50 Best Restaurants in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

At this all-you-can-eat churrascaria, waiters continually circulate through the dining room offering more than a dozen grilled meats—beef, pork, chicken, sausage, and the beloved Brazilian chicken hearts—on large, swordlike skewers. The massive buffet is laden with soups, salads, and side dishes, including plantains, rice, and beans; vegetarians could happily eat from the buffet, but the smell of grilling meat does permeate the restaurant.

This romantic roadhouse near the Chatham border, adorned with tiny white lights, wine bottles, and warm-hue walls, might just transport you to Italy—and if it doesn't, the fantastic food certainly will. There are always excellent specials added to the menu; in the fall and winter, look for value-priced entrées, and in summer, their hot dog cart (in the parking lot) serves the best wieners on the Cape.

This casual spot specializes in classics like grilled cheese sandwiches, hand-cut fries, and local seafood in a lively spot. Order at the counter, then grab a seat inside or at one of the several outdoor seating options; there's also a large beer menu with New England offerings, a good selection of wines, and fun cocktails. Weekend brunch features dishes like sticky buns and egg tacos. Dinner is served on Friday and Saturday.

Set in a 19th-century sea captain's home, this chef-owned gem with distant sea views uses what's locally available as the inspiration for an ever-changing and creative menu. There are also generous wine, martini, and drink lists.

The perfect find along the Cape Cod Rail Trail: a cute café that serves everything from mozzarella-artichoke sandwiches to chocolate-covered Oreos and nitro iced coffee. This family-run spot is a go-to for breakfast and lunch sandwiches, but they also make chocolate, so it's worth grabbing a treat to go (almond-, cashew-, and pecan turtles are a specialty). 

Yuji Watanabe, chef--owner of the Cape's best Japanese restaurant, makes early-morning journeys to Boston's fish markets to shop for the freshest local catch, and the resulting selection of sushi and sashimi is vast and artful. The serene and simple Japanese garden out back has a traditional koi pond.

Northern Italian and Mediterranean cooking distinguish this upscale, popular place. Make sure to come hungry—portions of classic favorites here are huge. Live music adds to the festive vibe on Sunday afternoons year-round. An excellent wine list pairs perfectly with the food.

Provincetown's Lobster Pot, a mainstay for more than 40 years, is fit to do battle with all the lobster shanties anywhere (and everywhere) else on the Cape; although it's often jammed with tourists, the crowds reflect the generally high quality, and the water views can't be beat. The hardworking kitchen turns out classic New England cooking: lobsters, generous and filling seafood platters, and some of the best chowder around.

This perennial favorite with magnificent harbor views focuses on local seafood and organic meat and produce with a cross-cultural flair (there's also a lighter bistro menu for smaller appetites). The view of the bay from the bar is nearly perfect, and the gentle lighting makes this a romantic spot to have a drink. This is one of the relatively few restaurants open year-round in town. Check out the who's who of previous diners on its website, including Elizabeth Taylor and Billie Jean King.

More than 1,000 oysters are eaten here on an average summer weekend, a good deal of them procured almost daily from the restaurant's own oyster farm in Barnstable Harbor. There are close to two dozen raw and "dressed" oyster dishes, but there's also a nice range of non-oyster entrées, salads, and appetizers. Outdoor bistro tables offer good people-watching while guests slurp their oysters.

Once a clam shack, this bistro has found new life and won legions of fans in this seaside town selling just-baked bread and succulent pastries—by early morning (even in off-season) the line snakes into the parking lot. They also offer prepared gourmet foods to go, and a well-curated menu of sandwiches (on excellent bread, of course!), plus there's outdoor and indoor seating, and they stay open all year (hours vary come wintertime). 

Inside the snazzy Crowne Pointe Inn, this intimate, casually handsome restaurant occupies the parlor and sunroom of a grand sea captain's mansion and serves finely crafted, healthful, modern American food with specials focused on local ingredients. There's a substantial wine list, with more than 125 selections to choose from, as well as a large martini menu.

With indoor and outdoor tables, a location on bustling Main Street, and a lively vibe (lots of families), this Mexican restaurant and bar—open for lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch—is a fun find. The tequila menu is extensive, and the food doesn't disappoint: Think tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, burritos, quesadillas, and nachos featuring handmade chips and all the classic toppings, plus achiote chicken and their own chorizo. Gotta have lobster or quahogs? They give a Mexi-spin to those as well. Langosta taquitos, anyone?

You can't miss this hot spot on the side of Route 6: look for the riot of colorful flowers lining the road and the folks waiting in long lines for fried seafood and other fixings. Unusual for a clam shack like this is the full bar, offering beer, wine, mixed drinks, and the house specialty: margaritas. You can also play a round of minigolf.

Gorgeously presented, impeccably fresh seafood is standard here: lunch and dinner selections range from just-off-the-boat scallops to tuna, local oysters, and octopus. It can be noisy and it's always crowded in summer, but it's worth the wait.

Offering breakfast and lunch, Café Chew serves everything from to-go espressos to breakfast favorites like pancakes and omelets. At lunch, a variety of soups, salads, panini, and sandwiches should please every palate—The Pilgrim (roasted turkey, stuffing, cranberry mayo) is the best of Thanksgiving in a sandwich any time of year.

You know your host loves you when they take you to this local favorite (with multiple locations). The Creamery incorporates only the best ingredients in its ice cream, including Madagascar vanilla and French cocoa; this year-round location also serves sandwiches and chowder. The mini-scoop sampler is a popular choice for newbies, featuring six flavors served in a banana boat dish. There are seasonal locations in South Yarmouth, Dennis, and at the Hy-Line ferry terminal on Ocean Street in Hyannis.

A great stop after the beach, this casual seafood shack has a regular menu of Cape classics like fried clams and fish-and-chips supplemented by specials posted on the board and a counter where you order and take a number written on a French fries box. There's seating inside as well as outside on a shady brick patio.

Owner/baker Antoine Vera has brought the French and Belgian boulangerie experience to Hyannis with this charming cafe, located just steps from the Village Green. Order fair-trade coffee, tea, and a wonderful pastry—or perhaps a prosciutto and cheese sandwich—and enjoy conversation with a friend at one of the indoor or outdoor bistro tables. Before you leave, pick up a tin of Belgian cookies or a jar of French mustard to bring home, along with a few extra melt-in-your-mouth macarons.

It's notoriously difficult to snag a table here in the summertime, but worth the wait as their wood-fired flatbreads are positively toothsome, made with organic four, local sea salt, and tasty toppings like braised beef short rib, butternut squash, and linguica sourced from a Massachusetts farm. Pasta dishes are a good option, too, and salads are fresh and creative, not an afterthought. Eat here or wrap it up and head to nearby Craigville Beach. Can't wait? They operate a take-out shop, Crisp Too, across the street.

Fanciful cocktails, an intriguing menu, live music, and daily blackboard specials make this a popular Chatham spot. There's also a changing tapas menu for quick bites at the bar.

Settle in for a proper afternoon tea, with tiered trays of finger sandwiches and diminutive desserts, at this English-style tea room set in a 1920s vintage carriage house overlooking Shawme Pond. A full tea service is offered all day, along with an à la carte lunch service and Sunday brunch (think lobster eggs Benedict and duck confit hash) and desserts are baked in-house. 

The friendly, family-run Fairway specializes in Italian comfort food but also has a very popular breakfast. Attached to the Hole in One Bakery—a favorite among locals for exceptional hand-cut doughnuts and muffins—the Fairway puts a jar of crayons on every paper-covered table and sells its own brand of root beer.

As the name suggests, seafood is the star here, from salmon to swordfish, scallops to sea bass, and all very recently caught in Atlantic waters. Two floors of seating in an antique home, plus an outdoor patio, make for an enchanted setting aglow with candlelight for a lovely dinner in the company of many satisfied diners.

Owned by two commercial fishermen (who happen to be brothers), this casually upscale seafood spot (attached to a seafood market) offers indoor and outdoor waterside dining at Cape Cod Canal. The menu offers a nice break from the usual fried seafood baskets, so diners opt for fresh oysters, sushi, and steamed lobster and crab buckets.

Lining up for an ice cream cone or frappe at Four Seas, a former blacksmith shop near Craigville Beach, has been a rite of summer on the Cape since 1934; it made the ice cream for Caroline Kennedy's wedding (the flavor: fresh peach) and has won a bazillion 'best' awards. They also sell lobster salad rolls, hot dogs, and other sandwiches. 

Open year-round, this friendly family-owned and operated restaurant serves up homey food for breakfast and lunch. Favorites from the extensive menu include traditional breakfast items like pancakes and eggs for breakfast, and fish-and-chips and a variety of sandwiches at lunch.

Fuel up for a beach day at this bustling family-owned breakfast and lunch spot, where options range from a kombucha and a cruller to a balsamic-drizzled veggie wrap and an iced chai latte. Guests order food at the downstairs level, confronted by an array of decadent baked goods (hand-cut doughnuts are a specialty), and take it to go or eat in the upstairs solarium or at a picnic table next to the parking lot.

Feel the ice cream love at this café, where the creamy frozen joy is available in vegan, non-dairy, and sugar-free forms, in addition to their usual premium homemade ice cream. The flavors are dreamy—think brownie batter swirl, chocolate-chili pepper, and Red Velvet cake—and the made-to-order ice cream sandwiches have ice cream stuffed between decadent thick cookies from nearby Cottage Street Bakery. Swoon.

The recipe of the swoon-worthy hot fudge served at Ice Cream Smuggler is one of the best-kept secrets on Cape Cod. Their hot fudge sundae was featured on the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate," and it is legendary in these parts, but you won't go wrong with a cone filled with, say, Raspberry Truffle, Salty Oreo, Apple Pie, or Peanut Butter Cookie Dough.