3 Best Restaurants in The Southern Coast, Maine

Each and every meal feels like a special occasion at his splurge-worthy place, which offers thoughtful attention to flavor and texture and uses the freshest locally sourced ingredients. The seasonally inspired menu is always in flux, but you can be sure that even hard-core foodies will be delighted with this culinary experience.

Award-winning chef Bowman Brown is behind this restaurant, situated in an old mill building—transformed with exquisite, Scandinavian-style decor—and offering just two tasting-menu seatings (at 5 and 8:30) a night. This is one of Maine's most highly regarded and splurge-worthy dining experiences, featuring meticulously prepared, seasonally inspired dishes, but if your budget is tight, note that the first-floor Jackrabbit Cafe serves small plates and pastries for a fraction of the tasting-menu price.

This off-the-beaten-path spot takes farm-to-table dining very literally. The fresh-grown produce—much of it from the grounds at Jordan’s Farm—needn’t travel far: prix-fixe dinners are served, family- or tasting-menu style on the intimate "chef's porch" or in private screened gazebos tucked among the flower fields, yours for the whole night. Reservations are available January 1 for the following season, and slots book up fast, so reserve early, or walk in to enjoy a cocktail outdoors.