Dogfish Cafe

Good Northeast beers and the Dogfish burger was probably one of the top 3 burgers I've ever had. It was slightly on the rare side of medium but I kind of anticipated that.
Nov 1st, 2013

Jun 24th, 2013

Jun 18th, 2013

My partner and I have been spending the last two months exploring restaurants in Portland Maine together. He is a very accomplished cook and has dined out in the Portland restaurant scene for 5 plus years. I teach others wellness based culinary arts and have said for years that you really have to try hard to find a bad meal in Portland. We had both had good previous experiences at the Dogfish and decided on a last minute decision to head there for an early dinner. At 5:30pm the restaurant was empty except for a young man who appeared to be enjoying a drink and meal at the bar. We were greeted and invited to pick our own table. The concern for me started when the server propped a big chalk board on our little table and said these are the specials for tonight and then walked away to appear 5 minutes later with ice cold glasses of water and a rather shy request for a drink order. My partner wanted me to try a drink he noticed on their drink menu, saying " if it was made right I would love the Moscow Mule." He is a traditional drink purest and neither his or my drink was made with anything other than a pedestrian skill. Not a good start to a friday evening out for dinner. We then took the servers suggestion of trying the calamari. It was rather disappointing execution of a great idea. We then both decided to order the specials for dinner I ordered the Tuna Special which according to the board on my table said it was pan seared and came with jasmine rice. Hopeful, because I had been craving Tuna for a while and had to date very good food at the Dogfish. My partner ordered the Ribeye special and we drank our drinks and sampled the bread and olive oil dipping, along with our calamari. Already starting to be concerned that we had chosen the wrong restaurant for dinner. When the entrees arrived, we had our fears confirmed. Presentation was diner quality at best and the quality of ingredients was obvious from the first view. My Tuna tasted like it had been warmed in a microwave and the rice was some kind of Uncle Ben's herbed version. My partners Rib eye was less than a 1/4 think and tasted much like shoe leather. Needless to say, the $108 for dinner would have been better spent at one of the other great restaurants in Portland. We ended up at Street and Co. for dessert to remove the bad experience from our palates.
Oct 5th, 2013

My boyfriend and I went there on a Saturday afternoon, we had heard good things and wanted to try it out. We sat at the bar and ordered some drinks before we received our meal. The service wasn't great but the drinks were okay. I ordered the salmon salad and went home and got horribly horribly ill... I was puking all night and for the next three days. I am 99.9% positive I received food poisoning. Another strange thing is that at one point while we were there the cook had come out and was looking over at me specifically and was whispering to the bar tender (our server). At the time I thought it was odd but I now wonder if he was aware it was a bad (old) piece of fish and wanted to see if I actually had consumed it, or possibly complained. None the less I will never go there again and am making sure to spread the word!!
Apr 12th, 2013