How this list is ranked
Every place below actually serves at midday — dinner-only rooms are excluded, which removes several of the city's famous names. Within that set, the ranking is rating multiplied by review volume, so a 4.6 tested by thousands of people outranks a 4.9 tested by forty. The highest-rated small and daytime-only kitchens get their own section afterward, because that method buries them.
The 12 best lunches in Portland
1. Becky's Diner
The most-reviewed restaurant in the city and not remotely a tourist trap. Becky's sits at the working west end of Commercial Street, opens before dawn for the fishing fleet, and serves hash, eggs, fried fish and pie with no concessions to anyone. Cheapest good meal downtown. The counter turns over fast even when the booths are full.
4.6 · 8,062 reviews · 390 Commercial St · beckysdiner.com
2. The Highroller Lobster Co.
Lobster without the ceremony — rolls warm with butter or cold with mayo, a lobster hot sauce, a bright yellow room off Exchange Street, and a line out the door in July. It is the best-value lobster roll in the Old Port and the single most efficient tourist lunch in the city.
4.6 · 5,388 reviews · 104 Exchange St · highrollerlobster.com
3. Duckfat
Belgian fries fried in duck fat, poutine, panini and milkshakes, in a room on Middle Street that seats almost nobody. The wait is the whole problem with Duckfat and the reason to come at midday rather than at night. Put your name in, walk the East End, come back.
4.6 · 5,332 reviews · 43 Middle St · duckfat.com
4. Eventide Oyster Co.
The brown-butter lobster roll on a steamed bun is the dish Portland is most famous for, and lunch is far and away the easiest time to get one. Oysters from a granite trough, a short menu, communal seating. Prices are dinner prices at noon, but the wait is not a dinner wait.
4.5 · 5,227 reviews · 86 Middle St · eventideoysterco.com
5. DiMillo's On the Water
A retired car ferry moored at Long Wharf, and one of the very few floating restaurants in the country. Italian-American surf and turf at scale. You are buying the harbor and the deck — if you get seated inland you have wasted the trip, so ask.
4.5 · 6,095 reviews · 25 Long Wharf · dimillos.com
6. Gilberts Chowder House
The chowder answer. A plain room on Commercial Street doing clam, fish, seafood and corn chowder in bowls and bread bowls, plus fried plates. Nothing here is inventive and nothing needs to be. It is the right lunch on the first cold, wet day of a trip.
4.5 · 3,601 reviews · 92 Commercial St · gilbertschowderhouse.com
7. The Porthole Restaurant & Pub
Out on Custom House Wharf, down an alley most visitors walk past, with a deck built over the water and a fishing pier on either side. It serves from early morning through the evening, and the deck at noon is one of the genuinely good seats in Portland. The food is pub food; the setting is not.
4.3 · 3,458 reviews · 20 Custom House Wharf · portholemaine.com
8. J's Oyster
An old harbor bar on Portland Pier where the oysters are cheap, the room is dark and the clientele is a real mix of fishermen, regulars and people who found it by accident. The most unreconstructed thing on the waterfront and a hard place to have a bad afternoon.
4.4 · 3,126 reviews · 5 Portland Pier · jsoyster.com
9. Hot Suppa
The highest-rated high-volume restaurant on this list, and a daytime kitchen — it does breakfast and lunch and does not do dinner. Southern-leaning plates on upper Congress Street, well outside the Old Port crush, with a wait on weekends that is worth sitting through. The best straight lunch in Portland by rating.
4.7 · 2,287 reviews · 703 Congress St · hotsuppa.com
10. Central Provisions
One of the hardest dinner reservations in the city runs a separate midday service that far fewer people know about. Same small-plates kitchen, same stone-walled basement room on Fore Street, a fraction of the competition for a seat. If you want to eat somewhere serious without planning three weeks out, this is the move.
4.6 · 1,737 reviews · 414 Fore St · central-provisions.com
11. Empire Chinese Kitchen
Dim sum and Chinese cooking on Congress Street, drawing far more residents than visitors, and open through the middle of the day when much of the Old Port is not. Order more dumplings than you think you need.
4.6 · 1,724 reviews · 575 Congress St · portlandempire.com
12. Terlingua
Texas barbecue with a Mexican accent on Washington Avenue, out in the East End where Portland's newer restaurants went when the Old Port got expensive. Smoked meat by the pound, a good patio, and a neighborhood worth the fifteen-minute walk from the waterfront.
4.6 · 1,285 reviews · 40 Washington Ave · terlingua.me
Daytime-only kitchens and small rooms
These rate higher than most of the list above but have not been through the same volume. Several are the better meal.
| Restaurant | Rating | Reviews | Where |
|---|
| Little Pig | 5.0 | 209 | 722b Congress St |
| Butcher Burger Old Port | 4.7 | 806 | 7 Union St |
| Mami | 4.7 | 556 | 339 Fore St |
| CBG | 4.7 | 487 | 617 Congress St |
| Bird & Co. | 4.6 | 716 | 539 Deering Ave |
| Salt Yard Cafe & Bar | 4.6 | 379 | 285 Commercial St |
| UNION Restaurant | 4.4 | 642 | 390 Congress St |
| Rigby Yard | 4.3 | 240 | 50 Wharf St |
Little Pig holds a perfect 5.0 across 209 reviews — the highest score of any restaurant in Portland at a credible sample size — from a small room at the far end of Congress Street that closes in the afternoon. If you are only free at midday, start here. Mami does Japanese street food on Fore Street and is the fastest good lunch in the Old Port. UNION, inside the Press Hotel on Congress Street, is the calmest room on this page and the one to pick if you need to have a conversation.
If you only want a lobster roll
Three different arguments, all downtown:
- The Highroller Lobster Co. (4.6 · 5,388) — best value, most fun, longest line.
- Eventide Oyster Co. (4.5 · 5,227) — the brown-butter version on a steamed bun that made the city's reputation.
- Portland Lobster Company (4.3 · 4,303, 180 Commercial St) — the weakest rating of the three, but the deck on Commercial Street with music playing is what a lot of people actually want out of the meal.
The wider argument is settled in our Maine lobster roll guide.
Practical notes
- Noon is not the rush. The Old Port lunch crush lands closer to 1pm as the walking tours and cruise passengers come off Commercial Street. Eat at 11:45 or after 2.
- Walk uphill. Congress Street, ten minutes from the waterfront, is where the ratings get better and the prices drop — Hot Suppa, Empire, Little Pig and CBG are all up there.
- Cruise days change everything. When two ships are in, Commercial Street is unusable at midday and the East End is not.
- Lunch beats dinner for the famous rooms. Central Provisions and Eventide at noon are a fraction of the effort they are at night.
For evening plans see the best restaurants in Portland, and for the neighborhood these mostly sit in, the Old Port. The full city guide is at Portland and the statewide directory at Maine restaurants.
Portland lunch FAQ
Where is the best lunch in Portland, Maine?
By rating against volume, Hot Suppa on Congress Street at 4.7 across 2,287 reviews is the strongest dedicated lunch restaurant in the city, and it does not serve dinner at all. By raw rating, Little Pig at 722b Congress Street holds a 5.0 across 209 reviews. For a lobster roll specifically, The Highroller Lobster Co. on Exchange Street at 4.6 across 5,388 reviews.
Do you need a reservation for lunch in Portland?
Almost never, which is the point. The counters — Becky's, Highroller, Gilberts, Duckfat — do not take them, and the sit-down rooms that are impossible at dinner, like Central Provisions, are far easier at midday. The exception is a summer weekend, when Duckfat and Eventide can carry a real wait at any hour.
Where can you eat lunch on the water in Portland?
The Porthole on Custom House Wharf has a deck built out over the harbor and rates 4.3 across 3,458 reviews. DiMillo's at Long Wharf is a converted car ferry, 4.5 across 6,095 reviews. Portland Lobster Company's deck on Commercial Street is the loudest and the most fun. All three are within a five-minute walk of each other.
Where do locals eat lunch in Portland instead of the Old Port?
Congress Street and Washington Avenue. Hot Suppa, Empire Chinese Kitchen and Little Pig are all on Congress, well above the waterfront, and Terlingua is on Washington Avenue in the East End. All four rate at or above the Old Port average, cost less, and are a ten to fifteen minute walk from the piers.
