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Maine Lobster Roll Price Index
What a lobster roll costs in Maine this season, recorded price by price with the portion, the style and the tax treatment attached, so the number means something.
This season so far
Median $31.50 across 6 verified prices, ranging from $18.00 to $38.00.
- $18.00Orono Brewing Company - Tasting Room & Kitchen, Orono, cold with mayo
- $24.00Bogeys, Bangor, hot with butter
- $29.00David's Restaurant, Portland, cold with mayo
- $34.00The Terrace Grille, Bar Harbor, cold with mayo
- $35.95Jackie's Too, Ogunquit, cold with mayo
- $38.00Geddy's, Bar Harbor, cold with mayo
- $70.00Geddy's, Bar Harbor, 8 oz, cold with mayo · large format
Large-format rolls, counted separately
Over 6 ounces of meat. These are a different order of thing from the roll the index tracks, so they sit outside the median rather than dragging it upward.
- $70.00 Geddy's, Bar Harbor, 8 oz, $8.75 an ounce
What the lobster itself costs
Averaged over 10 full seasons, 2016–2025, and weighted by volume. An unweighted mean lets a near-empty February count for as much as the peak of the run.
Lobster costs 2.1× as much a pound in Mar ($9.07) as in Aug ($4.27), because 71% of the catch comes ashore between July and October. Across all of 2025 the average was $5.85.
Ex-vessel price: what dealers paid boats, per pound of live lobster. It is not a retail price and it is never mixed into the roll index: a roll is picked meat, labour, a bun and a waterfront lease on top of this. Source: Maine DMR commercial landings, as of 2/6/2026 (2025 preliminary).
Why it keeps getting dearer
Maine landed 133 million pounds in 2016 at $4.08 a pound. In 2025 it landed 79 million at $5.85: a catch down 41% and a price up 44%. That is the pressure a menu is passing on, and it is why a roll that cost twenty dollars a few seasons ago does not any more.
Common questions
How much does a lobster roll cost in Maine?
Enough that people argue about it every summer, and the honest answer depends on things a single number hides: whether it is hot with butter or cold with mayo, how many ounces of meat are in it, and whether the price on the board includes tax. This index records all of those alongside every price rather than averaging them away.
Why is the same roll a different price a mile apart?
Portion size, mostly. A four-ounce roll and a seven-ounce roll are different products sold under the same name, and the gap between them is usually larger than the gap between towns. Waterfront rent and whether the place buys its own lobster do the rest.
Do prices change during the season?
Yes. Boat prices move with the catch, and a hard shell season or a bad run pushes menus up within weeks. That is why every price here carries the date it was seen; a lobster roll price with no date is not information.
How is the index calculated?
The median of verified prices, not the average, because a handful of very expensive waterfront rolls would drag a mean upward and misrepresent what most people pay. Every observation names its source and the person who recorded it, and nothing appears here until it has been checked.
