The Dogfish Bar and Grille

Location: 128 Free Street, Portland Maine 04101


Price: $$

I gotta tell ya, I wasn't a fan.


I have heard some pretty great things about "dogfish", as the locals like to call it. Because of this my hopes for this little whole in the wall bar and grille were very high. I was very let down.


The ambiance of the restaurant was no where near what I enjoy. I like  brightly lite places where I can read the menu without squinting and leaning into the light. I like to be able to sit at a table and see the menu without my boyfriend "blocking my light." Dogfish is very very dark. It was hard for me to order because it was to dark to see the menu. I won't even get started on taking pictures of the food that we ordered.
Secondly, the chairs, or stools rather, were very uncomfortable. I am all about bar stools and sitting up high, but it's a little different when you don't have any place to put your feet. I was wearing a skirt and I could not get into a comfortable position without being "unlady like."I will say, however, the service was pretty good.  We walked into dogfish on a rainy Tuesday around 4:45PM. They were not busy what-so-ever, so the bar tender served us. He was literally right on top of things. Drink refills, napkins, condiments, you name it, we never had to ask. He was great. Its ashame that the place it self just wasn't.

We started with drinks. We both decided that we wanted beers. I ordered the Allagash white (it was my second one of the day and just didn't taste as good as the first. That's not the restaurants fault though. It's mine for ordering the same beer twice.) The boyfriend, who can be open minded sometimes (especially about beer) ordered the Gritty's Seasonal; vacationland summer ale.  He was not a fan. At all. In fact, neither one of us have EVER had a beer from Gritty's that was good. Anyway, it was a very bitter beer with a terrible after taste. If you are going to go with a summer seasonal, go with Sam's summer ale, it shipyard summer ale. You can't go wrong. Anyway, we both ordered beers that we didn't like, but drank them anyway because well, that's just the kind of people we are.

 It could have been worse I guess. We could have both had "undrinkable" beers. Luckily that was not the case.

For the first time since we have been together (I think) we skipped the appetizer! This is amazing! (actually we had our appetizers at Brian Boru's just prior to our dogfish visit; see prior post)

I chose the Tuscan Chicken Pita for my entree, which included "House made roasted chicken salad, oven dried tomatoes, greens, red onions and Parmesan cheese in a grilled pita." It was....eh.  I haven't had pita bread in years, which is actually why I chose this particular entree. Plus, I have never had anything that was labeled "Tuscan" that tasted bad, so I figured I would give it a go. Honestly, despite my disappointment, it didn't have terrible taste. It tasted just how Tuscan should taste.However, it was very very small and certainly wasn't worth the $9.99 that I was charged. Also, the chicken was EXTREMELY dry and the seasoning didn't help matters much. It came with a side of potato salad. BLECK! (new word) The potato salad was AWFUL! I should know better by now that to order potato salad at a restaurant, but I figured after the amazing potato salad that I had at Buck's Naked BBQ I figured I would give it a go. MISTAKE (I am good at making those). It was very watery with very little taste. It had some sort of seasoning on it that did nothing for it. Basically, don't ever get potato salad at a restaurant. Although, personally, I wouldn't recommend the Tuscan Pita either.

It also came with a pickle. BUT it was one of those disgusting pickles that are only half pickled and still part cucumber. you know what I mean? I am sure you have gaged on one at one point in your life thinking you were biting into a ripe juicy pickle.

(I know you can't really see what is in the sandwich, I promise it is dry chicken...again, the lighting).

The boyfriend went with the basic burger. The basic burger is just that.... basic. The description on the menu is as follows; "8 oz. of Caldwell Farms all natural ground beef grilled to order. Served with lettuce, vine-ripened tomatoes, red onion on a wheat bulkie roll." Sounds pretty good eh? nope, not to my boyfriend. He is a little fussy, to put it nicely, and doesn't like lettuce, tomatoes or onions. This made the burger plain. So, he asked if he could add bacon. Luckily, he could.

The basic burger came with basic cheese, and basic chips, and one of those disgusting pickles.... gross. It wasn't terrible. But, he ordered the burger medium rare, like he always does. It wasn't medium at all... just rare. Rare enough that I wouldn't take a bite once he got to the middle of the burger. He wasn't to happy, but he ate it anyway.

Because we didn't get an appetizer I decided that I wanted some dessert, because god forbid we save ANY money. Plus, the dessert board was hanging on the wall in front of me and if i squinted at turned the flash light on my phone on, I could see it through the darkness.  Moving on... I ordered a piece of peanut butter pie.

IT WAS OUTSTANDINGLY AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!



BUT
it was tiny!

We shared it... so, we pretty much each got a bite.

But let me tell you, that one bite was amazing. It was very very rich and sweet. It had peanut butter filling with a chocolate graham cracker crust. On top of the pie was some fudge filling and chunks of peanut butter cups. It was SO GOOD!

The ONLY reason I would go back to Dogfish would be for a piece of the peanut butter pie. I really wasn't impressed with the food at all. And like I said, the like BRIGHT places, the dogfish bar and grille is not that.