Wouldn’t it be great if Yelp had a subsection for reviews submitted by chefs? People who cook for a living know food inside out — why a dish succeeds or fails — on a much deeper, more instinctive level than those of us who only revel in it at mealtime.

We asked four local chefs for their favorite dishes from area restaurants (discounting their own, of course). Naturally, none of them could narrow it down to just one dish. So we’ve highlighted one selection from each chef, and listed their other recommendations in More To Try, below. Endorsed by some of Portland’s top toques, these dishes may become your own favorites, too, if they aren’t already.

KALE CAESAR, AKA, SALAD ‘KAT’S WAY,’ AT FRIENDS & FAMILY, PORTLAND

Twelve Executive Chef Hannah Ryder goes to Friends & Family often with friends, who, like many, are drawn like moths to a flame to chef and co-owner Michael Malyniwsky’s renowned pizza. Problem is, Ryder is gluten-intolerant. Or rather, that would be a problem, except she orders a special off-the-menu kale Caesar salad that absolutely dazzles her.

“While I may be painting a sad picture for some (watching people eat delicious pizza while I eat a salad), I never feel like I’m missing out,” Ryder said. “I’ve always preferred a kale Caesar over your typical romaine, and I think their version has the ability to convert the masses.”

The salad is a hybrid of the two staple salads on their menu: a chicory salad with Parmesan dressing, crushed croutons and toasted seeds, and a kale salad with lemon, pecorino cheese and Marcona almonds. “Each of them has an extraordinarily loyal following,” said co-owner Cecily Upton. “We’d probably get shot on sight if we ever took either off the menu.”

The combo salad originated in part from tinkering by Kat Lamont, who runs the kitchen with Malyniwsky. It’s available on request to any customer who asks for a kale Caesar, or a salad “Chef Kat’s way.”

It starts with chopped Lacinato kale from Chase’s Daily Farm in Belfast. Malyniwsky seasons the leaves with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then massages them briskly to tenderize and help them absorb the salt. He gives the salad a squeeze of lemon juice, and then, instead of the olive oil he’d usually add to the kale salad, tops it with creamy Parmesan dressing.

Besides loads of Parmesan cheese, the dressing is flavored with Worcestershire, Tabasco and anchovy. Malyniwsky also uses tangy Duke’s mayo; he was introduced to Duke’s while working in a Southern-influenced restaurant some years ago, and swears it’s a key part of the dish’s appeal.

To keep the dish gluten-free, he skips the breadcrumbs (made from Zu Bakery bread) and instead adds crunch with Marcona almonds and a generous scattering of toasted sunflower, sesame and poppy seeds. Grate salty pecorino Romano on top, and as Malyniwsky puts it, “Bob’s your uncle.”

“I don’t care what you like to eat, this salad is always going to hit,” Malyniwsky said. “It’s slightly herbaceous, crunchy, salty, cheesy. You don’t even have to be a food lover to like something like this.”

DANISH AT DUTCH’S, PORTLAND

Chef Courtney Loreg of Woodford Food & Beverage has been blown away by the Danish at Dutch’s. She called out the guava in particular, but said pretty much any of the 40 or so Danish varieties Dutch’s has offered over the years will do the trick.

“Seriously one of the best bites of pastry I’ve had,” Loreg said. “I mean, last meal on earth must-have.”

Dutch’s co-owner and baker Lucy Dutch developed her skills in part as a pastry chef at Market by Jean-Georges, the former Boston restaurant of legendary French Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In mid-November, Dutch and her assistant baker, Claire Chanis, walked us through their process for making pumpkin latte Danish, a flavor they featured before Thanksgiving.

“People are excited for it then and will buy it more than they would after Thanksgiving,” Dutch said. “Then we’ve got to move on.”

Dutch said she’s tweaked her pastry recipes and processes “a million ways” since the restaurant launched in 2014. “There’s been a lot of trial and error.”

Today, the Danish process begins with running the 12-layer housemade puff pastry dough through an automated sheeter to roll it to the right thinness. Chanis then hand-slices the sheeted dough into about 30 squares.

Chanis folds the squares diagonally in half, partly slices the edges, then reopens the square and folds the flaps over to create a diamond-shaped pocket ready to be filled. Chanis and Dutch add dollops of pumpkin pie-flavored cream cheese base to the pocket. They make a full batch this way, then freeze and bake the Danish fresh as needed throughout the week in Dutch’s four-deck, steam-generating Empire MiniTube oven.

But the filling is just the start of the flavor-layering process. Dutch also applies a couple of glazes infused with Medalia d’Oro instant espresso powder. “It gives a good coffee flavor to pastry stuff,” Dutch said as she brushes on a thin espresso simple syrup to lend shine to the flaky pastry, then pipes on a thicker glaze made from powdered sugar for decorative stripes. To finish, she gilds this lily with a little coffee-flavored crumble.

“I like for it to be a little bit sticky and maybe a little knotty, then gooey in the middle,” Dutch said.

CEMITA MILANESE DE POLLO AT TRES LECHES CAKE’S FLOR, SOUTH PORTLAND

Mr. Tuna chef and co-owner Jordan Rubin loves everything about the cemita Milanesa de pollo at Tres Leches Cake’s Flor in South Portland: the fresh, soft, seeded bread; the stringy Mexican cheese; the perfectly crispy, juicy chicken cutlet.

“And it’s a massive sandwich,” Rubin said. “It definitely serves at least two people, sometimes three depending how hungry you are.”

Tres Leches is named for the Latin American sponge cake that is co-owner Flor Contreras’s specialty, along with other sweet treats like flan, churros, cheesecakes and layer cakes. The savory side of the menu — tortas, tamales, quesadillas, burritos huaraches and more — is the purview of her husband, Hector Gavilan, though Contreras recently walked us through their cemita preparation.

Cemitas are Mexican street food sandwiches most popular in the city of Puebla. They’re distinguished from tortas in part by their sesame seed-speckled buns. Contreras bakes the restaurant’s torta bread in-house, but hasn’t yet been able to nail the soft and slightly sweet texture and flavor, so they source cemita rolls from a bakery in Boston instead.

While lightly toasting a halved cemita roll on the plancha, Contreras deep-fries a chicken breast cutlet coated in their torta breadcrumbs, which are seasoned with flavorings like garlic, Mexican oregano and thyme.

Contreras spreads mayo on the toasted bottom roll, tops it with the fried chicken, then adds the component she says is just as important as the bread: mild, creamy and delightfully stretchy Oaxacan cheese, two generous handfuls. Contreras and Gavilan can’t find Oaxacan cheese to their liking even in Boston; they source this stuff from New York City.

Along with shredded lettuce, tomato slices, sliced raw onion and ripe avocado, Contreras also spreads pureed chipotle inside the top bun to give this whopper of a sandwich a little smoky heat.

“We put a lot on there so it’s big, and it’s very filling,” Contreras said.

TAGLIATELLE BOLOGNESE AT ISA BISTRO, PORTLAND

Matt Ginn, former executive chef of Prentice Hospitality Group and General Manager of Dry Dock, is partial to pasta dishes from Isa Bistro. His all-time favorite is the restaurant’s braised rabbit garganelli, though it’s a special so not always available.

But the tagliatelle Bolognese, a close runner-up for Ginn, is always on the menu. And when you order that dish, “you cannot go wrong,” Ginn said.

Isa Bistro chef and co-owner Isaul Perez draws on his experience cooking at legendary Brooklyn Italian restaurant Frankies457 Spuntino for his pasta dishes. But he also takes surprising liberties to make this dish all his own, and leave an indelible impression on his customers.

“I don’t want to do a classic Bolognese like other people do it,” Perez said of this dish, which has been on his menu since he opened in 2015. “I just tried to do something different.”

Perez’s Bolognese sauce incorporates a slow-simmered marinara with Alta Cucina canned tomatoes, which he finds a little sweeter than other plum tomatoes like the vaunted San Marzano variety. He amps up their sweetness with a little sugar and some carrots, caramelizing the tomatoes along the way (Perez’s mantra: “No color, no flavor”) for more depth and complexity.

He veers further off-road with the mirepoix, which he sautés, caramelizes and purees along with highly nontraditional Mexican oregano and dried guajillo chile. After he browns his ground sirloin, Perez takes his most radical step yet: Instead of adding red or white wine to reduce as the beef cooks, he adds Guinness.

Yup, Irish stout is one of the secrets to Perez’s Bolognese, a key factor in its alluring depth of flavor. He actually road-tested versions of his sauce with both wine and beer on friends and family before opening his bistro, and the Guinness version was the hands-down winner. “Everybody said, ‘We love this, it has to go on the menu.'”

To pick up Bolognese orders during service, Perez heats the beef and mirepoix mixture in brown butter, and adds in the marinara, which he stores separately to preserve its sweet-tangy vibrancy. He doesn’t use milk or cream in his sauce as many traditional Bolognese recipes do. Instead, he adds a generous hit of salty pecorino Romano cheese.

Perez combines the Bolognese with fresh-cooked housemade tagliatelle along with some pasta water to bring the sauce and pasta together. To plate the dish, he tops the mound of pasta with shaved raw fennel for crunch, more microgreens and basil oil.

“Every time somebody eats here, they say, ‘When I eat at other restaurants, I feel so heavy, and here I feel so light.’ I try to make everything kind of light,” Perez said, pointing out how the fennel and microgreens lend the deeply comforting dish fresh texture and flavor.

He smiles at the finished bowl of pasta. “A lot of people, they just come here for that.”

MORE TO TRY

With so much amazing food in Greater Portland and beyond, who can pick just one favorite? Here are some other standout recommendations from chefs Matt Ginn, Courtney Loreg, Jordan Rubin and Hannah Ryder.

Ham & cheese croissant at Zu Bakery, Portland. “The laminated doughs there are some of the best anywhere around,” Rubin said. “And the cheese that bubbles out of the end of the croissant turns into a kind of crispy frico.”

Beef Penaeng at Boda, Portland. “I used to live about a block from Longfellow Square and there was a time when I think I ate that dish once a week,” Loreg said.

Half fried chicken and napa cabbage salad at The Honey Paw, Portland. “It makes for a great and affordable meal,” Ginn said. “Basically feeds the whole family.”

SoPo-ke Bowl with bluefin tuna at SoPo Seafood, South Portland. “This is one of my favorite lunch options,” Ryder said. “It’s so satisfying, and every component of the dish works so well together.”

Bolognese at Leeward, Portland. “Chef Jake (Stevens) makes really nice pasta and his Bolognese is delicious. It makes it really hard for me to choose other things,” Loreg said.

Pickled alewives at Sammy’s Deluxe, Rockland (usually only available in late spring/early summer). “It’s literally one of the best things I’ve eaten,” Rubin said. “It’s an oily and very flavorful fish, and Sam’s cure on it is just perfectly balanced.”

Paella at Chaval (Monday special), Portland. “Paella is one of those dishes that presents itself as being simple, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Ryder said. “There is so much technique involved in perfecting not only the cook of the rice, but the socarrat — or crispy, toasted rice — on the bottom. As expected, Chef Damien (Sansonetti) and his team have the discipline and skill to nail it every time.”

Sweet red bean donut with fresh cream at Yuri’s Desserts, Portland. “It’s really simple, but immaculate. I get them all the time,” Rubin said.

Pasta at Solo Italiano, Portland (any pasta, especially the Mandilli al Vero Pesto Genovese). “On my birthday about five or six years ago some friends of mine and I ordered all of the pastas for our meal,” Loreg said. “His (Chef Paulo Laboa’s) pesto is legendary for a reason.”