Restaurants in Bar Harbor
In addition to the selections listed below, you can get good local pizza at Rosalie’s on Cottage Street (tel. 207/288-5666); eat upstairs or down, or take out a pie to go. There’s also a solid natural foods market, A&B Naturals (tel. 207/288-8480) at 101 Cottage Street, which has prepared foods and a good little café inside.
If you’re craving something sweet, head over to Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium, 66 Main Street (tel. 800/806-3281 or 207/288-3281), for a big ice-cream cone. In the evenings, you may have to join a line spilling out the door. Visitors are often tempted to try the place’s novelty ice cream, lobster ice cream. Like butter? Then be bold and give it a shot.
Or if you enjoy experimenting with other ice cream flavors, Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream, 7 Firefly Lane ( tel. 207/460-5515), right beside the tourist office, is the place for you. It gives all the appearances of being just another ho-hum scoop shop of the vanilla-chocolate-strawberry ilk, but there’s little conventional about a place featuring gourmet concoctions spiked with tarragon, chili, and wasabi, among other flavors. (President Barack Obama sampled a coconut cone during a surprise 2010 visit.) There’s another branch at 325 Main Street (and, for your trip home, one on Exchange Street in Portland). Both locations serve coffee, tea, and yerba maté, as well.
Packing a picnic in Bar Harbor
Even in downtown Bar Harbor, you can have a nice picnic experience simply by settling onto a bench on the Village Green—that’s the green, rectangular space tucked behind and between Mount Desert and Kennebec streets. People-watching abounds, and art shows and festivals sometimes come to the green. Closer to the water, at the tip of the land (at the end of West and Main streets), the pocket Agamont Park is superlative for its picnic spot and a view of boats and islands. There’s also the quiet campus of earthy College of the Atlantic, back on Route 3; they surely won’t mind if you plunk down a basket and graze. The great natural-foods store A&B Naturals, at 100 Cottage Street (see above), is your best bet for prepared foods, drinks, and healthy snacks. It’s open Mondays through Saturdays from 8:30 to 7pm, Sundays 10am–6pm.
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11 Results
- Brewpub
Atlantic Brewing Midtown
Way back in 1990, before Maine had the most craft breweries per capita of any state, before most Americans really knew what a microbrew or a brewupb was, Atlantic Brewing got its start in Bar Harbor. These days, the production brewery is away from downtown (and is atachted to its own…$$Around Town - Lobster Shack
Beal's Lobster Pier
Is Beale's the best lobster shack in Maine? It's certainly got the right ambiance: creaky picnic tables on a plain concrete pier next to a Coast Guard base. Plus you get to pick your own lobster from the tank, ensuring a super-fresh meal.$$Southwest Harbor - Eclectic
Cafe This Way
Cafe This Way is the kind of place where they know how to do wonderful Asian and Mediterranean things with simple ingredients. It has the feel of a hip coffeehouse, yet it’s much more creative than that. Bookshelves line one wall, and there’s a small bar tucked into a nook; oddly,…$$Around Town - New American
Fiddlers' Green
Maine native chef Derek Wilbur's bistro is a big hit, and you'll understand why once you've tried his creative lobster interpretations ("Ocean with Cow" is fab as are the lobster enchiladas) to small plates of Thai-curried shrimp, fried catfish, grilled merguez, and baby back ribs.…$$Southwest Harbor - Seafood
Galyn's
Normally I avoid midpriced bistros in tourist towns, because they’re generally all pretty similar and almost never as special as their precious signs proclaim. But charming, unassuming Galyn’s is the exception; Galyn’s gets it right. From perfectly blackened and grilled Cajun shrimp,…$$Around Town - Latino/Fusion
Havana
Havana excited foodies all over Maine when it opened just over two decades ago in what was then a town of fried fish and baked haddock. The spare decor in an old storefront is as classy as anything you’ll find in Boston, and the menu still can hold its own against the big city,…$$Around Town - Diner
Jordan's Restaurant
This unpretentious breakfast-and-lunch joint has been dishing up filling fare since 1976, and offers a glimpse of the old Bar Harbor. It’s a popular haunt of local working folks and retirees, but staff are also friendly to tourists. Diners can settle into a pine booth or at a…$Around Town - American/Eclectic
Lompoc Café
The Lompoc Cafe has a well-worn, neighborhood-bar feel to it—waiters and other workers from around Bar Harbor congregate here after-hours. The cafe consists of three sections: the original bar, a tidy beer garden just outside (try your hand at bocce), and a small and open barnlike…$$Around Town - New American
Mâche Bistro
An old Bar Harbor standby that found its way into new digs in 2014, little Mâche Bistro has developed a devoted local following The old space was ticky-tack enough that it gave the place a sort of cult appeal, masking the kitchen’s sophistication; the new one is sophisticated without…$$Around Town - Barbecue/Brewpub
Mainely Meat
West of Bar Harbor proper, in the village of Town Hill, Mainely Meat is a rough-and-tumble little barbecue shack that happens to be wedded to the taproom of Atlantic Brewing Company, one of the state’s oldest craft brewers. Pitmaster Paul Douglas smokes up pork, chicken, ribs, and…$Town Hill - Classic American
McKay's Public House
If there were no other reason to like McKay’s, the fact that it’s open year-round would speak well for it. But there are plenty of other reasons, beginning with the fact that it’s true to its name—this is a genuine public gathering place, and one of those spots in Bar Harbor where…$$Around Town
