40 Exceptional Maine Restaurants That Belong on Your Bucket List

One of my favorite weekend activities is taking a spontaneous trip within Maine to explore a new restaurant. My wife and I love driving for hours based on recommendations from reviews, articles, tips, or social media posts... you get the idea.

It's fun, adventurous, and always satisfies the palate.

Maine's Incredible Food Scene Continues to Impress

While traveling through the state, we’ve found amazing diners, great pubs, outstanding sandwich shops, perfect pizza parlors, and delicious coffee. Maine is not lacking great places to enjoy a fine meal

We spend a lot of time discussing and dissecting every little aspect of the Maine restaurant scene. Whether it's Portland, the surrounding area, Bar Harbor, the Midcoast, the Western Foothills, or the Southern Coast, this state is an absolute gold mine.

Maine Restaurants Deemed "Bucket List" Worthy

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to take a look at places that are truly 'bucket list-worthy'—the spots in Maine that people believe are 'can't-miss.' Perhaps it’s for the food, the views, the tradition, or maybe a little bit of all of those.

So, we put out the call for the joints Mainers say are bucket list-worthy—the restaurants that help shape a community, are 'can't-miss,' and keep our stomachs full.

Now, thanks to our stations' social media, we can put names to those establishments.

Below is a list of 40 of those restaurants that were suggested to us. They vary in size, concept, and location. Some have opened recently, while others have been community staples for years. However, they are all true Maine originals.

You can see the entire list below. Hope you're hungry—I know I am.