16 Best Restaurants in Penobscot Bay, Maine

With tufted green leather settees and a wood-burning brick fireplace, the Homeport Tavern, part of the Homeport Inn, exudes an English-accented coziness. While bangers and mash and fish-and-chips give a nod to the old country and New England seafood is well represented, many dishes on the lunch and dinner menus have a distinctly Southern drawl. Items such as a shrimp po'boy, filé gumbo, smoked pork belly, and bread pudding with bourbon praline sauce hint at the chef's Louisiana roots. There's a good selection of Maine craft beers on tap.

The celebrated Thai chef at this Asian-fusion restaurant places an emphasis on authentic noodle and rice dishes. The atmosphere is casual and open, with rustic wood tables and bentwood chairs. As it's very popular with both locals and visitors, reservations are strongly encouraged—though you might be able to squeeze in at the tiny bar without one if you're dining solo.

Trained at the Tokyo Sushi Academy, Keiko Suzuki is an artist when it comes to preparing and presenting sushi—everything is almost too beautiful to eat. The fish is sweet and ultrafresh, and nothing on the menu is fried. Many say this is the best sushi in Maine, and some claim it's even better than what they've had in Japan. Order the omakase—it changes according to Keiko's whim and what's available. In addition to sushi, there are a few cooked noodle dishes. The restaurant is small, and very popular, meaning reservations are a must.

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.

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.

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.

Serving lunch and dinner, the fare at this casual café is inspired by the cooking of chef Evan Richardson’s Costa Rican grandparents. Serving sizes vary—small plates like empanadas and tilefish ceviche are perfect for snacking, while entrées like spice-rubbed chicken (smoked in the restaurant’s offset smoker) and rondon, a seafood-packed Caribbean stew, are more hearty.

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.

Tucked among Main Street's lineup of small shops, this intimate bistro serves exceptional house-made pastas and other Italian favorites—try the eggplant fries to start. Among the entrées, the mushroom sacchetti (pasta pockets filled with wild porcini, roasted portobello mushrooms, and cheeses) are especially popular, and on Tuesday, there's a special, budget-friendly menu for two. In addition to the inviting, brick-walled interior, there's a sidewalk patio for warm-weather dining.

Diners are greeted by a friendly smile at this small and airy eatery. It serves a standard Thai menu—think pad Thai, tom kha, and chicken satay—with exceptional preparations. Popular choices include a chive rice cake and panang curry.

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-style, and there are also lobster and crab rolls, fish tacos, haddock Reubens, and fried-seafood platters.

Orange bar stools, dark walls with art deco--like horizontal stripes, and deep booths define this dimly lit "gastro dive bar" that lists cocktails under ports of call—Caribbean, New England, and the Pacific. The menu features tacos and a mostly Mexican-flavor selection of bar snacks, with a couple of dish detours to Thailand and the South. It's not what you'd expect in a small Maine seaport, and that adds to the fun.

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.

Not only does Sadie Samuels captain her own lobster boat, the Must Be Nice, but she also transforms her haul into lobster rolls that she sells—along with crab rolls, fries, hot dogs, and burgers—from a lunch wagon parked at the bottom of Main Street, just up from the harbor. There are outdoor tables plus indoor seating alongside a small shop of items Samuels crafts herself.

Come to this long-standing local favorite for a ringside seat on Camden Harbor; the best view, when the weather cooperates, is from the deck. The menu features fresh local seafood, but there are also beef and chicken entrées and salads. Clam chowder and lobster rolls are highlights at lunch.