From Coast to Countryside: 20 Southern Maine Restaurants Worth the Drive

One of my favorite weekend activities is taking short trips around Maine to explore new restaurants. My wife and I love setting out on drives guided by recommendations from reviews, articles, tips, or social media—you get the idea.

It’s adventurous and always satisfies the ol’ palate.

It's Easy to Find Incredible Restaurants All Across Maine

While traveling through the state, we’ve discovered amazing diners, great pubs, outstanding sandwich shops, perfect pizza parlors, and delicious cafés. Maine is certainly not lacking in 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.

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some places that are truly bucket list-worthy—spots that attract not just locals but plenty of folks from northern New England and beyond. That would be Southern Maine. These are the restaurants people consider can’t-miss—perhaps for the food, the views, the tradition, or maybe a little bit of all three.

So, we put out the call for the joints folks say are bucket list-worthy—the restaurants that help shape the Southern Maine community, are truly can’t-miss, and keep our stomachs full.

Now, thanks to our stations’ social media pages, we can finally put names to those establishments.

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What are the Best Bucket List Restaurants in Southern Maine?

Below is a list of 20 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. But all of them are true Southern Maine originals.

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