Old Port Sea Grill & Raw Bar — Restaurant in Portland

First time to Portland and we were looking for a nice somewhat upper scale place for a nice dinner. We heard Dimillos (spelling?) was a tourist trap and extremely overpriced so we tried here which is right down the street. My gf and I are from Boston and we go out to eat a lot. With that said, I would put the dinner I had here up there with the best I've had. We started with the mussels. Those were the best I've had. So fresh and the garlic broth they were in was phenomenal. We then had shrimp cocktail and that was also the best I've had. Extremely fresh, cooked and chilled perfectly with excellent cocktail sauce. Then we had our meals. My gf got the NY Strip. Cooked perfectly, tasted great and was paired with string fries. I had the lobster pasta. I'd have to say it was one of the top 3 seafood pasta dishes I've ever had. They give you the entire amount of a lobster worth of meat. Full tail, both claws, and knuckle meat. Again, the freshest seafood on the planet. The lobster sherry sauce it was in was perfect and the pasta was great too. All in all, it truly was one of the best meals I've ever had. Only issue - Beware of using their online (on their own website) menu. It's not entirely accurate and the waitress said its a "sample". I'm not sure what that means because it didn't line up with what they had on the menu you're given at the restaurant and I'm not sure why a sample menu would be a good idea if you're going to get people excited with what's online and then not have it when they get there. But either way, I would recommend this restaurant to anyone and would put it as my top choice from the 5-6 dinners we had while visiting. Other important aspects that people might wonder about...staff was professional and very friendly and the restaurant itself was super clean, very elegant, and had a great vibe. Awesome fish tank too! Great place, absolutely worth your time and money! Highly...

Old Port was one of the recommendations from a local resident when asked about good places to get lobster in town. I'm a long-haul driver and this is only my 2nd time to Maine in my 13 year career. So, I wanted LOBSTER!

Come early. I arrived about 7pm and they were still a bit busy. It took the hostess a few minutes to seat me. Once seated, it took my server about 7-10 minutes to greet me. Again, they were busy; so, I understood. Once the service started, everything was smooth sailing.

I started off with the clam chowder. You could say it was heaven in a bowl, but that might not do it enough justice.

If you're coming here with the idea of getting a full lobster that you crack yourself, you'll need to order the lobster dinner. It will come with clams.

I made the mistake of ordering the chilled lobster based on my own misunderstanding. I would recommend putting some sort of note on the menus to denote this to avoid further misunderstandings. In this case, my "mistake" turned out quite nicely. The lobster was perfect even if the portion seemed small. Still, I got what I came for even if it wasn't in the form I was mentally picturing.

Upon questioning, Justin (the Gen Manager) explained that it's the same amount of meat from a 1.25 lb lobster that's served. Essentially, you get all that lobster goodness with none of the work it takes to get it.

The evening was finished off with their Ricotta Crostini. One might not picture a bread dish as a desert but, surprisingly, this one works as such. The apple slices paired nicely with the drizzled honey which balanced elegantly with the ricotta cheese.

Over all, I enjoyed my visit and will consider coming back if ever I find myself in Portland again. The staff was awesome and the setting...

Last night, after driving 10 hours from Ontario, my friend and I arrived at Hilton Garden Inn. We arranged to meet with two of my sons who happened to be in Portland last evening. We wanted to eat dinner somewhere near the hotel. We saw that the Old Port Sea Grill, 93 Commercial St. was not crowded. In fact, the dining room was empty. But when we went in, the hostess directed us up the stairs to the bar area. We went there and perched on high stools at a small table just beside the stairs and across from the bar. Service was slow but we finally did get menus and a very small bowl of little pieces of bread - no butter. Then people began arriving just behind us. Each newcomer was greeted by those already at the bar with VERY LOUD whoops of joy, great hugging, slapping on the back, jostling around, VERY LOUD LAUGHTER, etc. Finally, there were probably 25 people packed into the tiny area beside us at the bar. I'm sure the fire Marshall would have closed the restaurant if he had arrived on the scene. Our wait person had a very difficult time getting to our table. She never did clear away the bread bowl and small plates. It was difficult to swallow food in such an atmosphere and more or less hopeless trying to have a conversation. We left the better part of our meal on the table. I am very sad that I didn't have a chance to talk with my sons. I don't see them often and we had arranged this little rendezvous especially so we could have a nice, quiet meal together and catch up on news. When I paid the bill, $161.64, a felt even more unhappiness. If I'm going to pay $7 for a scoop of mashed potatoes and $35 for a small piece of swordfish, I expect at least a pleasant atmosphere and good service. Last night, I...