Food!
Well, now it's a food post. These are half criticism and half journaling, as I couldn't bring myself to write out full-on reviews. I'm not that pretentious.
Park side delivers just what it promises: an excellent porch just outside of the Bay Harbor commons. It's a nice view, and Maine's excellent summer-time weather makes it a fun place to be, no thanks to the actual restaurant.
My family seemed to think these were the best lobster rolls they could ever get, but... well... the Park-side just wasn't that great. The lobster rolls were just lobster in a roll of plain bread. There... really wasn't anything to them, compared to other places where they seasoned or spiced or mixed or what-have-you. Still, the lobster rolls are tasty enough in their own right.
What you should never ever get there is the Crab Melt. It's crab meat covered in melted cheese on a piece of bread. The crab meat was bland, and the cheese was practically tasteless. It was like eating very moist and well-textured paper.
I can recommend the Maine shrimp, though. All the fried fish dishes had a good chance of being delicious, as they're all deep-fried and served with the excellently seasoned fries. Still, I'm a big shrimp fan, and these tiny, bite-sized morsels were just as good as I expected.
Finally, you absolutely can't pass up the lobster bisque. Honestly, it was the best thing on the menu. Everyone at our table ordered it the second time we visited the restaurant, and no one left theirs unfinished.
Wait times were sporadic, but generally not too bad. Honestly, I can easily reccomend this for the location and lobster bisque alone. Give it a go!
Right next door to the Park-side you'll find (as we did) Guiness & Porcelli's. The first thing you’ll notice about the restaurant as you step inside is its stark utilitarian décor. Tables and chairs are plain, and the walls are vividly painted but very plainly so. Generic Italian food and drink posters are plastered up about the square-ish dining room and the floors are hard rubber with small circular patterns you may have seen in your local community rec center.
This is unsettling to say the least, as the average price of full entrees is between $15 and $20. For a location boasting “Italian Cuisine”, it’s not quite up to par in its décor. Still, they’re more than willing to accommodate, and the seating is fairly quick and painless. They do a good job with what they have.
The first thing you’ll see on the menu is drinks, though only the last 3 options are of the non-alcoholic variety. They serve a nice variety of island cocktails and other spirits, and are apparently pretty good at making them. I wouldn’t know, having not partaken in any, but the “Organic Iced Chai” was as good as iced chai gets. Personally, though, I like to stick with water.
The next option on the menu is a small variety of four or five pizzas, which is all well and good for an Italian place. Unfortunately, no one decided to order any, so I can’t form an opinion on them.
Now, here comes a bit of a warning sign about pacing. By the time we get our drinks ordered, we’ve been sitting for maybe 20 minutes and are already asking to order our meals. We put in our requests for everything all at the same time. Service only got slower after that.
Still, the food begins to make up for the wait when our bread comes out. It’s warm, fresh, and neatly divided into good individual slices. The waitress came out with three small dishes of olive oil with balsamic vinaigrette for our table, as well, and this proved to be the most satisfying part of the meal to me. They didn’t skimp on our bread and oil supply, and it was plainly delicious and unpretentious.
The round of appetizers came as we finished our first round of bread and oil, and the people around me dug into their tuna, salmon, stuffed eggplant, and some sort of bizarre cheese-tomato tower. Clint and Karen apparently thoroughly enjoyed this leaning tower of pizza-toppings, but I stuck to stray bits of mushroom and stuffing from the eggplant.
Meh.
Finally we got to our “Primo” entrees. I’m glad I ordered a full portion, because even these seem a bit skimpy to me. Dad’s Lobster Penne seemed to be the only generous portion, and he tucked it away quickly and with zeal. Still, I reserve judgement on the actual flavor, as my father treats most food exactly the same.
My Gnocchi was just as I expected. The spinach was pretty good, and that’s really saying something considering how much I despise all things green in food. The gnocchi itself was delcious and slightly oily, well flavored but a bit dry. I quickly learned to avoid the chewy cheese, but I speared the pancetta joyfully.
The Cous-cous was an interesting experience, and the shrimp were very well done. The Tuscan steak was over far too quickly, and the Petite filet was just as quick. Savory, but unsatisfying.
That last sentence is a pretty good analogy to our dining experience. If only it went by as fast as the food…
The Red Sky is truly a small restaurant, a mom’n’pop kind of operation, out about a half hour the big little city of Bar Harbor. But don’t get the wrong impression. It may be tiny, but it’s no greasy spoon. Just take a look at the menu, and at the prices, and you’ll have some idea of the kind of place you’re dealing with here.
The lights are kept dim, and the windows cracked open for the summah visitahs dining pleasure. Reservations are a must. Don’t come here expecting to spend less than 30 dollars on your meal.
You can start out with your choice of fine beverages, ranging from simple fountain drinks to martinis to a signature dinner wine, $8 a bottle. As soon as you’ve decided on those, you’ll be greeted with the traditional free bread, apparently baked fresh right in the back. The bread’s a bit tough to break apart, but very satisfying. Make sure to avoid filling up too soon.
Everyone is encouraged to order their own appetizers, as they’re not really designed for group servings. I tried a little bit of everything around the table, and as such can only really recommend the sweet potato parsnip latkes with peanut sauce. It’s an eccentric combination, particularly as it comes topped with tiny sautéed Maine shrimp, but it’s a satisfying one, even to those who dislike peanut sauce. The only complaint against it is that it’s nearly impossible to spear onto your fork, so it’s a strictly scooping affair.
The Crispy polenta with mushrooms and Swiss was too overpowering for my tastes. It comes with a balsamic topping that is ladled on too generously, and it makes even approaching the dish an ordeal. Meanwhile, the simple asparagus dish panned out much better. No one can resist butter-sauce.
With time came our maine (forgive me, please) entrees. I ordered the pan-roasted breast of duck, which came on a plate covered in a raspberry sauce. The Chambord demi-glaze really sealed in the moisture and kept it juicy. The raspberry sauce made you forget that you were digging into an entrée and not desert. Honestly, it was the best duck I’ve ever had and the best meal on the trip so far. It’s too bad, like all expensive ($25!!) meals, it’s over far too quickly and leaves a decent sized hole in your belly.
I did my best to fill it with samples from around the table. The shucked lobster, a dining friendly lobster experience in the midst of lobster country, was moist and delicious, even without the melted butter. Not a bit of the meat was left out, making the $30 price tag more than bearable.
The scallops (served with an excellent basmati rice) were rich and satisfying, with very little of that “fishy” taste I’ve come to associate with purer seafood. It claims to have come in a “mild Chile molasses glaze”, but all I knew about it was that it was delicious.
The New York strip sirloin was honestly a bit chewy, and the waitress had a tendency to assume people wanted their meals medium rare. Even medium it was maybe a bit too pink, but the flavor was flawless. The texture, as I mentioned, was rougher than it should b at that kind of price ($29).
Finally came desert, and considering there was no actual desert menu there was still plenty of variety. I wound up filling myself with an amazing raspberry sorbet, seemingly made of raw raspberry, with a rich chocolate sauce to pour on. It was astoundingly sweet, which meant that I couldn’t continue after 6 or 7 bites. Thankfully, our table swallowed the rest of it up happily. I also sampled the gingerbread, which was rich and buttery, but not nearly as ginger-flavored as described. The Semi-sweet chocolate pudding was semi-sweet and too rich a chocolate for me, but the sorbet helped cleanse my palate and leave me satisfied (and slightly bloated).
Thus concludes our most expensive meal expedition yet. God was it worth it.
Okay, now this may not be a real restaurant, but it definitely deserves a write-up. I'd rate this as one of (if not) my favorite food-stops on the entire trip.
Jordan Pond is nestled into the Loop Road of Acadia National Park's forest. It's a pretty and probably somewhat old wooden building with a national park gift-shop attached, and an enormous outdoor seating area. I would have loved to sit out on the scenic wooden chairs and had our popovers, but it was sadly closed for the day due to rain and (obscene amounts of) fog.
That's just to say that the place is nice, and somewhat rustic. The menu options are pretty limited, and generally come to about the same: a drink and pop-overs.
Now, for those of you who've never had popovers, they're a delicious and fairly difficult pastry traditionally served with butter and strawberry jam. They're unique in that they're doughey balls that expand and wind up hollow and moist on the inside. I've attempted them before and generally failed pretty badly. They burn or collapse like anything, so the fact that they can serve these as their main course is kind of astounding.
That being said, the popovers were delicious. Sadly, this seemed to be the only restaurant in Maine that didn't have blueberry jam, but the strawberry was a good choice of jam. Drinks generally come with 2 popovers, which are distributed in a very efficient and timely matter seperately, to keep them from getting cold and disgusting.
The drinks were simply average, but the soups were almost as good as the popovers. I had a tomato bisque, and it was probably the best I've ever had. To give you some idea, it was so good that I was able to overlook the fact that it had actual tomato floating in it. I ate real tomatos!
I heard that the Lobster soup was basically lobster, butter, and water, but that didn't keep it from being mouth-watering. You just have to watch that you ration your lobster, so you're not left with a bowl of butter-water.
So, now it's time for me to learn to make popovers like they do, or else be forever damned to lack of deliciousness.
This was a highly regarded and very well reviewed restaurant, which basically means it's expensive as all sin.
The remainder of this review is thus just 4 words:
Don't waste your money.
Phew, now that was a satisfying vacation.
Park side delivers just what it promises: an excellent porch just outside of the Bay Harbor commons. It's a nice view, and Maine's excellent summer-time weather makes it a fun place to be, no thanks to the actual restaurant.
My family seemed to think these were the best lobster rolls they could ever get, but... well... the Park-side just wasn't that great. The lobster rolls were just lobster in a roll of plain bread. There... really wasn't anything to them, compared to other places where they seasoned or spiced or mixed or what-have-you. Still, the lobster rolls are tasty enough in their own right.
What you should never ever get there is the Crab Melt. It's crab meat covered in melted cheese on a piece of bread. The crab meat was bland, and the cheese was practically tasteless. It was like eating very moist and well-textured paper.
I can recommend the Maine shrimp, though. All the fried fish dishes had a good chance of being delicious, as they're all deep-fried and served with the excellently seasoned fries. Still, I'm a big shrimp fan, and these tiny, bite-sized morsels were just as good as I expected.
Finally, you absolutely can't pass up the lobster bisque. Honestly, it was the best thing on the menu. Everyone at our table ordered it the second time we visited the restaurant, and no one left theirs unfinished.
Wait times were sporadic, but generally not too bad. Honestly, I can easily reccomend this for the location and lobster bisque alone. Give it a go!
Right next door to the Park-side you'll find (as we did) Guiness & Porcelli's. The first thing you’ll notice about the restaurant as you step inside is its stark utilitarian décor. Tables and chairs are plain, and the walls are vividly painted but very plainly so. Generic Italian food and drink posters are plastered up about the square-ish dining room and the floors are hard rubber with small circular patterns you may have seen in your local community rec center.
This is unsettling to say the least, as the average price of full entrees is between $15 and $20. For a location boasting “Italian Cuisine”, it’s not quite up to par in its décor. Still, they’re more than willing to accommodate, and the seating is fairly quick and painless. They do a good job with what they have.
The first thing you’ll see on the menu is drinks, though only the last 3 options are of the non-alcoholic variety. They serve a nice variety of island cocktails and other spirits, and are apparently pretty good at making them. I wouldn’t know, having not partaken in any, but the “Organic Iced Chai” was as good as iced chai gets. Personally, though, I like to stick with water.
The next option on the menu is a small variety of four or five pizzas, which is all well and good for an Italian place. Unfortunately, no one decided to order any, so I can’t form an opinion on them.
Now, here comes a bit of a warning sign about pacing. By the time we get our drinks ordered, we’ve been sitting for maybe 20 minutes and are already asking to order our meals. We put in our requests for everything all at the same time. Service only got slower after that.
Still, the food begins to make up for the wait when our bread comes out. It’s warm, fresh, and neatly divided into good individual slices. The waitress came out with three small dishes of olive oil with balsamic vinaigrette for our table, as well, and this proved to be the most satisfying part of the meal to me. They didn’t skimp on our bread and oil supply, and it was plainly delicious and unpretentious.
The round of appetizers came as we finished our first round of bread and oil, and the people around me dug into their tuna, salmon, stuffed eggplant, and some sort of bizarre cheese-tomato tower. Clint and Karen apparently thoroughly enjoyed this leaning tower of pizza-toppings, but I stuck to stray bits of mushroom and stuffing from the eggplant.
Meh.
Finally we got to our “Primo” entrees. I’m glad I ordered a full portion, because even these seem a bit skimpy to me. Dad’s Lobster Penne seemed to be the only generous portion, and he tucked it away quickly and with zeal. Still, I reserve judgement on the actual flavor, as my father treats most food exactly the same.
My Gnocchi was just as I expected. The spinach was pretty good, and that’s really saying something considering how much I despise all things green in food. The gnocchi itself was delcious and slightly oily, well flavored but a bit dry. I quickly learned to avoid the chewy cheese, but I speared the pancetta joyfully.
The Cous-cous was an interesting experience, and the shrimp were very well done. The Tuscan steak was over far too quickly, and the Petite filet was just as quick. Savory, but unsatisfying.
That last sentence is a pretty good analogy to our dining experience. If only it went by as fast as the food…
The Red Sky is truly a small restaurant, a mom’n’pop kind of operation, out about a half hour the big little city of Bar Harbor. But don’t get the wrong impression. It may be tiny, but it’s no greasy spoon. Just take a look at the menu, and at the prices, and you’ll have some idea of the kind of place you’re dealing with here.
The lights are kept dim, and the windows cracked open for the summah visitahs dining pleasure. Reservations are a must. Don’t come here expecting to spend less than 30 dollars on your meal.
You can start out with your choice of fine beverages, ranging from simple fountain drinks to martinis to a signature dinner wine, $8 a bottle. As soon as you’ve decided on those, you’ll be greeted with the traditional free bread, apparently baked fresh right in the back. The bread’s a bit tough to break apart, but very satisfying. Make sure to avoid filling up too soon.
Everyone is encouraged to order their own appetizers, as they’re not really designed for group servings. I tried a little bit of everything around the table, and as such can only really recommend the sweet potato parsnip latkes with peanut sauce. It’s an eccentric combination, particularly as it comes topped with tiny sautéed Maine shrimp, but it’s a satisfying one, even to those who dislike peanut sauce. The only complaint against it is that it’s nearly impossible to spear onto your fork, so it’s a strictly scooping affair.
The Crispy polenta with mushrooms and Swiss was too overpowering for my tastes. It comes with a balsamic topping that is ladled on too generously, and it makes even approaching the dish an ordeal. Meanwhile, the simple asparagus dish panned out much better. No one can resist butter-sauce.
With time came our maine (forgive me, please) entrees. I ordered the pan-roasted breast of duck, which came on a plate covered in a raspberry sauce. The Chambord demi-glaze really sealed in the moisture and kept it juicy. The raspberry sauce made you forget that you were digging into an entrée and not desert. Honestly, it was the best duck I’ve ever had and the best meal on the trip so far. It’s too bad, like all expensive ($25!!) meals, it’s over far too quickly and leaves a decent sized hole in your belly.
I did my best to fill it with samples from around the table. The shucked lobster, a dining friendly lobster experience in the midst of lobster country, was moist and delicious, even without the melted butter. Not a bit of the meat was left out, making the $30 price tag more than bearable.
The scallops (served with an excellent basmati rice) were rich and satisfying, with very little of that “fishy” taste I’ve come to associate with purer seafood. It claims to have come in a “mild Chile molasses glaze”, but all I knew about it was that it was delicious.
The New York strip sirloin was honestly a bit chewy, and the waitress had a tendency to assume people wanted their meals medium rare. Even medium it was maybe a bit too pink, but the flavor was flawless. The texture, as I mentioned, was rougher than it should b at that kind of price ($29).
Finally came desert, and considering there was no actual desert menu there was still plenty of variety. I wound up filling myself with an amazing raspberry sorbet, seemingly made of raw raspberry, with a rich chocolate sauce to pour on. It was astoundingly sweet, which meant that I couldn’t continue after 6 or 7 bites. Thankfully, our table swallowed the rest of it up happily. I also sampled the gingerbread, which was rich and buttery, but not nearly as ginger-flavored as described. The Semi-sweet chocolate pudding was semi-sweet and too rich a chocolate for me, but the sorbet helped cleanse my palate and leave me satisfied (and slightly bloated).
Thus concludes our most expensive meal expedition yet. God was it worth it.
Okay, now this may not be a real restaurant, but it definitely deserves a write-up. I'd rate this as one of (if not) my favorite food-stops on the entire trip.
Jordan Pond is nestled into the Loop Road of Acadia National Park's forest. It's a pretty and probably somewhat old wooden building with a national park gift-shop attached, and an enormous outdoor seating area. I would have loved to sit out on the scenic wooden chairs and had our popovers, but it was sadly closed for the day due to rain and (obscene amounts of) fog.
That's just to say that the place is nice, and somewhat rustic. The menu options are pretty limited, and generally come to about the same: a drink and pop-overs.
Now, for those of you who've never had popovers, they're a delicious and fairly difficult pastry traditionally served with butter and strawberry jam. They're unique in that they're doughey balls that expand and wind up hollow and moist on the inside. I've attempted them before and generally failed pretty badly. They burn or collapse like anything, so the fact that they can serve these as their main course is kind of astounding.
That being said, the popovers were delicious. Sadly, this seemed to be the only restaurant in Maine that didn't have blueberry jam, but the strawberry was a good choice of jam. Drinks generally come with 2 popovers, which are distributed in a very efficient and timely matter seperately, to keep them from getting cold and disgusting.
The drinks were simply average, but the soups were almost as good as the popovers. I had a tomato bisque, and it was probably the best I've ever had. To give you some idea, it was so good that I was able to overlook the fact that it had actual tomato floating in it. I ate real tomatos!
I heard that the Lobster soup was basically lobster, butter, and water, but that didn't keep it from being mouth-watering. You just have to watch that you ration your lobster, so you're not left with a bowl of butter-water.
So, now it's time for me to learn to make popovers like they do, or else be forever damned to lack of deliciousness.
This was a highly regarded and very well reviewed restaurant, which basically means it's expensive as all sin.
The remainder of this review is thus just 4 words:
Don't waste your money.
Phew, now that was a satisfying vacation.