Cinque Terre - Portland, Maine

I remember when Cinque Terre opened about 10 years ago. As the renovation of an old building on Wharf Street that was to house Cinque Terre was underway, the City was abuzz with talk of an exclusive restaurant opening. I worked up the street and each day leading up to the opening of the great unknown restaurant we would walk down to check the progress...waiting for the sign to be hung that would tell us more about what restaurant would grace the streets of Portland.

When they first opened I recall the owner telling me they would not publish their number in the phonebook or directory assistance. They wanted patrons to feel exclusive. So you either had to know someone who had been and had picked up a card with the guarded phone number or you had to go in person to make your reservation, which is what I did. Reservations were hard to come by then, booking a month or more out for a Saturday night.

Cinque Terre has stood the test of time. They now have a published number, reservations can be booked on OpenTable.com, and unlike so many of the more popular Portland eateries, you can show up at 9pm on a Saturday night and get a table for two (there was an hour wait at Fore Street).

I hadn't been back to Cinque Terre for years. Our past visits left us feeling that while the food, particularly the hand made pasta, was very good, the value just was not there. It was, and still is, expensive relative to other restaurants of similar or better quality.

Our server started us with a basket of excellent focaccia bread and breadsticks. Olive oil - decent but not excellent quality - was on the table and meant to accompany the moist and wonderfully salty bread. Not an expert on Italian wines, we asked our server for recommendations by the glass - a medium bodied red for my husband; a full bodied white for me. He nailed our tastes and brought me the 2005 Terlaner Classico for $8/glass and my husband the 2001 Barbaresco, Tufo Blu for $11/glass. The wines were highlights of the dining experience and paired well with our food selections. Wine glasses specific to the type of wine served would have enhanced the taste of each; both our red and white wines were in the same type of inexpensive wine glass.

We started with the Pomodoro - Heirloom tomatoes topped with fresh basil and chopped green tomatoes drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and aged balsamic. While I did not taste the balsamic vinegar, the tomatoes tasted fresh from the garden. A simple, high quality dish.

Next my husband had the Hand cut fettuccine with organic zucchini, Umbrian black truffle and Parmigiana Reggiano. This dish, while good, was not worth the $18 charge. The zucchini was the best I've had - cooked perfectly. But where were the truffles? We certainly couldn't taste or see them. There were a few specks of black which I suspect were truffles (though my husband believes they were peppercorns).

My husband's second course arrived a full 5 minutes before mine. When my second course finally arrived, it was divine. Risotto with mushroom, brown butter and truffle oil. Unlike the fettuccine, the taste of truffle permeated the dish. The well aged Parmigiana greatly enhanced the dish. The pasta was a a bit more al dante than I prefer, but the flavors of the dish were so exquisite that we finished every morsel nonetheless. For only $12, this made my husband's fettuccine seem even more overpriced.

I could have stopped there, but we had ordered entrees so I pressed on. My Branzino - basil crusted sea bass fillet with tomato, spicy eggplant and pine nuts was flavorful. The marinated and seared tuna, served with turnips, fennel, mint, basil vinaigrette and olive tapenade was even better. The tuna was sushi-grade Ahi - hard to come by in Portland where Yellowfin is the norm. Entree portions were well-sized, leaving us just enough room to share a dessert.

After our rich meal, and given the warm evening, we chose the lightest dessert on the menu: brioche with ricotta infused with lemon, topped with sliced strawberries and chopped mango. It was the perfect end to the meal, not overly sweet or filling.

A note about the service. While the wine recommendations from our server were excellent, the timing between courses was inconsistent. We had a long wait between the first and second course and there was almost no spacing between the second and third courses. Then, another long wait for the dessert.

Out meal before tax and tip was $141. We typically spend the same at 555 where the food is more creative, the atmosphere more intimate and the service extraordinary. We are usually at the $100 price point at both Street & Company and Fore Street - where the quality and creativity is about the same - and priced accordingly.

Bottom line, there are better choices in Portland.