21 Best Restaurants in Penobscot Bay, Maine

Standing on the edge of the harbor, with dining decks on three sides, Archer's is the prime spot in Rockland for dining with a view—even when the weather keeps you indoors, there are plenty of windows. The large menu is heavy on traditional preparations of fresh, local seafood—including old-fashioned haddock cakes—but also includes plenty of contemporary dishes. Chef-owner Lynn Archer emerged victorious on the show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay. The dish? A triple-decker club sandwich with lobster. Happily, it's on the menu. There are many nonseafood choices, too. Everything on the wine list is available by the glass, and there are lots of creative cocktails, too.

Classic European and American breads such as batards, baguettes, ciabatta, focaccia, sourdough boules, and rolls come out of French ovens every morning at this popular little spot. The cases are also filled with just-baked croissants, scones, muffins, cookies, and more. Various specialties are available on different days of the week. There's also a selection of sandwiches and salads for lunch. It's a quick walk across the street from the Farnsworth Art Museum.

You probably wouldn't expect to find an eatery run by Franciscan friars in this little town, but you'll be glad you did. Dressed in long brown habits, your hosts happily serve excellent European-style beers brewed in their nearby mountainside friary, which pair well with sandwiches on freshly baked baguettes, or hearty entrées that blend Maine and French Canadian flavors like family-recipe meat loaf, from-scratch soups, pâté, and fresh local fish dishes. Sit at the bar and watch Brother Don cook, or choose a table with a view of the Penobscot River and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. Be sure to grab a loaf of friary-baked bread or a sweet treat from the to-go selection by the door.

This pint-size but well-stocked independent bookstore with a tiny café has been serving Camden for more than 50 years. The full menu of coffee drinks is based on locally roasted beans and includes a selection of homemade baked goods. It’s closed Sunday and Monday.

In a petite gray Cape (look for the mini red-and-white-striped lighthouse beside it), the Scone Goddess makes what are almost certainly the best scones you've ever tasted. Tender and a little crumbly—they bear no resemblance to those stone-hard lumps so often passed off as scones—flavors, which change daily, include ginger lemon, wild Maine blueberry lemon, raspberry cream, and bacon cheddar. You can order a latte, Americano, tea, iced tea, or lemonade to go with your treat. You can also buy mixes, in about a dozen flavors, to bake at home or give as a gift.

Right on the water's edge, across the harbor from downtown Belfast, this corrugated-steel building looks more like a fish cannery than a restaurant, but it's one of the best places for an authentic Maine lobster dinner, known here as the "shore dinner." Lobster rolls, surf-and-turf dinners, steamed clams, steak tips, and hot dogs are popular, too. As this is a real-deal lobster pound, with absolutely no frills, lobstermen tie up at the dock to unload their catch. There are numerous tanks of live lobsters at the front of the concrete-floored building; lobsters can be shipped as well. Order your dinner at the counter, then find a picnic table inside or on the deck, just remember it's BYOB. Don't leave your outdoor table unattended—seagulls are quick and determined food thieves.

This little restaurant has been around for a long time and has a large local following so it can be a little hard to get a table on a busy night, but it’s worth the wait. The traditional seafood dishes (fried or broiled) are good, the prices are reasonable, many dishes may be ordered in a "minnow" portion, and there are also a few choices for those who don't enjoy seafood.

Established back in 1976, the Co-op is a very special place in Belfast, and it’s not unusual to hear the expression, “I’ll meet you at the Co-op.” As the name implies, this full-service market is a members' cooperative that sells organic, locally grown vegetables, and other provisions, but you don’t have to be a member to shop here or visit the popular Co-op Café for coffee, tea, sandwiches, soups, prepared dishes, and homemade pastries. It's an excellent and inexpensive place for breakfast or lunch with one of the best selections of wines in town. There is no waiter service; you just order at the counter and pick up your food when it’s ready.

For more than two decades, this Main Street mainstay has been serving farm-to-table food to an enthusiastic Belfast community. Straight from the Chase family's farm to their restaurant, everything on the menu is vegetarian, including many entrées that are rooted in Indian cuisine. Produce and flowers from the farm are also available for sale, as are baked goods. There's seating in a large indoor space, plus a seasonal patio behind the restaurant.

The real focus of this little shop is an old-fashioned soda fountain, complete with Formica tops, red stools, and paper-hat-wearing soda jerks. Order an ice-cream soda or shake, and complete your stroll down memory lane with a selection of sweets from your childhood, such as candy cigarettes, jawbreakers, licorice, Chuckles, and even clove gum. Despite the name, there are only a few chocolates for sale.

Set right beside the road at the northern end of town, this lobster shack gets consistently enthusiastic reviews—many say the overstuffed lobster roll is one of the best. The large menu includes all the usual suspects plus a great selection of "snacky things" and entrées, and even a taco bar—butter-poached lobster tacos, anyone? Order at the counter and take your food out back to enjoy on the outdoor deck overlooking the harbor.

With pressed-tin ceilings, this charming, old-fashioned restaurant and bar—it's been such since 1865—is a perennial local favorite with a welcoming community feel to it. Pad Thai, chicken chili salad with cashews, a Buddha bowl, and a few Mexican-flavored items are signature dishes, but the menu also serves hearty, scratch-made soups, sandwiches on homemade bread, and classic fish-and-chips. The walls of this cozy pub are hung with old murals of Belfast scenes and works for sale by local artists.

A summertime fixture for five decades, the Harbor Dogs shack on the town landing is the perfect place to grab lunch to enjoy at a nearby bench beside the harbor or before or after a cruise. Hot dog toppings include southwestern, Asian, and Chicago, and there are also lobster and crab rolls, fish tacos, haddock Reubens, and fried-seafood platters.

There's a decidedly Mexican influence at this popular place, with breakfast choices including migas, huevos rancheros, and a burrito, and a list of tacos highlighted on the lunch menu. You'll also find a little Asian influence in the breakfast fried rice and a banh mi, as well as plenty of good old American dishes. Both breakfast and lunch are served from opening to closing time. All of the breads, biscuits, sticky buns, desserts, and more are scratch-made at the restaurant's bakery (open to the public), two blocks away at 606 Main Street. 

You can't help but smile big when you feast your eyes on a case full of beautifully frosted cupcakes in this haven for sweets lovers. Enticing flavors change daily, but might include chocolate-peanut butter, raspberry-filled chocolate, blueberry compote-filled, red velvet, almond joy, pistachio, salted caramel, lemon curd, and wedding cake. There are also cake pops. Buy a box full or get one to take with you or enjoy right away at one of a few small tables indoors and out. The bakery also welcomes custom orders.

A fixture since 1926, this is an authentic place to enjoy a classic Maine lobster dinner—a cup of clam chowder, steamed clams, a 1-1/8-pound lobster, corn on the cob, potato, and Maine blueberry pie. The large restaurant has rustic wooden picnic tables outside, an enclosed patio, and two dining rooms with a gift shop in between, as well as tanks where you can pick from hundreds of live lobsters for your dinner. There's a full bar, and the wine list includes some Maine labels. Prices of the lobster dishes fluctuate with the market. There's also plenty of fried seafood as well as the required lobster roll. Because this is such a big place, you won't have to wait long, even when it's busy. It's right on U.S. 1, next to Lincolnville Beach, and has beautiful views of Penobscot Bay and the island of Islesboro. It's fun to watch the ferry go to and from Islesboro as you dine.

A local favorite since 1980, MacLeod's serves a surprisingly wide variety of choices. Entrées include raspberry roasted duck, steak, ribs, broiled or fried local seafood, and a few Mexican-style options.

This lovely trattoria is known for its cheery harbor-view setting and frequently changing menus where locally sourced ingredients shine. Highly regarded chef-owner Sara Jenkins's fresh but authentic takes on Mediterranean-spanning dishes use seafood harvested along Maine's rocky coast, including local oysters, and everything from the pasta to the pickled veggies is made in-house; the presentation of each dish makes for sheer eye candy. Jenkins grew up in Italy and worked in restaurants both there and at her own New York City restaurants—in other words, she knows what she's doing. There is also a small "dispensa" selling olive oil, wine, pasta, and some pantry goods.

Famous for the size of its breakfasts—don't pass up the lobster or fish-cake Benedict—Rockland Café has been a local favorite for decades. The large menu includes plenty of lunch and dinner choices from the excellent clam, fish, and seafood chowder to fried haddock, clams, shrimp, and scallops or lobster, clam, shrimp, and scallop rolls. For nonseafood eaters, there are burgers, chicken baskets, meat loaf, and even liver and onions. For big seafood eaters, there are all-you-can-eat fried seafood dinners. Breakfast is served from 6 am until 11 am in the summer, and until 4 pm on weekdays in the off-season. 

You can get anything here as long as it’s on a doughnut (accompanied by hot or iced coffee, if you wish). Made in the Maine tradition with potato flour, the day's flavors might include salted caramel, buttermilk, and “full-tilt” blueberry with a glorious blueberry glaze. Brioche doughnuts are available on weekends.

Located in a historic old brick building with an interior that is reminiscent of an Old English pub—dark heavy woods, dark atmosphere, a wood-burning fireplace that takes four-foot-long logs, copper kettles—the restaurant and pub are basically one. Among the items on the menu are steamed lobsters, mussels, seared tuna, fried calamari salad, broiled scallops, and other seafood, as well as prime rib, charbroiled steaks, ribs—and the very popular British-style fish-and-chips. There's live music on Saturday nights. For nice-weather days, there's a water-view deck, and small, sandy Lincolnville Beach is mere steps away.