I was in Portland this last weekend and wanted to report back on an evening out at The Well at Jordan’s Farm. This is a on-farm restaurant just outside of Portland, Maine, that is known for super fresh ingredients (most sourced from the farm) and a unique experience of dining within gazebos that are located on the fields. I got the tip from the forums here at WB so thought I should update the group with my findings…
- We booked a 6 person gazebo and did the chef’s tasting menu ($85/pp)
- Line-up was
—Homemade bread and butter
—Fresh crab over asparagus
—Steak tartare over toast
—Halibut with a butter sauce
—Beef over a risotto
—Dessert
We chose this restaurant because we’d read it was BYOB and were excited to bring our own wines. However, we learned while making the reservation that they no longer accept outside alcohol because they obtained a liquor license this year. The wine list is short, and nothing to write home about.
We drank:
Some random prosecco that I don’t remember
Scarpetta Barbera
Lazaret CdP (wasn’t corked but didn’t taste like it’d be optimally stored)
Overall, the food was okay. It was acceptable for a tasting menu, and it didn’t help that our dinner was on a very rainy night which killed some of the “farm” ambiance. The steak tartare was incredibly salty. The homemade bread and butter was really really good. The halibut was probably the best dish of the night.
The service was not good. Our waitress seemed like she was new. When I asked her to open the reds so they could breathe while we drank the bubbles, she opened the bottles and then recorked them and placed them on the table (quick difficult to breathe if you’re corked up…). There are little space heaters in each gazebo but ours kept malfunctioning/turning off, but they weren’t able to fix it or swap out for another. And, charmingly, each gazebo has a blue tooth speaker to connect your phone, but we also weren’t able to make this work on any of our phones. The pacing of the courses was a little too slow and we didn’t feel especially well attended to.
Overall rating 8/10
Food 8/10
Service 6/10
Ambiance/uniqueness 9/10