Maria’s Restaurant in Portland

Food was exceptional. A rare treat to get veal these days. Being of half Italian ancestry and only second generation on these shores, I am VERY fussy about so-called Italian food when dining out. Maria's has similar to home style traditional food. Delicious. Decor is 1920's-1930s style and is quite lovely.

This was the first time eating at Maria's and we unfortunately came during a time they had an abbreviated menu. Having said that we did enjoy our meals, my husband had the rigatoni with marinara and a side of broccoli and garlic. He said the pasta was cooked properly but the marinara was a bit bland. He enjoyed it nonetheless. I had the shrimp scampi and it was perfectly cooked! The shrimp were fresh and scampi sauce was delicious! Lastly we had their house made cannoli which was outstanding and I highly recommend it. Perfectly sweet, creamy and with just a bit of crunch.

*Updated Review---scroll to the end for latest review. ------- At first approach the exterior is not all that inviting but the parking was good enough. Gives off a bit of an inner city appeal. We had reservations and got quick seating. The interior is old school Italian; dark wood with a mix of small and larger tables and even some church pew seating. We were close together but not uncomfortably close. Nice what they have done with the available space and the overall atmosphere was festive with a lot of back ground buzz, (I hate a quiet room). The service was quick and attentive, never ran out of water. The waitress was informative and helpful and after a review of the menu I would say that Maria's is very reasonably priced. We started with a appetizer special called "Baked Buratta Cheese with Roasted Tomatoes served with Crostini". My only issue was the Buratta. It was good when it first hit the table in the hot cast iron pot where we could take the spoon and grab a bit of cheese, sauce and tomato to put on the toasted bread, but it cooled very quickly, so fast that the Buratta solidified into a glob that we had to cut apart with a knife in order to get a little taste. Seems like a much hotter pot or a different type of cheese would work better in this dish. Great if served hot and quick, not so much if it sits on the shelf for even a minute before being served. We both got Italian Mai-Tai's as warm up drinks and they were good, a little sweet for my taste but overall a decent drink, not very strong. For dinner we got a bottle of red wine for $24 which was a reasonable price to pay for a screw top Cabernet, ($19 would have been better). edit My partner got another special called "Our Lobster Ravioli with a Lobster Sauce" $32. We both thought that this dish would be better with a lighter white sauce. The ravioli's were tasty and we really liked the filling. It was crowned with two lobster tails, (shells removed), but they left the digestive tract in. Aside from a whole lobster, why would a restaurant ever serve a lobster tail with the digestive tracked intact? It was the same in my casserole but the track was empty so it wasn't that noticeable, but in this dish it was noticeable and that kind of ruined the mood of the dish. Would anybody serve a un-deveined shrimp? Of course not, so why is it OK to serve a un-deveined lobster tail? Somebody in the kitchen isn't thinking clearly on this issue. Simple fix that just needs to be corrected. We also ordered a side of garlic bread, (bread should have come with the table), but it was hard as a rock and difficult to eat. I think it was microwaved as it was tough on the inside. Overall, Maria's has good service and good food that is reasonably priced. 3.5 Stars is appropriate in my view. A Maine restaurant should know how to serve a lazy lobster. ********* Stopped in to Maria's again yesterday. Maybe my timing is bad, but we got there early just after they opened. They served up bread that was a couple of slices of Italian bread you can buy at Shaw's. We ordered the appetizer "special" Veal Alfredo. This should have been a nice dish of ground veal, wrapped in pasta, and drowning in alfredo sauce, and it was...except that when they ground up the veal they also ground up the bones with it...I mean WTF? I attached pictures. I don't understand how a restaurant could let this happen. It was gross and it completely ruined the rest of our meal. We should have complained and walked out but for some reason we stayed, but we couldn't get passed it. Maria's was great when it was downtown, but those days appear to be gone. Very disappointing. I know the son of the original owner has been running things for a while but they are off their game.

Not a fan at all .. I ordered eggplant parm it had a unique taste almost making it taste Mexican and not Italian. The person I went there with wanted chicken marsala. It was highlighted in their Google menu. Yet when we get there they said their Google menu and actual menu are different and they need to update their menu on Google. Since they didn't have chicken marsala the waitress offered to help find something similar. THE DISH SHE BROUGHT OUT HAD PORK NOT CHICKEN .. So they grilled him a chicken breast and brought that out .place is super small expensive to get not what you ordered. Don't plan on going back

The service and atmosphere was very nice. We both had the special which was a seafood bake with pasta on the side. It was so bland, it had a ton of sliced garlic covering the top and nothing else, the middle of the fish and some of the scallops were raw, even the pasta had nothing on it but it was the best part of the meal…. It was pretty sad and disappointing because I was so looking forward to going there. It was our first time but we won’t be going back.

Food was sadly mediocre. Meat was so overcooked -- both sausages and veal -- tough and lacking flavor. Sauce was OK, but tasted mostly like tomato paste. Even the salad was just alright. Bland dressing and stale breadcrumbs. The bread was nice, but I assume they bring that in. It wasn't cheap, so that made it worse. Disappointed. I had high hopes.

As an Italian I can assure you that the “Italian food” they serve is insulting and absolutely mid (at best). There are a ton of other great Italian restaurants in the city, I encourage you to go elsewhere if you want edible food. The owners of this place are blatantly xenophobic and rude. If I could give zero stars I would.