2 Best Restaurants in Southwest Harbor, Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island

Whether you have a table in the dining room or a seat at the small bar, you’ll feel comfortable at this longtime fine dining downtown restaurant, where yellow walls, white tablecloths, and the white brick fireplace add lightness and dark wood walls and ceilings and landscape paintings (for sale) add warmth. Along with entrées such as lobster risotto with asparagus and maple-glazed baby back ribs, grilled with crescendo after slowly braising, there’s always a burger on the menu. Appetizers are inventive, like house-made duck and pork sausage with pear, rhubarb, and raspberry chutney. Fine-tuned seasonally, the menu features locally sourced foods, including meat and fish.

Watch lobstermen and fishermen haul their catch and pleasure craft come and go at this working pier with a large restaurant that's big on lobster, clams, and other seafood but also sells burgers, steak, and hot dogs for the kids. There’s a roofed seating area with a bar, waterside bar tables for two along a covered pier walkway, indoor dining (upper level), and patio seating. Some seafood baskets offer a choice of fried or seared. The traditional lobster meal is served with cornbread, corn-on-the-cob, and coleslaw.