7 Best Restaurants in Western Lakes and Mountains, Maine

Stretched aside Route 27 as it curves into Stratton, this eye-catching white farmhouse restaurant has an inconspicuous rear entrance, allowing for maximum use of original rooms, one tin-ceilinged, and an old-fashioned glassed porch-turned-dining space. The seasonal menu features ingredients from area farms and items range from halibut to rack of lamb. The establishment’s modern pub has a separate menu. The restaurant’s entrepreneurial owners also have a more causal eatery in the village, Backstrap Bar & Grille, that’s home to a shop selling fine cuts of meat as well as seafood, including Maine lobsters and steamer clams (live or cooked).

Korean and Japanese dishes here are deeply rooted in Asia and Maine: the chef's Korean mother founded the restaurant in 2002, and spices for the kimchi are grown at the family's local homestead. On summer nights, dining on the wide front porch—lit by torches, candles, and strung lights—is delightful, but the lively storm-blue dining rooms are also inviting, and perfect for a post-ski meal. Sometimes there’s a bit of a wait for food, but as Cho Sun’s website notes, “We take pride in all of our entrees being made to order.” Diners can imbibe cold or hot sake as well as Asian-theme craft cocktails like the "saketini" (yes, with sake) and Maine craft brews.

This fun, modern eatery in a former bank has a vault-turned-walk-in-cooler in the open kitchen, an espresso bar with house blend, and oh-so-good scones, lemon bars, croissants, and Danishes—the line forms early along the pastry case. There are made-to-order breakfast and lunch sandwiches and soups, and you can pick up grab-and-go salads, sourdough bread, bagels (mix and match the six varieties!), house-made whipped cream cheese, local produce, and regional cheeses. At the tables, coffee and soup are sipped, respectively, from a renowned local potter's mugs and bowls, but don’t fret, to-go cups and containers are on hand. 

Built on Rangeley's outskirts as a summer home, this rustically elegant 1909 log lodge aside Rangeley Lake has been a restaurant and inn for much of its life; lovely lake views float beyond mid-century picture windows in dining spaces that were part of a porch. Locally sourced seasonal fine dining thrives with dishes like coconut curry salmon and filet mignon with bone marrow and red wine demi-glace and such delectable desserts as chocolate mousse pie and house-made ice cream. While waiting for a table in the dining room, guests imbibe at the Pickford Pub; on the deck or lawn; or in the great room, which has a soaring fieldstone fireplace. In summer there are boat slips for guests and come winter, a ramp for those who snowmobile over on the lake. Guest rooms (aside from four in a separate building) are well-appointed but lack TVs by design: Loon Lodge is touted as a place to unplug and relax between outdoor adventures.

A summertime visit to Rangeley isn't complete without a stop at this snack bar—in business since 1964—for simple meals like burgers and fries, and of course ice cream; hard, soft, and a nondairy equivalent are served, as are sundaes, milkshakes, flurries, and banana splits. The eatery is right beside Haley Pond's fenced outlet to Rangeley Lake, and everyone heads out back to visit the ducks on the pond.

True to its name, this popular restaurant has 20 or so beers and hard ciders on tap, most Maine-crafted. The seasonally fine-tuned menu offers pub fare (try the bison burger or poutine) and large plates such as salmon with hazelnut brown butter sauce. Warming up the rustically modern interior are floor-to-ceiling windows, a copper wood-fired oven that cooks up signature pizzas in the open kitchen, and the patrons’ camaraderie.

Like the facade, a cooler wall stocked with hundreds of beers from around Maine and the world—for dine-in or to-go—attests to this relaxed eatery's gas station past. Craft brews, many hard to find, accompany snazzy, farm-to-table takes on American classic and foreign-inspired comfort foods; there’s bar and table seating and an open kitchen. In the summer you can eat out back and play cornhole, and on Thursday evenings, stay for the live music (moved inside weather-depending).