Reading Room Restaurant — New England / Seafood, Bar Harbor
The Reading Room occupies the historic wing of the Bar Harbor Inn — the Victorian resort hotel that anchors the village's waterfront and provides the most dramatic harbor view available in any Bar Harbor dining room. Frenchman Bay, the Porcupine Islands, and the distant Schoodic Peninsula frame every meal.
The New England seafood menu is built around the Gulf of Maine's extraordinary cold-water bounty — Maine lobster, Stonington sea scallops, local halibut, and the oysters from the island's own waters that the kitchen sources with appropriate specificity.
The wine program is the most serious in Bar Harbor — a European-focused list that the Victorian-resort atmosphere calls for and that the kitchen's New England cooking requires.
The harbor view at sunset — Frenchman Bay turning gold, the lobster boats returning to their moorings, and the mountains of Acadia National Park visible above the tree line — is the most reliably spectacular moment in Bar Harbor dining.
Best Occasion: Great for Birthdays
The Bar Harbor Inn harbor view, Maine lobster, and the Victorian resort atmosphere. The birthday dinner that the village's resort history was designed to provide.
Best Occasion: Good for Closing Deals
The most impressive harbor view in Bar Harbor, the most serious wine list, and the New England seafood that the Gulf of Maine makes possible. For the summer deal in the Acadia gateway.