Bayou Kitchen
543 Deering Ave., Portland
774-4935
thebayoukitchenmaine.com
The first time I visited Bayou Kitchen was in 2002, just after my wife and I moved to Portland and well before I started writing The Breakfast Serial. A friend raved about his new favorite breakfast spot, located just a few blocks away in Woodfords Corner. “The Bayou,” as it’s known locally, had opened the previous year.
Granted, that friend also told us we had to try the amazing peanut butter-and-mushroom omelet at nearby Brea Lu, so we were understandably skeptical of his recommendations. But the options for breakfast in Portland back then were limited, so off we went.
It was pretty good. Not fantastic, but better than anywhere else within walking distance. We ate there a couple times, but after moving out of the neighborhood the following year, we didn’t have any compelling reason to come back. By the time we returned to the area in 2017, so many new restaurants had opened in Portland that I almost forgot The Bayou existed.
Meanwhile, the world kept turning. Karl and Jill Silander bought the place in 2006, made a few tweaks to the menu and cemented The Bayou’s status as a neighborhood mainstay with a loyal customer base and a line out the door most weekend mornings.
On weekday mornings, however, the dining room can be as quiet as the actual bayou, with all the gators safely painted on the walls. My friend Rob and I had our pick of tables when we stopped in on a recent Thursday.
While we perused the menu, we started with two mugs of coffee ($4) that I’d describe as middling but fresh. For our entrées, we both made selections from the list of creative, Southern-inspired egg dishes.
I went for the Smokin’ Caterpillar ($16), a thin, diner-style omelet stuffed with homemade corned beef hash, grilled onions, and Swiss cheese. I splashed on some hot sauce — a bottle of locally made, sweet-spicy Captain Mowatt’s Canceaux Sauce sits on every table — and ate my fill. Like most breakfast dishes at The Bayou, my omelet came with a choice of sides. For me, that meant a fluffy buttermilk biscuit and crisp, tender “homies.”
Rob ordered the Cajun Scramble ($15), chock full of crawfish, Andouille sausage, jalapeños and cheddar. It was a little salty, a little spicy, and more than a little delicious. On the side, he chose a slice of crumbly, generously buttered blueberry cornbread and a dish of deeply flavorful red beans and rice — arguably the best thing either of us ate that morning.
The Bayou has weathered 25 years of changes in the Woodfords neighborhood, including restaurants and businesses old and new opening and closing nearby, major road construction, and a global pandemic. With its consistent, comforting menu and laidback vibe, it just might stick around for another 25.
Bayou Kitchen is open Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
