5 Best Restaurants in Newport County and East Bay, Rhode Island

At this mainstay on the Newport waterfront, you can choose your dining experience based on the ambience and vibe you're looking for. The posh, plank-floored Commodore's Room (business casual dress required) features country pâté, escargot, rack of lamb, stuffed lobster tails, and other classic offerings, while the Tavern has a more casual experience, with standard American fare like salads, burgers, and grilled meat or fish, old nautical charts on the walls, and a four-season patio.

This Tiverton restaurant masters the art of elegant waterfront dining with views of the Mount Hope Bridge and a menu that covers all of the New England seafood bases, from the raw bar and chowder to calamari and cioppino. It's the kind of place meant for lingering over a long dinner, but not too pretentious to leave sandwiches off the menu. If you want a burger or a shrimp po'boy, that's no problem, but do wash it down with a dessert cocktail like the Iced Rhody, a mix of espresso, Irish cream, and cinnamon syrup.

This family-run roadside seafood shack draws summer visitors like moths to a streetlight. Lobster chow mein is an unusual specialty of the house, but the menu also includes more familiar fried seafood favorites along with burgers and other quick bites. There is a small dining room, but most people just order at the takeout window and eat at one of the picnic tables out back, cooled by breezes off of Nanaquatucket Pond.

With Bruce the shark out front and a weathered, kitschy vibe, this local institution across from Easton's Beach in Middletown is as casual as they come. Lobster rolls, fried seafood, baked fish, clam cakes, cold beer, and a great raw bar make for long lines in summer. A smaller second location is at Island Park Beach in Portsmouth.

Folks have been coming here since 1929 for lobster: as a salad roll, on pizza, or whole—but wait, there's also grilled swordfish, pan-seared cod, broiled scallops, bouillabaise, and steak or chicken, too. At lunch or dinner, start with a craft brew or cocktail, then build your own plate from the raw bar: jumbo shrimp, oysters, littleneck and cherrystone clams, or cold lobster cocktail.