Last Updated: November 8, 2024
Known as the gateway to Acadia National Park, the city of Bar Harbor, Maine, is a charming small town located on Mount Desert Island. The best time to visit is the summer and fall months when you can enjoy camping, hiking, whale watching, and kayaking. With its coastal location, Bar Harbor, Maine has access to fresh seafood caught daily. From a warm cup of clam chowder to homemade blueberry pie, the restaurant options here will suit every palate. Check out these 10 amazing restaurants that you must try during your retirement travel visit to Bar Harbor. We selected a variety of dining styles for every taste.
Bar Harbor Restaurants Map
HOW TO SAVE THIS MAP:
Each icon has embedded information in the map, so click to review. To the right of the title of the map, click the ⭐️ STAR to save to your Google Map Account. To view it on your computer or phone, open Google Maps, click the three lines on the upper left, select “Saved,” select “Maps,” and this map will be listed below.
Best Time to Visit Bar Harbor, Maine
We have linked a great website to this button showing the weather for this location by the month. Click below to be taken to Weather-and-Climate.com.
Mike Jacobs
Aside from Cafe This Way, which is the best place to get breakfast/brunch, this is a list of the most mediocre standard vacation fare in Bar Harbor. None of the actual culinary spots are named (which include everything from casual lunch spots to dinner fine dining). The authors either don’t know food, or are being paid by the tourist traps to advertise, or are just stereotypical tourists (or a combination of all 3). Calling this a list of the 7 “best” restaurants is simply a joke.
Most of these places are fine – no reason to avoid them at all – but they have no business being on a “best” food list. Thirsty Whale is an old school pub with fried food – fun place, packed with tourists, food tastes exactly as you’d expect from this description. Side Street Cafe is a place for decent pub fare and nothing more, and it too is usually packed with tourists. The other places are as “good” as anywhere else that you’d eat in any other town in America – nothing more to say, therefore, no business being on a “top” list. And, Atlantic Brewing isn’t even a restaurant – it’s a cool brewery with a nice tap room and some fast food. Great for a quick beer hang, that’s it (and often filled with tourists as well).
Do some more Googling for the actual places where chefs cook real elevated food (Havana, Parilla, Brasserie Le Brun, Porcelli’s, Dinner, Lunch, Peekytoe Provisions, Two Cats, Reading Room, Balance Rock Inn). Even the Terrace Grill (at the Bar Harbor Inn) and the Fish House Grill, which are among the more touristy lunch spots, are better than what’s on this list. Not an opinion – a simple fact that anyone who knows food would recognize.
Retirement Travelers
Thanks for sharing your feedback on some of the restaurants. We appreciate it.
Happy journeys,
John and Bev