1. Baker’S Way
City: Boothbay Harbor, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 633-1119
Address: 89 Townsend Ave.
Description: A big yellow building with ample parking out front, this place looks for all the world like your average bakery—and then you see the little sign that says vietnamese foods. Step inside and you’ll find all the doughnuts, bagels, pastries, and croissants of a traditional bakery, but you’ll also discover a menu that is long and deep and filled with traditional Vietnamese dishes like yellow curry (excellent), stir-fried beef, stuffed rice pancakes, and stir-fried lobster. If the TV inside bothers you, step out back into a little garden where there is seating cafe style ringed by greenery. A visit here has a Tourist in Wonderland feel to it—so incongruous is the idea of a great Vietnamese restaurant hidden in a Boothbay bakery—but you’ll be glad you went in.
2. Bet’S Fish Fry
City: Boothbay Harbor, ME
Category: Restaurants
Address: Town Sq. (Off Route 27),
Description: This is the kind of place you want to find on your vacation—a take-out lobster shack at the side of the town green, owned by a real character, and serving delicious inexpensive lunches. The haddock sandwiches turned out by Bet Lauriat look like the cartoon eats that Shaggy from Scooby-Doo digs into—a real tower of goodness. Another option is the fish and chips. Bet’s been at it since the early 1990s, delicately frying away, to the delight of locals and the tourists lucky enough to stop here and dine at one of the funky, cafe-style tables out front. The sign on the side of the place always says jokingly free beer tomorrow, and may it ever be so.
3. Andrew’S Harborside Restaurant
City: Boothbay Harbor, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 633-4074
Address: 12 Bridge St.
Description: If you were to conjure up a seafood restaurant in a Maine resort town in your mind’s eye, it would probably look a lot like this eatery just above the harbor. But it’d be better than you think. Known around town for its breakfasts, the place turns to seafood for lunch and dinner, serving up dishes like Cajun salmon, lobster in a puff pastry with lavender butter, and pepper-crusted yellow tuna with a wild mushroom risotto.
4. Kaler’S Crab And Lobster House
City: Boothbay Harbor, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 633-5839
Address: 48 Commercial St.
Description: You could come here just for the views—just about every table looks out at the harbor. With its weathering shingles and varnished pine walls and gingham-checked tablecloths, this place has the tourist lobster house look nailed, and the eats fit, too. Seafood served baked, fried, stewed, grilled, and sautéed makes up most of the menu, but you can get steak and chicken as well. People have been known to wax enthusiastic about the fried clams. Kids like the touch tank. Open daily at 11:30 a.m.
5. Boothbay Lobster Wharf
City: Boothbay Harbor, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 633-4900 or (800) 996-17
Address: 97 Atlantic Ave.
Description: USA Today singled out this eatery, run by area lobstermen, as one of the best places to find a “New England Lobster Roll,” and whether the editors of “the nation’s newspaper” know much about seafood, they’re right in this instance. Among the reasons are the ample amount of meat the cook here crams into a bun. Their lobster bake on a platter—boiled bug, a couple ears of corn—is great, and it’s nice to know you’re directly supporting area fishermen and not some middleman. It also doesn’t hurt that the tables look out on the quiet side of the harbor.
6. Downeast Ice Cream
City: Boothbay Harbor, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 633-3016
Address: Pier One
Description: Ice cream with a view is the focus here (of course, you can get seven frozen yogurt, sherbet, and sugar-free cones, too).
7. Wannawaf
City: Boothbay Harbor, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 837-1274
Address: Under The Harborside Restaurant
Description: This take-out stand would be better served listed under a waffle heading, but since there isn’t one of those, it goes here. Since the late 1980s this spot has been the site of an ice-cream stand, and for the past few it’s been home to Wannawaf, which combines ice cream with hot Belgian waffles. Try the Maine Squeeze, which adds blueberry ice cream, blueberries, blueberry syrup, and whipped cream to a waffle, or the Classic, which is a waffle with vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and whipped cream. Decadent.