Savor Scout › Cities › Maine › Portland, ME
Where to eat in Portland, ME
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A few places to eat in Portland
- St. Vincent De Paul Soup Kitchen Soup · 0.1 miles
307 Congress St, Portland - Banh Appetit Vietnamese · 0.1 miles
171 Cumberland Ave, Portland - Kuno Asian · 0.1 miles
166 Cumberland Ave, Portland - Union Bagel Company Bagel Shop · 0.2 miles
147 Cumberland Ave, Portland - Lb Kitchen · 0.2 miles
255 Congress St, Portland
The closest few by distance from central Portland, not a ranking — local places listed ahead of chains. Listings from Overture Maps open data (September 2026); hours and openings change, so check before you go. Want one picked for what you're craving instead? Ask Savor Scout in Portland.
The food scene in Portland
Open listings put 428 places to eat within 2 miles of central Portland, 215 within a ten-minute walk (half a mile). The most common: seafood (36), American (23) and pizza (21). 7 are fast-food counters; the rest are sit-down restaurants, cafés, bakeries and takeaway spots.
What stands out in Portland is gastropub, Middle Eastern and seafood — types that are listed here at 4 to 6 times the national rate.
By type of food — tap one for what to order and how to spot a good one:
Seafood 36 Coffee 25 American 23 Pizza 21 Mexican 20 Bakery 19 Italian 15 Thai 14 Sandwiches 12 Gastropub 12
The food in Portland
Portland does not have infinite options, and that brings its own problem: you have been to most of them, and picking again is somehow still hard.
Savor Scout picks one restaurant in Portland and tells you why it picked it. Say what you're craving and it reads menus and reviews for that specific dish, rather than sorting places by overall star rating. Free, runs in the browser, and one search needs no account.
Eating out in Portland
Portland has a population of about 66,318. Somewhere this size rewards knowing which places are actually worth the trip. Savor Scout searches up to 35 miles around Portland, so places just outside the city are still on the table when they are worth the drive.
Portland has more places to eat than most of the country
Portland sits in Cumberland County, where the Census counts 411 full-service restaurants, 281 limited-service places, 142 cafés and snack bars and 60 bars — 894 places to eat or drink in all. Portland makes up about 22% of the county's population.
At 29.5 food businesses per 10,000 residents against a national median of 19.4, this is one of the better-supplied places in the country. Choice is not the constraint here; narrowing it down is. Unusually, sit-down restaurants outnumber counter-service ones. Nationally it runs close to even and most places tilt the other way, so this is a town that eats at tables.
County-level counts from the US Census (2022) — how we got these numbers.
What are you craving in Portland?
- tacos in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- pizza in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- sushi in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- burgers in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- ramen in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- wings in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- chinese food in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- italian food in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- thai food in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- mexican food in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- barbecue in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- seafood in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- brunch in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- indian food in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- sandwiches in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
- noodles in Portland — what separates a good one from an average one
Near Portland
- Concord, NH — about 71 miles away
- Haverhill, MA — about 74 miles away
- Manchester, NH — about 75 miles away
- Methuen, MA — about 80 miles away
- Lawrence, MA — about 80 miles away
- Beverly, MA — about 82 miles away
Campuses in and near Portland
Each has its own page: what is within walking distance and a few places to start with.
- University of Southern Maine
- Southern Maine Community College
- University of New England
- Unity Environmental University
How this differs from Google Maps and Yelp
Maps and Yelp are directories: they rank everything nearby and leave the deciding to you. Savor Scout makes the call and shows its reasoning — the match score, what it beat, and the evidence behind the pick. The underlying place data comes from the same public sources, so the difference is the selection, not the data.
Guides
- What to eat when… — 30 guides by situation, from a first date to a hangover to a group of twelve.
- Food guides — what separates a good taco, ramen or pizza from an average one.
- Eating out with a restriction — allergies, halal, kosher, vegan and more.
- Near a campus? — food around 637 US universities.