1. Ricetta’S Brick Oven Pizzeria
City: South Portland, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 775-7400
Address: 29 Western Avenue
Description: Ricetta’s is consistently the top vote getter in “best pizza” contests around town. This brick-oven pizzeria is in a little strip mall just off Interstate 295. A customer favorite is the Grecian, a pizza layered with homemade tomato sauce, spinach, homemade Italian sausage, feta, and mozzarella. Or try the Bolto, with roasted chicken, pesto sauce, broccoli, and fontina cheese. Ricetta’s also serves calzones and traditional Italian dishes such as chicken parmigiana, lasagna, pasta Bolognese, and shrimp scampi. Try the light and delicious linguini scipollo—chicken, prosciutto, and tomato spiced with crushed red pepper and served in a lemon cream sauce. Ricetta’s is open Sunday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday to 11 p.m.
2. One Fifty Ate Bakeshop
City: South Portland, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 799-8998
Address: 158 Benjamin Pickett Street
Description: One Fifty Ate is a favorite neighborhood bakery and cafe across the Casco Bay Bridge. Their English muffins, scones, and luscious pastries are all made by hand, but locals especially love their outstandingly good bagels.
3. Joe’S Boathouse
City: South Portland, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 741-2780
Address: Spring Point Marina
Description: The many masts and sparkling waters of Spring Point Marina are out every window at this South Portland favorite. And a patio gives you an even better look out onto Casco Bay. Some say the views here are among the best of any Greater Portland restaurant, and the fare holds its own. Lunch and dinner are popular with the boating crowd, and people make the drive over from Portland to sit at one of the 45 seats here and enjoy them. The Sunday brunch, though, is the real treat, with Port Harbor pancakes, Peaks Island French toast, and corned beef hash and eggs.
4. Ricetta’S Brick Oven Pizzeria
City: South Portland, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 775-7400
Address: 29 Western Ave.
Description: If you can’t get a table at Ricetta’s, you can always take out. This beloved pizzeria in a South Portland strip mall has become so popular that it’s often difficult to even get in the door, and people become resigned to getting their pies to go. Diners consistently vote the thin-crust, gourmet pizzas here the best in the Portland area, and they are eminently customizable. A nice way to experiment is to visit during the lunchtime buffet, so you can sample several varieties. Various other entrees—from pasta to soups to calzone—are on the menu, but you likely won’t even notice. Ricetta’s has expanded into Falmouth and now Kennebunk, and its satellite restaurants are hard to get into, too.