4 Best Restaurants in The Mid-Coast Region, Maine

Christian Hayes—a champion on the TV show, Chopped, and a seventh-generation Mainer whose family has a deep history in the local fishing and farming industries—is the chef-owner of this bistro. He uses pure and simple ingredients to create complex dishes such as meaty sautéed mushrooms in bright, silky egg yolk or slow-braised pork belly with chili, cucumber, garlic-scape kimchi, quail egg, and cashew powder. The dessert menu features ice cream, but it's not the ordinary cold stuff, with offerings like sour cherry and Champagne sorbet or Thai-iced-tea iced cream with butterfly pea flower whipped cream and chili crisps.

Yachts in the marina nose right up against the outdoor dining deck, and large windows frame the harbor in the elegant indoor dining room and casual bar. Complementing the views are the exceptional sandwiches, salads, pizzas, and tacos served at lunch and the oysters, lobster, sushi, and steaks served at dinner. If it's a special occasion, go for the ultimate surf-and-turf meal: a 10-ounce Wagyu strip steak with butter-poached lobster.

Even though it's not directly on the water, don’t overlook this Main Street eatery. You can't go wrong with lobster cakes or Pemaquid oysters, but here you can also tuck into Thai fish stew, grilled hangar steak with a bourbon-brown-sugar glaze, or duck confit risotto.

At this restaurant in an adorable building just off Main Street, the acclaimed crab cakes and the oysters fresh from the Damariscotta River are good bets, but so are the steak-and-ale pie, seafood stew, and fish-and-chips (made with fresh haddock that's sautéed rather than fried). With exposed-brick walls and low, wood-beamed ceilings hung with pottery beer mugs, the downstairs is a snug place to enjoy a Maine craft ale.