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
At Helm I didn’t notice the raw bar and open kitchen beyond as I entered the restaurant, looking instead for my friends who I was joining. But it’s all very AIA spare, clean lined and modern. My partner who doesn’t get around the city much had never been to this area to witness the explosion of glass- and steel-faced buildings all around. He thought he was in a different city. It’s too bad that the funky narrow gauge railroad across the road cuts a swath through the view. But it’s historic, and we all know what that signifies.
The bar and dining room; the “view”
When we sat down at the corner table against the wall of windows, the first thing I noticed was the paper-napkin place settings as though sheets of copy paper. The austere if elegant setting deserved cloth instead of the flimsy napkins, which always fall off your lap to the floor. Yet these days when excuses are so easily attributed to the Pandemic, supply chain issues, inflation and the dreadful war in Ukraine, I curbed my complaint accordingly.
Though the service was as friendly as being at the corner bar, it lacked the crisp precision to detail that our server should have displayed. When I asked what a grain broth was in the description of the fish entrée she couldn’t explain.
One of the dishes highly touted in the aforementioned review was the chicken-liver mousse. It was described as something like diving deep into the most exquisite foie gras. IDK. If anything it was a huge portion under an avalanche of scallions and augmented with a blueberry compote, no doubt of local origin. Until blueberries come into season, the chef should have used something more appropriate for the month of May, like a compote of rhubarb, which is everywhere now. Frozen local berries are good enough to use but better in August. Served with housemade brioche toasts, they saved the dish with reason enough to keep spreading the mousse on the delicious bread.
Chicken liver mousse, blueberry compote and brioche toasts
The kitchen’s spare touch did not translate into exquisite subtleties. Enter the June Allyson of fish entrees: steamed pollock on a bed of greens, swimming in grain broth and rye berries. Perky like the actress but otherwise flat and dull. The mystery broth did nothing, and the rye berries, which could have used much more cooking in its grain broth, sat like pesky pebbles. Other dishes included mussels and clams, which my dinner mate described as unremarkable and bland. And a starter of escabeche was hardly revelatory either.
Mussels and clams, escabeche and steamed pollack
Expectations were high, but the underwhelming nature of each dish was unfortunate. The setting is reason enough to go, and I’m assuming they’ll establish a flower- filled patio on the huge entry deck outside, a place that could be a fine destination to enjoy the catch of its namesake raw bar.
The Helm Bar and Bistro, 60 Thames St., Portland, ME 207 613-9918
Setting: Very spare and modern, elegant to a degree like a cocktail dress without the heels
Rating: B+
Food: Good enough but could be so much better
Service: Satisfactory
Tables; Well spaced
Bar: Convivial
Parking: On street
$$$: Typically expensive, but not outrageous
