Dare I disagree with the latest (and one of the few) reviews of this forward-looking restaurant? After all, the Helm Oyster Bar and Bistro appeared in the city’s newspaper of record with a four-star review, a rarity, barking unbridled raves. When I visited the restaurant shortly after the write-up appeared we ordered several of the menu items gushed over. In our tastings it was as though we were at a different restaurant entirely.
The room is different from most other dining establishments in Portland. For one, it’s glass-walled overlooking glimpses of the water on Thames Street, a byway that will one day connect to the rest of the Eastern Waterfront development, where the audacious and highly anticipated 12 is set to open in the old Portland Company Building known collectively as 58 Fore Street or Portland Foreside. The renown of 12 is its pedigree: The chef, Colin Wyatt, is from such New York stars as Daniel and Eleven Madison Park. He joins the team of EVO (one day chef Matt Ginn should be nominated for a JBA), Chebeague Island Inn and 58 Culinary.
The chef at Helm, Billy Hagar, hails from the San Francisco area, and his Portland resume reads Flood’s and Drifters Wife (both closed, both unremarkable , the latter less so).
The entry, the raw bar and dining bar
