The Mid-Coast Region Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Mid-Coast Region - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Mid-Coast Region - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
You'll feel right at home in this intimate modern pub, offering casual dining on two floors plus an upper outdoor deck. The beer ranges from IPAs to stouts and sours. The menu, which changes with the seasons, includes imaginative light dishes as well as well-prepared entrées.
At the end of Harpswell Neck—next to the Dolphin Marina, where diners often arrive by boat—this popular restaurant serves one of the best fish chowders on the coast. Take in the excellent views through a wall of windows or from the outdoor deck as you enjoy your equally excellent chowder—or your lobster stew, crab or lobster roll, or chicken or beef entrée.
Although everything served at this seafood shack and market beside Fish Beach is delicious and simply prepared, the crab roll—a large, split-top roll buttered and griddled and stuffed with fresh, sweet, mayo-tossed crabmeat—may just be the best on the Maine coast. Order at the window, carry your tray to a picnic table inches from the water, and lap up the view of lobster boats in the harbor. You can also have your order packed to go.
Drive to the end of Route 127 and relax in the breezes off Sheepscot Bay in the tiny fishing village of Five Islands, not too far from Reid State Park. This award-winning lobster shack overlooks at least five islands from its perch atop the working wharf, and you can watch lobstermen unload their traps onto the dock while you feast on fresh lobster rolls or a full lobster dinner and sample Maine-made ice cream. If you've got a big craving for lobster, order the Big Boy lobster roll, with double the amount of meat in a large roll. The “secret” to the famous tartar sauce is dill. This is a BYOB place, so bring a cooler with your preferred beverages, settle at a picnic table, and enjoy the sublime setting.
Sit at a table to enjoy a bagel, croissant, Belgian waffles, or quiche at breakfast or a cold or toasted sandwich or flatbread at lunch. At any time of the day, sink into a comfy chair or sofa to indulge in a great cup of regular coffee, an "artistic" latte (try the Heath Bar version), or one of 15 specialty hot chocolates, including almond joy and peppermint.
Whether you sit at a booth in the dining room or at the counter of this eatery, established in 1927, chances are, you'll soon be chatting with your neighbors. The multipage menu has all the breakfast standards (including fresh doughnuts every morning) and comfort-food lunch and dinner classics—from chowders, fish cakes, and lobster or crab rolls to chicken pot pie, meat loaf, and New England--style boiled dinners to wild Maine blueberry, custard, or apple pie. There's a gift shop on the other side of the parking lot, as well as rental cabins and a motel just up the hill.
The customers lined up beside this little red shack at the bottom of Wiscasset's Main Street, just before the bridge across the Sheepscot River, have come from far and wide for one of the Maine Coast's best lobster rolls—namely, a perfectly buttered and griddled split-top roll that's absolutely, positively stuffed with fresh, sweet meat and served with melted butter and mayo on the side. Devotees swear that the wait (up to two hours!) is worth it, and it helps that staffers hand out ice water, popsicles, umbrellas to protect from rain or hot sun, and even dog biscuits for the pups. You can also get your lobster in a gluten-free roll or on a plate without any bread. Other choices include crab rolls, hamburgers, and onion rings, as well as clams or other local seafood fried in house-made batters. Enjoy your hard-earned feast at a table on the bilevel deck behind the shack or at a picnic table on the grass by the water. For a shorter wait, come on a weekday at an off hour (not lunch or dinner time).
The namesake of this shack first got the idea to set up shop when her father posed the simple question: “Where can you buy a quick lobster roll in Boothbay Harbor?” Unable to answer, Shannon’s Unshelled was born, and the shack is now beloved for its grilled, buttered buns stuffed with whole lobsters and served with a side of garlicky, sea-salted, drawn butter.
The menu at this late-afternoon-into-late-evening spot is limited and changes frequently, but it's always good. Order a small plate or charcuterie board, or go bigger with something like risotto, ramen, or seared pork shoulder with roasted shallots and toasted pistachios. Sunday brunch is popular, thanks to such choices as molasses pancakes, deviled eggs with smoked trout, and gougeres served with candied bacon. Accompany your food with a cool craft cocktail, Maine beer (several on draft), or a glass of wine.
Located at Linekin Bay Resort, this casual, mostly outdoor restaurant offers a serene waterside setting coupled with fresh lobster rolls, haddock BLTs, mussels, crab cakes, crudo yellowfin tuna, fish tacos, and clams linguine. There are plenty of meat, gluten-free, and vegan options, too. The resort and the restaurant are only a few minutes' drive east of downtown Boothbay Harbor, but the chill atmosphere seems a million miles away. There's often live music on weekends.
Try for a table by the windows in the small dining room of this little landmark restaurant, perched beside Pemaquid Lighthouse at the very edge of the rocky shore. Blueberry pancakes with Maine maple syrup are the clear breakfast favorites; the lunch and dinner menu features fried fresh seafood, lobster and crab rolls, salads, and mouthwatering entrées like the shipwreck pie (lobster, crab, shrimp, and scallops sautéed in butter and topped with a cracker-crumb crust). Desserts include ice cream and homemade pies or strawberry or blueberry shortcake. Alcoholic beverages aren't served, but you're welcome to bring your own. The gift shop is packed jewelry, Maine-made jams and condiments, prints of local scenery, and other great souvenirs.
Step into this welcoming, airy space, and settle at a table with a view of the Sheepscot River to enjoy local seafood, meats, and produce. Many of the pastas, paellas, and risottos have a Mediterranean flavor; other dishes showcase the chef's creative approach to modern American cuisine. There's also a raw bar. Light eaters appreciate the option of ordering a half-portion of any of the pasta dishes.
Connected to Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shop through an arched doorway, this little café turns out excellent coffee and hot and cold coffee drinks, plus fresh-from-the-oven sweet and savory baked items. It's hard to choose among the scones, slices of cake and pie, sinful cookies, cupcakes, and old-fashioned dessert bars. For a light lunch, go for a wedge of quiche or baked-in-house bread, toasted and topped with house-made salmon spread, hummus, or avocado.
Ribs are the thing at one of Maine's oldest barbecue joints, opened in 1996. Hearty eaters should ask for one of the platters piled high with pulled pork, pulled chicken, or shredded beef.
This aptly named, family-run restaurant serves all the standard Thai favorites, as well as some lesser-known options. Everything is prepared using fresh local fish, meats, and produce. In addition to indoor dining, there's a small patio just outside the front door.
Austrian-born chef-owner Karin Guerin dishes up intriguing, tapas-style small plates—from mojito ginger wings to Madagascar beef skewers—as well as full-size risotto, vegetarian, vegan, and seafood entrées. Be sure to try the fried oysters in vichyssoise sauce with flying-fish roe. On a fine summer day, the open-air rooftop and bar is a wonderful spot to dine.
This is the real deal—a working lobster wharf where fishermen unload their catch to be sold at the on-site fish market or incorporated into the lobster rolls, crab rolls, or fried seafood dishes that are served to diners on the dock and in the enclosed dining room. If you opt for the steamed lobster dinner, you get to choose your crustacean from a saltwater tank. There's live music every Friday and weekends. And if you're an oyster fan, head here for your fill of buck-a-shuck oysters Friday and Saturday evening. The view across the boat-filled harbor isn't bad, either.
On the main floor of the Harraseeket Inn, this dark, wood-paneled tavern with mounted moose heads, decoys, snowshoes, and other outdoor sporty decor is known for both its casual nature and its menu. The chefs use organic, mostly Maine produce, meat, and seafood in all the dishes, including the pizzas made in a wood-fired oven. About the only non-Maine ingredient is the wild salmon, which comes from Alaska and Oregon.
Yachts in the marina nose right up against the outdoor dining deck, and large windows frame the harbor in the elegant indoor dining room and casual bar. Complementing the views are the exceptional sandwiches, salads, pizzas, and tacos served at lunch and the oysters, lobster, sushi, and steaks served at dinner. If it's a special occasion, go for the ultimate surf-and-turf meal: a 10-ounce Wagyu strip steak with butter-poached lobster.
What began as a lobster shack in 1955 has grown into a large, well-known, family-style restaurant with a sizable menu that is predictably heavy on local seafood (lobster boats unload their catch at a dock here) but also has plenty of choices for landlubbers. A shore dinner will set you back close to $50, but you won't leave hungry after a 1¼-pound lobster, steamed clams, drawn butter, and corn on the cob. If you want to focus just on the lobster, you can order a bug weighing up to 5 pounds! Whether you choose indoor or deck seating, you can watch as the lobstermen come and go and the boats sail across the bay. Expect this place to be packed at the height of the season.
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