Brunswick, Maine, is a beautiful town located on the rim of Casco Bay. Home to Bowdoin College, Brunswick is a small college town with roughly 20,000 residents.
It is less than an hour’s drive to the ocean, so it’s a very convenient place to live.
Whether you’re a local or a tourist, here is a list of the 17 best restaurants in Brunswick, ME:
Union Street Bakery and Cake Shop
$ | (207) 373-1345 | WEBSITE
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Union Street Bakery and Cake Shop is the perfect place to go for your breakfast and lunch cravings. Although the menu is small, there is likely something to delight your senses.
Breakfast items include a breakfast sandwich with homemade focaccia bread and a yogurt bowl with fresh fruit.
Lunch items include a variety of sandwiches, salads, and homemade soups. They are also known for their beautiful cakes, no matter the occasion.
Taverna Khione
$$ | (207) 406-2847 | WEBSITE
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Taverna Khione is an authentic Greek restaurant offering dine-in options for dinner only. Menu items include grape leaves filled with beef, grilled octopus, braised lamb shank, and baked Greek pasta.
Although they don’t offer to-go options, they sell bottles of their Greek wine for taking home.
Pepper’s Landing
$$$ | (207) 844-8847 | WEBSITE
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Pepper’s Landing is open for lunch and dinner daily and offers take-out. Brunswick is one of three locations of Pepper’s Landing. They offer appetizers such as steamed clams, fried calamari, and crab cakes.
In addition, their menu includes a variety of crab and lobster rolls to suit your taste. If you aren’t a fan of seafood, you can always order a chicken salad wrap or a cheeseburger.
Dinner options include seafood like steamed lobster, fried oysters, and clam strips.
Richard’s Restaurant
$$ | (207) 729-9673 | WEBSITE
Richard’s Restaurant is a family-owned restaurant serving traditional German dishes since 1988. While Richard’s offers a large amount of authentic German food, there are also conventional American dishes on the menu.
You can find German items such as Bratwurst, Spatzle, Schnitzel, or Weinbergschnecken. They also offer burgers, steaks, and chicken if you’re craving American food. In addition, Richard’s offers dine-in and carry-out.
Gurnet Trading Co.
$$ | (207) 729-7300 | WEBSITE
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Gurnet Trading Co. is a restaurant and seafood market. The owners are native to Maine and have extensive experience in the fishing industry.
This experience led them to open Gurnet Trading Co. in 2003. They are wholesale dealers, which allows them to sell the seafood at a tremendous cost, since they eliminated the middle man.
In addition to selling local seafood, they also have a delicious take-out menu. A sampling of their menu shows clam and lobster rolls, seafood chowder, fried scallops, and steamed lobster.
If you’re not in the mood for seafood, they also offer hamburgers, toasted cheese, and grilled chicken sandwiches.
Bay Bowls Maine
$ | (207) 450-4727 | WEBSITE
Bay Bowls Maine offers acai and pitaya-based bowls along with delicious smoothies. They offer over ten different bowl combinations and five smoothie options.
Unfortunately, they are not open in the evenings, so if you’ve got an acai or dragonfruit craving, you must get there before mid-afternoon.
Enoteca Athena
$$ | (207) 721-0100 | WEBSITE
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Enoteca Athena is an Italian American restaurant that opened in Brunswick in 2013. The owner started selling fresh pasta at farmers’ markets, and that experience has since served him well in the restaurant industry.
Enoteca Athena is only open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, and reservations are recommended. Menu items include chicken parmesan and risotto and housemade pasta and appetizers.
Big Top Delicatessen
$ | (207) 721-8900 | WEBSITE
Since 1996, Big Top Deli has served a variety of sandwiches, burgers, soups, and salads. In addition, they also offer breakfast items all day, including egg sandwiches and bagel sandwiches.
Lunch items include hot and cold sandwiches, soups and salads, burgers, and hot dogs. In addition, they have an extensive bread list, including Bulkie rolls, Rye, Pumpernickel, Wraps, and Pita.
OTTO
$ | (207) 406-4760 | WEBSITE
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Otto is open for lunch and dinner daily. While Otto is not new to the northeast, the Brunswick location just opened up in September 2021.
Otto is a pizza place where you find traditional styles like cheese and pepperoni and pizza topped with mashed potatoes, bacon, and scallion.
In addition, you can ask for a “double dough,” which gives the pizza a thicker crust. Finally, they offer a few salad options and a meatball appetizer if you don’t like pizza. Other than that, the menu is all delicious pizza.
Maine-iak lobster
$$ | (207) 504-3805 | WEBSITE
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Don’t be fooled when you pull up to Maine-iak lobster and see a food truck. They are a family-owned seafood truck that offers lunch and dinner daily.
The menu offers seafood such as lobster and crab rolls, lobster and crab melts, lobster and crab quesadillas, and the usual suspects like burgers, salads, and hot dogs.
Thai Villa Restaurant
$$ | (207) 725-5959 | WEBSITE
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Thai Villa Restaurant is open for late afternoon and evening take-out. Menu items include appetizers such as crab rangoon, spring rolls, and satay gai.
They also offer traditional Thai soups such as tom kha and tom yum. In addition, menu items include various curry, stirfry, and noodle dishes to quench your Thai cravings. All entrees are served with your choice of protein.
Shere Punjab
$$ | (207) 373-0422 | WEBSITE
Shere Punjab is a local Indian restaurant offering take-out only. Their menu is quite extensive, and you’re sure to find something to please your Indian food cravings.
The lunch menu lists items such as deep-fried spiced and shredded potato turnovers, Indian unleavened whole wheat bread made on a slow fire, and lamb sautéed in a thick curry sauce.
The dinner menu is even more impressive, with an entire page of vegetarian options and another menu page devoted to chicken and lamb specialties. They also offer several biryani dishes and Bengal seafood entrees.
Byrnes Irish Pub
$$ | (207) 729-9400 | WEBSITE
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Byrnes Irish Pub in Brunswick is one of two locations. They are a family-owned pub featuring Irish fare. Along with pints of Guinness, Murphy’s, and Smithwick’s, the pub serves appetizers like wings and Irish banger sausages.
Try one of their salads for a lighter fare and add some pastrami-encrusted smoked salmon as a topper. Their menu also includes entrees such as a corned beef hash quesadilla and an Irish shepherd’s pie.
If you’re in the mood for more standard fare, they offer burgers, Reubens, and hot dogs.
Antigoni’s Pizza Brunswick
$$ | (207) 729-9500 | WEBSITE
Antigoni’s Pizza Brunswick is one of three locations offering dine-in, take-out, and delivery. The Brunswick location is open for lunch and dinner daily.
While “pizza” is in the restaurant’s name, they offer so much more than that. They offer over twenty different salads, ten pasta dishes, fifteen hot sandwiches, and two dozen pizza specialties.
If you’d like to make your own pizza at home, ask about their Antigoni’s Pizza Kit.
Pancho Villa Mexican Restaurant
$$ | (207) 729-0029 | WEBSITE
Pancho Villa Mexican Restaurant is an authentic Mexican restaurant open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Sunday. Their menu is extensive and includes appetizers, salads, soups, enchiladas, burritos, meat and seafood dishes, and fajitas.
If you’re not craving authentic Mexican food, they also offer burgers. However, if you’re starving, try the Burrito Macho.
As the name implies, it is a giant burrito filled with your choice of meat, refried beans, rice, onion, tomato, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole on top.
They also offer a vegetable quesadilla filled with spinach and topped with green sauce if you prefer something lighter.
Amato’s
$ | (207) 729-5514 | WEBSITE
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Headquartered in Portland, Maine, Amato’s Brunswick is one of over 44 locations. Amato’s founder, Giovanni Amato, started the business unofficially in 1900 by selling Italian sandwiches to the local anglers.
Giovanni opened their very first restaurant in 1902 in Portland. Over 100 years later, Amato’s still sells the original Italian sandwiches.
The sandwiches, topped with salt, pepper, and oil, are served with cheese, pickles, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and olives. In addition to sandwiches, their menu offers pizza, pasta, calzones, and wraps.
Lemongrass Vietnamese Restaurant
$$ | (207) 725-9008 | WEBSITE
Lemongrass Vietnamese Restaurant is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday. Their menu includes appetizers such as spring rolls, lemongrass tofu, and shrimp paste on sugar cane.
In addition, they have over ten types of pho, all infused with onion, cinnamon, ginger, and star anise. They also offer bun and rice plates as well as sandwiches and crepes.
Don’t be scared by the “Shaking Beef” listed on the menu, as the marinated beef tenderloin cuts are just “shaken” in a hot pan with garlic and sauce.
Summary
Hopefully, you will get to try one of the 17 best restaurants in Brunswick, Maine!
