Tourists visiting Portland, Maine are after oysters and lobster rolls, but the real hidden gem is this Mexican-Japanese-American fusion restaurant
- I've lived in Maine for more than three years and have been a fan of Regards since it opened.
- The restaurant mixes cuisines from Mexico, Japan, and the US into unique dishes.
I moved from New York City to Portland, Maine — where my husband is from — a little over three years ago. At the time, I was pregnant with twins and already had a toddler, and we realized we wanted to raise our kids outside the noise and bustle of the city that never sleeps.
My husband and I had lived in New York for more than a decade so we were accustomed to excellent dining. Then the pandemic left us eating inside for months. So as soon as our twins were reliably sleeping and we could leave them with babysitters, we started exploring the restaurants Portland had to offer.
We both knew we would have no problem finding good oysters and lobster rolls, two things Maine is known for. We had found our go-to places for those on previous outings. But we were craving a place that could rival the foods and cuisine we were used to enjoying in NYC — but paired with the chill vibe of Maine.
That's how we found Regards in 2022, and we've been big fans ever since.
The food is incredible
Neil Zabriskie is the chef and owner of the cozy restaurant. He brings inspiration from the cuisines of Mexico, Japan, and California — where he is from. Zabriskie brings a different twist to the usual Maine suspects like oysters or scallops, and adds to the mix touches like homemade corn tortillas.
The dishes are made to share, which my husband and I love because it allows us to taste even more of the menu. Which, by the way, is always changing. While we've had — my personal favorite — crispy brown rice with crab on a couple of visits, everything else has been a first for us.
We've cleared our plates of everything from chicken hearts to gyozas made inside an actual chicken wing to classic tamales and tortillas (I have to mention them again because they really are that good). My husband and I often joke with our server that we'll just take "one of everything" because it is that hard to choose a plate sometimes.
The extensive drink menu is just as inventive and exciting as the food and has a variety of wines, local beer, cocktails, and mocktails to choose from. I recently had a tequila, grapefruit, and cucumber cocktail that was equal parts refreshing and delicious.
Anyone who knows me knows I love a good dessert. I even admitted to happily paying $82 for the tasting menus at Portland's new cool restaurant so that I could have their ice cream again. On our most recent visit to Regards, we had their strawberry sorbet with kefir granita and rhubarb syrup, and I seriously debated ordering another one after we finished the first in 30 seconds.
The vibe is unbeatable
Beyond the food, the vibe at Regards is unbeatable. It's not a stuffy, fancy restaurant made for the hip kids. The last time we visited, there was a family with a toddler to our right; next to them was a group of women in their mid-60s who were friends since college and make it a point to come together every now and then, and to our left a first date.
I call Regards a hidden gem because we've never had issues finding a table, which is shocking to me given that comparable restaurants have a never-ending waitlist of months when all the tourists invade Maine for the Summer. And while I'm not trying to make my favorite place impossible to get in to for locals, the team at Regards deserves all the praise for making me "ooh" and "aah" every time I try a new dish.
Also, if you like bathroom selfies as much as I do, the lighting in their washroom is superb.