most distinct thing on a street otherwise dense with lobster rolls, and its rating holds up against far bigger rooms on the same block.

4.7 · 416 reviews · 18 Exchange St · papiportland.com

6. Sur Lie

Small plates and a wine list that does most of the talking, on the Free Street corridor beside the museum. Not new (it has been a fixture of that block for years) but it stays under 500 reviews because it is small and because people who go tend to go quietly.

4.6 · 444 reviews · 11 Free St · sur-lie.com

7. The Continental

A neighborhood pub on Brighton Avenue doing European bar food (fish and chips, scotch eggs, clams with chorizo) with a drinks list far longer than the room warrants. It takes walk-ins, which on this list is close to a superpower.

4.8 · 316 reviews · 170 Brighton Ave · thecontinentalportland.com

8. Tipo

Italian-leaning plates, pizza and pasta on Ocean Avenue at the top of Back Cove, in a neighborhood most visitors never reach. The menu changes constantly, which is the reason to go and the reason not to arrive with a specific dish in mind.

4.5 · 449 reviews · 182 Ocean Ave · tiporestaurant.com

9. Salt Yard Cafe & Bar

An all-day room on Commercial Street that starts as a coffee-and-pastry counter and turns into a bar with entrees by evening. It is large by Portland standards, which is why it can usually seat you at an hour when nothing else on the waterfront can.

4.6 · 379 reviews · 285 Commercial St · saltyardrestaurantandbar.com

10. Jing Yan Tavern

Bottom of Congress Street on the East End, describing itself as a neighborhood tavern and functioning as one: cocktails, comfort food, regulars. The 4.8 is the third-highest rating on this list and it has been earned in a part of town with no passing tourist trade to inflate it.

4.8 · 294 reviews · 90 Congress St · jingyanrestaurant.com

The six smallest review footprints in the city

Below 300 reviews the sample is too small to weight, so these are simply listed. Collectively they are the likeliest group here to contain a genuinely recent opening.

Little Pig's 5.0 is the only perfect rating among Portland restaurants in the directory. Treat that with the skepticism 209 reviews deserves. It is a real score, but it is one bad month away from being a 4.8, and the same is not true of a place with five thousand ratings.

Where new restaurants actually open in Portland

The openings are not evenly distributed, and knowing the pattern is more durable than any list. Four corridors do most of the work.

• Upper Congress Street, from the Arts District out past Longfellow Square toward Libbytown. Cheaper rent than the Old Port, foot traffic from the theaters and the hospital. Little Pig, Wayside Tavern, CBG and REGARDS are all on this one street.
• Washington Avenue and the East End, the corridor that produced the last decade's most-copied Portland restaurants and still turns over fastest.
• Woodfords Corner and Deering, where neighborhood bistros open for people who live in Portland rather than for people visiting it. The Knotted Apron is the clearest example.
• Knightville and Cottage Road in South Portland, across the bridge, where the rent math is easier again. Bistro Leluco sits here, and it is a fifteen-minute drive from the Old Port.

The Old Port itself opens fewer new restaurants than its reputation suggests. Rents are the highest in the state and the tenants that survive tend to be the ones already there, which is precisely why the interesting new rooms are a ten-minute walk uphill.

How to check what has opened since this page was updated

Ratings and review counts on this page are a snapshot, and a restaurant that opened last month will not be in any directory yet. Three checks that keep working:

• Sort a map search of Portland restaurants by review count ascending rather than by rating. The bottom of that list is the newest end of the city.
• Look at whether a restaurant's own site has a reservations link that only opens a few weeks out. New rooms run short booking windows; established ones run long ones.
• Check the lunch menu. New Portland restaurants often open dinner-only for the first season and add daytime service once the kitchen is settled, so a dinner-only room with a good rating is usually young.

Practical notes

Portland's constraint is seats, not quality. Most of the rooms on this page are small, and in July and August the good ones are committed by mid-afternoon. Keep a walk-in plan. The bar counter at a place like Leeward or The Continental is a genuine option, not a consolation.

The late-afternoon window is the underrated move. Between four and six the kitchens are open, the rooms are half empty, and several of them run a bar menu at that hour; our happy hour guide covers which ones. Midday is easier still, and the lunch options include several rooms that are effectively unbookable at dinner. Parking on Congress Street is metered and enforced; the Old Port garages are the sane choice if you are eating downtown.

Everything here is walkable from a peninsula hotel except Paella Seafood, Tipo and Bistro Leluco. Our full Maine restaurant directory covers the rest of the state.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best new restaurant in Portland, Maine?

By rating weighted against review volume, Paella Seafood on upper Forest Avenue leads the low-footprint pool at 4.8 from 491 reviews, followed by CBG on Congress Street at 4.7 from 487. Both are outside the Old Port, which is typical. Portland's newer rooms open where the rent is lower.

How can you tell if a Portland restaurant is actually new?

Review count is the most reliable public signal. Under roughly 300 Google reviews, a Portland restaurant is either very new or very small, and checking whether it serves lunch usually separates the two. New kitchens tend to open dinner-only for their first season.

Do you need reservations at new restaurants in Portland?

For dinner in summer, yes, at anything with a rating above 4.6 and a room under sixty seats. Booking windows at newer restaurants are usually short, so check a few weeks out rather than months. Bar seats are frequently held for walk-ins.

Where do new restaurants open in Portland?

Upper Congress Street, Washington Avenue and the East End, Woodfords Corner, and the Knightville and Cottage Road strips across the bridge in South Portland. The Old Port turns over far less than visitors expect because its rents are the highest in Maine.