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Norm's East End Grill - CLOSED
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
16 reviews for Norm's East End Grill
Review Highlights
"I had the pulled pork sandwich, with coleslaw and sweet..."
(in 3 reviews)
"...sausage was spicy and the cornbread was slightly sweet just..."
(in 5 reviews)
"Favorites - the onion rings, the sweet potato fries, and..."
(in 3 reviews)
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16 reviews in English
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Review from Tiffany B.
Philadelphia, PA
Updated - 12/1/2010
Nooooooooooo! It's closed! That is a bummer!!!
5 months since leaving Portland (now 11 months away) and I have yet to find a place to call home like Norm's East End. Best bartenders out there! Always enjoyed sharing apps with my boyfriend. We always got wings and onion rings. Oh, it makes me hungry just thinking about it. The grilled flat bread is really good too. I've never had bad food there. There is a great BBQ platter with a little bit of everything - you gotta try it at least once. Yummy!1 Previous Review: Show all »
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3/16/2010
Having recently moved away from Portland and have not found a spot to call home like Norm's East… Read more »
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Review from Alexa B.
3/2/2009
Norm's is probably one of my favorite old haunts. The food is delish: Anything barbecued that you want, and the best damn cornbread I've ever had in my life. The drinks are strong (bonus!), the male waiters cute (at the Congress Street one especially) (double bonus!). This is where us girls like to come for a little drinkie and some gossip whenever I'm in town.
I think the food is generally better at the East End Grill but the atmosphere of the more urban downtown location (with the cute waiters) is more chill. -
Review from Michael L.
Allston, MA
5/13/2008
The East End in Portland is full of interesting places to explore, so many many that I'm curious how they stay in business. Since this Norm's is not that far from my place and I was interested in eating some buffalo shrimp, we went.
They did not have buffalo shrimp. I was wrong.
We both got burgers, and they were awesome. For $5.95 I was served up a gigantic, fat burger piled with veggies. It was excellent, especially for the price, but it was the fries that won me over. Normally fries are ok; fried potatoes is fried potatoes. These were lightly seasoned with a slightly spicy something, and very very crisp. Lovely.
The upstairs looked nice too, although I only took a look around. The bar was up there (drinks are priced around $5 and mortifying strong) and there were TVs with the game. We ate downstairs where the kitchen was visible, and listened to some indie nerd's iPod, which was actually very pleasant.
Norm's makes for a great date spot. I did not order the specials, but they looked great, if I had been in the mood. -
Review from Jeannie C.
New York, NY
6/19/2010
I had the pulled pork sandwich, with coleslaw and sweet potatoe fries! An onion bun filled with pulled pork slathered with the best BBQ sauce I have ever tasted with thinly slice red onions and pickles. The flavor and texture combinations of onions and pickles with pulled pork is something I will adopt in the future.
The sweet potato fries were the way I like them; crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. It was slightly dressed with Dijon mustard sauce which surprisingly worked well together. -
Review from Phil W.
Somerville, MA
9/24/2007
My band records in Portland and we always come to Norm's for BBQ. Favorites - the onion rings, the sweet potato fries, and any rib-type meat.
Much prefer sitting upstairs by the bar, but the downstairs isn't bad, just a little cramped and not as cozy. -
Review from Alexander K.
Portland, ME
2/17/2006
BBQ. Not typically something that sets a veg's mouth watering but, if you can cope with watching other diners chow down on oversized piles of "pulled" pork (sounds lovely doesn't it), then get ready to enjoy some damn fine vegetarian comfort food.
Try this: grilled corn bread as spoon for sour cream laden scoop of black bean soup. Its so nice. Feel free to substitute biscuit as spoon. In fact I would recommend eating the soup with out anything but edible utensils. The side of spinach is also shockingly good and the spinach was green. These cooks were born to blanch. Fries (sweet potato and otherwise) also very good.
In all fairness everyone else did seem happy with their meat piles. -
Review from Joe R.
Washington, DC
8/4/2009
I was in heaven after ordering the Honey BBQ St. Louis style ribs. The sticky sweet meat was served with grilled cornbread and a very tasty potato salad. The half rack was delicious, and for the northeast, let alone the northeast tip, this was a great bbq experience.
*If your meal doesn't come with cornbread do yourself a favor and order a plate. -
Review from Tara L.
6/1/2010
The BBQ at this place blew me away, particularly after indulging in a lot of BBQ recently. There's only one place right now that tops this place and it's a hole in the wall in the back of a bar in my home neighborhood of Jackson Heights, NY.
We came over to this neighborhood with some friends hoping to go to Duckfat but since the wait was so long at Duckfat, we ended up here and thank goodness we did as it was amazing. My husband and I split the BBQ sampler which was spare ribs, country ribs, bbq chicken, sausage and steak tips served with beans and cornbread
and there was not a thing on that plate that I didn't absolutely love. All the meat was covered in a sweet, slightly spicy and tangy BBQ sauce. The stand-out was the steak tips which were juicy and cooked to between rare and medium rare. The BBQ chicken was fully cooked (I can't stand pink chicken even near the bone) but still moist and falling off the bone. The ribs were nicely cooked to the point of being tender but not falling off the bone and the country ribs were delicate and more like a pork chop than I expected. The sausage was spicy and the cornbread was slightly sweet just the way I like it. There was also a hot sauce that reminded me of a non-Asian Sriracha sauce if that makes sense.
I snagged some onion rings from our dinner companions since they had a whole mound of them (really it was an enormous pile) and the breading was some of the best I've had recently. The onions were still slightly crispy/crunchy.
The drinks were huge and very generously poured. I had an Allagash White but my husband had a dark & stormy that I was very envious of.
I am already craving the steak tips and want to try the friend chicken next time. -
Review from Ben E.
Biddeford, ME
11/17/2008
Norm's rocks. It's the best barbecue place in Portland. Now, granted, Portland isn't known for BBQ, nor do I even know of another BBQ restaurant in the area, but it's still a fantastic place. The BBQ was real and the portions were huge. Needless to say I had my fill of pork for a while. They also have a happy hour form 4-6 with free apps, which I've heard is cool too.
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Review from Joe R.
Portland, ME
6/7/2010
When ever an out of town guest comes to Portland I typically write a todo list. Although I never write Norm's on the list because it is more of a local joint I always state it is my favorite. My favorite in Portland! The hub of great restaurants. This coming from a foodie. Half Chicken, Half Ribs, substitute the cornbread for flatbread so I can dip it in the most delicious baked beans. Everything else on the menu is great but I keep on going back to what I love most. Yum!
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Review from Kate S.
San Francisco, CA
5/29/2008
It blows my mind that Norm's East End only has three reviews... and that Norm's on Congress has NONE! I live in San Francisco now but while living in Portland for almost 4 yrs, Norm's was my FAV. I dream about the cornbread, and nobody does a steak salad out here like they do. I honestly slightly prefer the Congress St location, but would pay serious $$ to eat in either right now - bold statement coming from a SF resident!
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Review from Monique G.
Portland, ME
4/28/2010
Always good food. And the tables are tight, so expect to get to know your neighbor! :)
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Review from Bill C.
Brookline, MA
4/14/2010
Whatever you do - get the fries! They are to die for!
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Review from T.H. J.
Andover, MA
1/27/2010
Not a big fan. It was uninspired, as is this review.
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Review from Kaylee S.
Brooklyn, NY
1/11/2010 3 photos
i had norm's today for the first time in probably 10 years and it was exactly how i remembered. the inside setup has changed a bit - there used to be these huge picnic tables inside that you sometimes had to share with other diners - but the barbeque is the same and still delicious. they have also kept the old-school red and white checked vinyl picnic cloths on the tables, which made me smile. i've only been to the east end location on middle street but like it too much to go to the one on congress.
a+ for the RIBS (all kinds), pulled pork sandwich, and the grilled corn bread. everything is smoky and sweet and slathered in their homemade barbeque sauce. and other s words. the sandwich i had today - shredded pulled pork; red onions; garlic pickles; on an onion roll; with cole slaw - was towering so precariously that i had to eat half of it with a fork before starting as one would eat a normal sized sandwich. this is one of those places where the food comes and everyone just stops speaking to each other and grubs out. my favorite memories of here are of my brother as a little kid - he always ordered ribs and consistently got barbeque sauce all over himself, the table, the walls, and a few times our dining neighbors. this is partly the establishment's fault for putting a whole squeeze bottle on the table which causes people to throw caution to the wind, pour it on, and eat with all their hearts. (you can also buy it by the pint/quart (gallon?) which seems necessary to me.) the drink menu has lots of cool cocktails like a pepperoncini martini and a dark and stormy, as well as some good beers. i had an allagash which is brewed in maine! i'm always happy to visit home and this is one place which makes it so. -
Review from billie c.
Cumberland, ME
10/15/2009
This place is great ! food is awesome, parking sucks
