How this list is ranked
Ogunquit has roughly forty restaurants inside a village you can walk end to end in twenty minutes. Ranking them by star rating alone is meaningless — a 5.0 built on eleven reviews tells you nothing. So this list is sorted by rating multiplied by review volume, which rewards places that have stayed good while feeding enormous numbers of people. A 4.2 that has survived two thousand diners is a harder result than a 4.8 that has survived forty.
That method has one honest bias: it favors size. The busiest rooms in Perkins Cove will always outscore a thirty-seat kitchen on Shore Road. So there is a second list further down for the small, high-rated places the volume ranking buries.
The 14 highest-scoring restaurants in Ogunquit
1. Barnacle Billy's
The most-reviewed restaurant in town, and the one every first-timer ends up at. It sits right on Perkins Cove with a deck over the water, and it trades on that position — lobster, steamers, chowder, rum punch, sunshine. The 4.2 rating is the lowest in the top five and it is earned: service can be brisk to the point of rushed when the cove fills. Go for the deck, not the cooking.
4.2 · 2,098 reviews · 70 Perkins Cove Rd · barnbilly.com
2. The Front Porch Piano Bar & Restaurant
A restaurant downstairs and a piano bar upstairs, at the corner where Shore Road meets Main. It is one of the few places in town where dinner and the rest of the evening happen in the same building, and the singalong upstairs is the whole point for a lot of the room. The kitchen holds a 4.5 across nearly 1,900 reviews, which for a venue that is half entertainment is a genuinely strong number.
4.5 · 1,878 reviews · 9 Shore Rd · thefrontporch.com
3. BeachFire Bar & Grille
Up at the north end of Main Street, away from the village crush, with a fire pit and a big outdoor bar. Broad American menu, competent across it, and the parking situation is dramatically less painful than anything in the center. This is where you go when the village has defeated you.
4.5 · 1,420 reviews · 658 Main St · beachfiremaine.com
4. Angelina's
Italian, and the most expensive-feeling room on this list — one of only two restaurants in Ogunquit carrying a top-tier price level in our data. Long wine list, tasting-menu ambitions, and a reputation that draws people up from Portsmouth. Book it; walking in on a Saturday in August is not a plan.
4.4 · 1,384 reviews · 655 Main St · angelinasogunquit.com
5. The Lobster Shack
A small building in Perkins Cove doing the narrow thing well: lobster, rolls, chowder, fried fish. It carries a 4.6 across more than 1,200 reviews, which is the best rating-plus-volume combination of anything in the cove. Expect a line. Expect it to move.
4.6 · 1,259 reviews · 110 Perkins Cove Rd · lobster-shack.com
6. Ogunquit Lobster Pound Restaurant
Inland on Main Street rather than on the water, which is why people miss it. Traditional pound format — you pick, they boil, you eat under the pines. If your mental image of a Maine lobster dinner involves a log building and a paper bib rather than a harbor view, this is the closer match.
4.4 · 1,138 reviews · 504 Main St · ogunquitlobsterpound.com
7. The Greenery Cafe
Breakfast and lunch, mid-Main Street, and a 4.6 across more than a thousand reviews — a rating that daytime cafes rarely hold once volume gets that high. It is the answer to the question "where do we eat before the beach," and the answer most of the village gives.
4.6 · 1,077 reviews · 369 Main St · thegreenerycafeogt on Facebook
8. Cornerstone Artisanal Pizza & Craft Beer
Wood-fired pizza and a deep tap list, which in a town this seafood-heavy is a genuine relief by day three. The 4.3 is the soft spot in the top ten; the pizza is better than the number suggests and the waits are worse.
4.3 · 1,080 reviews · 228 Main St · cornerstoneogunquit.com
9. Jackie's Too
Perkins Cove, water views, and the lowest rating on this list at a flat 4.0 across nearly 1,100 reviews. Included because volume that high means you will be offered it, and you should know what the consensus actually is: the location is doing most of the work. Fine for a drink and a view, less compelling as a dinner destination.
4.0 · 1,093 reviews · 91 Perkins Cove Rd · jackies-too.com
10. Jonathan's Ogunquit
Set back off Bourne Lane, away from the Main Street noise, and larger inside than the approach suggests. Serious kitchen, seafood-forward, and the venue also runs a live music calendar — check what is booked before you assume it is a quiet dinner. Parking on site, which in this village is a feature worth pricing in.
4.4 · 882 reviews · 92 Bourne Ln · jonathansogunquit.com
11. That Place in Ogunquit
Shore Road, and a 4.6 that holds across more than 700 reviews. Smaller and less theatrical than the cove restaurants, which is exactly why locals send you there. One of the better rating-to-hype ratios in town.
4.6 · 732 reviews · 331 Shore Rd · thatplaceinogunquit.com
12. The Omelette Factory
Breakfast, and the name is not a metaphor. A 4.6 across 690 reviews puts it level with The Greenery on quality if not on scale. Between the two, Ogunquit is unusually well served at the meal most beach towns treat as an afterthought.
4.6 · 690 reviews · 422 Main St · omelettefactoryme.com
13. M.C. Perkins Cove
The upscale one — the other top-tier price level in the village — with floor-to-ceiling glass looking straight out at the open Atlantic. The 4.3 is lower than the ambition, and the gap is usually about value rather than cooking. Sit upstairs by the window or do not bother.
4.3 · 717 reviews · 111 Perkins Cove Rd · mcperkinscove.com
14. The Napoli's - Italian Kitchen & Bar
North end of Main Street near BeachFire, Italian-American, generous portions. A 4.1 across 727 reviews makes it the second-softest score here; it is a reliable family dinner rather than a reason to drive to Ogunquit.
4.1 · 727 reviews · 667 Main St · thenapoliogunquit.com
The small rooms the volume ranking buries
These all hold a 4.6 or better with enough reviews to be credible, but not enough scale to crack the list above. Several are better restaurants than several things in the top ten.
- Black Sushi House — 4.7 across 138 reviews, the highest rating of any restaurant in the village with meaningful volume behind it. 259 Main St.
- Footbridge Lobster — 4.6 across 546 reviews, in Perkins Cove, and rated well above its famous neighbors. 108 Perkins Cove Rd.
- Bonissoni Brazilian Steakhouse — 4.6 across 505 reviews. A churrascaria in a Maine beach town is an odd proposition that clearly works. 82 Shore Rd.
- Beachmere Inn — 4.6 across 493 reviews, the dining room of an oceanfront inn on Beachmere Place, open to non-guests.
- Brix + Brine — 4.6 across 455 reviews, on Shore Road near the village center. brixbrine.com
- The Front Yard — 4.6 across 409 reviews, 355 Main St, a few doors from The Greenery.
- Backyard Coffee & Eatery — 4.6 across 370 reviews, 178 Main St. The best coffee-and-something option in the walkable center.
- The Crooked Pine — 4.6 across 287 reviews, 30 Shore Rd.
- Raspberri's — 4.6 across 258 reviews, 449 Main St.
Picking by situation
| You want | Go to |
| A deck over the water, cooking secondary | Barnacle Billy's (4.2) |
| Lobster done properly, no view required | The Lobster Shack (4.6) or Footbridge Lobster (4.6) |
| A real dinner out | Angelina's (4.4) or Jonathan's (4.4) |
| Breakfast before the beach | The Greenery Cafe (4.6) or The Omelette Factory (4.6) |
| Not seafood, please | Cornerstone (4.3) or Bonissoni (4.6) |
| Somewhere you can actually park | BeachFire (4.5), north Main Street |
The practical part
Two things shape eating in Ogunquit more than any menu. The first is parking. The village center and Perkins Cove both run out of spaces early on summer days, and the cove lot in particular is a trap — you can spend forty minutes circling for a table you could have walked to. The seasonal trolley loop connects the beach, the village and the cove, and using it is usually faster than driving between them.
The second is season. This is a summer town. Hours contract sharply in the shoulder months and a number of these kitchens close entirely for winter, so check the restaurant's own site before you build an evening around it. The upside is that a September or early-October dinner in Ogunquit is a completely different, far calmer experience than the same table in August.
If you are working out the rest of the trip, the things to do in Ogunquit guide covers the Playhouse, the museum and the rest of the village, and the Ogunquit beaches guide sorts out which stretch of sand suits you. The Marginal Way clifftop path is the walk that links the village to Perkins Cove — and the best way to arrive hungry at any of the cove restaurants above. For a wider view of the town, start at Ogunquit.
Ogunquit is also small enough that you will run out of new rooms after four or five nights. Wells is ten minutes north with its own strong list — see the best restaurants in Wells — and there is a statewide view on our restaurants directory if you are traveling further up the coast. If the goal is specifically the sandwich, the Maine lobster roll guide covers what separates a good one from a $34 disappointment.
FAQ
What is the best restaurant in Ogunquit, Maine?
By rating alone, Black Sushi House leads at 4.7. By rating weighted against how many people have tested it, The Lobster Shack is the strongest result in the village — a 4.6 across more than 1,200 reviews. Barnacle Billy's is the most-reviewed restaurant in town at 2,098 reviews, but its 4.2 is a step below the leaders, and most of what it sells is the deck.
Do you need reservations for restaurants in Ogunquit?
For the sit-down rooms in July and August, yes — Angelina's, Jonathan's and M.C. Perkins Cove in particular. The counter-service places in Perkins Cove do not take them and work on a queue instead. Outside the peak weeks the pressure drops off quickly, and a walk-in on a weeknight in June or September is usually fine.
Where should you eat lobster in Ogunquit?
Three genuinely different formats. The Lobster Shack (4.6, 1,259 reviews) and Footbridge Lobster (4.6, 546 reviews) are compact counter operations in Perkins Cove. Ogunquit Lobster Pound Restaurant (4.4, 1,138 reviews) on Main Street is the traditional pick-and-boil pound, inland and under the trees. Barnacle Billy's is the one with the water deck. The cove options are better rated; the pound is the more atmospheric meal.
Are Ogunquit restaurants open year round?
Many are not. Ogunquit runs on a summer season, and a significant share of the village kitchens either close for winter or cut back to weekends only in the shoulder months. Restaurants along the north end of Main Street tend to stay open longer than those in Perkins Cove. Always check the individual restaurant's site rather than assuming — hours here change with the calendar, not with the week.
