Welcome. We’re Paella Seafood, on Forest Avenue in Portland, Maine. The red building, the wooden doors, the pan that will not be rushed. Pull up a chair. These are the plates we cooked for you.
Come find us: paellaseafood.com · (207) 536-1021 · @paellaseafood · our page on FishRestaurants
The door is red. The clock starts at four.
865 Forest Ave, Portland, ME 04103. Tuesday through Sunday, 4 to 9. Monday the burners stay cold. There is no midday service — if you want us, you want dinner.
Street parking is what Forest Avenue gives you. On a Saturday it fills. For six or more, call (207) 536-1021 the day you decide. Two pans need two burners, and we would rather start the rice against your arrival than against a crowd at the door. Email paellaseafood@yahoo.com. The rest of Portland’s seafood rooms, when you want a second night, are on the city page.
The pan is why the name is on the building
This is the one we want photographed first. Saffron rice, mussels in their shells, shrimp with a sear, lemon, parsley. It is built for four hands and one spoon going clockwise. Two hungry people can finish it. Four is the table it was made for.
If you like knowing the species while you wait, the pages that match this pan are shrimp, mussels, and the style itself: paella.
Sometimes two pans land together. Seafood in front. A meat pan behind it, still steaming. We don’t mix them in one vessel. The timings argue.
Closer, you see what the rice is holding: open mussels, shrimp, a bright lemon half, herbs scattered like we meant it.
When the table splits
Not every chair wants a shell. The chicken pan is its own pot: seared chicken, peas, olives, lemon, herbs. The chop pan is another — bone-in, crusted, lemon again, rice underneath. Order them beside the seafood, never piled on top of it.
Before the rice, and beside it
We start some tables cold. Shrimp, avocado, tomato, a lime, dill laid across the top. Scallops seared and set on greens with a little cup of sauce. Octopus, charred, on a salad. Calamari, fried hard, lemon and a herb cream on the side. These are the plates in the photos we sent — not a longer menu we invented for the article.
The rings have a page of their own if you want it: squid and calamari.
The roll, after the pan is already down
A split roll. Lobster. Dill. Scallion. It shows up at dinner, because that is the only service we run. Ask for it when everyone else has already committed to rice. The species note, if you want one before you bite, is the lobster guide — and the company it keeps is lobster and crab.
Sugar, then the street
Churros. Cinnamon sugar. A cup of dark chocolate you actually dip into. That is how we like the table to end.
That’s us — Paella Seafood, 865 Forest Ave, evenings only. Save our profile for the map, follow @paellaseafood, and use the species guide cards below for shrimp, mussels, and lobster. If you shoot the crust at the edge of the rice, tag us. We repost the good ones.
Thank you for coming to Forest Avenue. We mean that.
— Paella Seafood
*Photos © Paella Seafood · Published on FishRestaurants.com with permission.*