It might seem a bit odd to eat sushi while in Maine - luckily, we did and we were not disappointed! For my 40th birthday this year, a celebratory road trip up to Bar Harbor and then crossing the Canadian border to Quebec City and Montreal was planned. Or to be specific - I did the planning and Paul did the driving. On our way to Bar Harbor ( a 4 hour drive from Boston), we stopped off at Portland, Maine for lunch.
Portland is fast becoming a culinary "destination" and I have read some great things about Sushi Miyake. Of course, you never know with Yelp and such whether the reviewers have had good traditional sushi and no, we are not talking dragon rolls.
The restaurant was passably busy when we dropped by on a Friday. We both ordered the boxed lunch set daily special which began with a miso soup. The miso soup is usually a good first gauge for the quality of the rest of the meal. Unfortunately, the soup was flavorful but far too salty (perhaps it was seasoned twice). Paul couldn't even finish it. With hunger surpassing my fear of bloating and excess sodium, I polished off both our soups.
Luckily, the lunch box special was more successful. There were six dishes in all - tuna and avocado sushi roll, stewed clams in sake butter, sashimi, vegetable pickles, salad and a beautiful piece of marinated fish. The sashimi was fresh and clean-tasting. My favorite was the hot dishes - namely, the clams and marinated fish. Both had strong flavors though so more rice was needed for balance. I ordered a separate bowl of rice so was able to finish the rich clam buttery broth.
All in all, it was not the best Japanese food I have ever had but still a very satisfactory lunch. If you ever find yourself in Portland and craving Japanese, Sushi Miyake may just hit the spot.
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| Lunch box Daily Special |
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