Maine Eats: the lobster shack & clam guide for iPhone and iPad
4,216 Maine restaurants, from wharf lobster pounds to dairy bars
A Maine road trip turns on a few stops: the lobster pound on the wharf, the clam shack, a red snapper or an Italian, a whoopie pie, the dairy bar on the way home. Maine Eats keeps those as lists we checked by hand in October 2026, inside a directory of 4,216 restaurants, cafés, bars and bakeries in 319 towns that's one search away. It's free for iPhone and iPad.
- 37lobster shacks & roll stops
- 11clam shacks
- 54dairy bars
- 4,216restaurants statewide
Built around shack season
On the Maine coast the first question about a lobster pound is often whether it's open yet. 26 of the 37 lobster places on our list are seasonal, and so are 31 of the 54 dairy bars, so each one carries the season it posts. Next to them: whole-belly fried clams, red snappers and Italians, whoopie pies, diner breakfasts. Each place on those lists was checked in business in October 2026, nothing is ranked by stars, and a tap opens Apple Maps' own card for today's hours and photos.
How it works
Pick a guide.
Lobster Shacks & Rolls, Clam Shacks, Red Snappers & Italians, Whoopie Pies & Donuts, Diners, Oyster Bars, Dairy Bars, Maine Icons or Oldest Places. Or type a name, a town, a village like Cape Neddick, or a road like Route 1.
Narrow it down.
Put the closest first, keep one town or one kind of food, or flip to the map. A Seasonal tag marks the places that shut for winter.
Head out.
Tap through to Apple Maps for the day's opening times and pictures, ring the shack before the drive, or keep it under Saved for the long weekend.
What it looks like
Guides for the shore and the road.
Lobster shacks nearest you first.
Each place, with Apple Maps' live card.
The map, by shack, diner or dairy bar.
Maine's classics, list by list
The app's hand-checked lists, each as a page you can read, bookmark and pass along.
Lobster shacks & rolls
37 lobster pounds, shacks and roll stops, with each one's season.
Clam shacks
11 shacks for fried clams, clam cakes and chowder.
Red snappers & Italians
11 places for red snapper hot dogs and the Maine Italian.
Whoopie pies & donuts
16 places for whoopie pies, potato donuts and blueberry pie.
Franco-American
1 place for tourtière, poutine and ployes. In the web search.
Diners
13 counter-and-booth diners.
Oyster bars
10 oyster bars and raw bars; 4 list Damariscotta River or Pemaquid oysters.
Dairy bars
54 dairy bars, ice cream stands and farm creameries.
Maine icons
31 places with James Beard honors or 40 years at the same address.
Maine's oldest restaurants
22 places serving at one address for 40 years or more, the first since 1878.
The whole state
Search 4,216 places in 319 towns: open map data, Maine liquor licenses and Lewiston's inspection list.
Lobster shacks and dairy bars by town
The classics in and near Maine's biggest towns and the coastal towns people drive to, plus each town's icons and oldest restaurants. Towns and regions.
- Portland
- Bangor
- South Portland
- Bar Harbor
- Lewiston
- Biddeford
- Brunswick
- Augusta
- Auburn
- Scarborough
- York
- Old Orchard Beach
- Ogunquit
- Waterville
- Kennebunk
- Kittery
- Wells
- Westbrook
- Ellsworth
- Saco
- Kennebunkport
- Wiscasset
- Damariscotta
- Cape Elizabeth
- Mount Desert
- Rockland
- Camden
- Freeport
- Boothbay Harbor
And by region:
Health inspections: official results only
Maine's official inspection result is Pass or Fail, with no score or grade, and we don't invent grades of our own. The state's results are a one-at-a-time search, so the app shows a result only where the City of Lewiston posts it, inside that place's own details with its date and a link to the city's report. For anywhere else in Maine, look a place up in the state's health inspection search.
No price, no ads, no sign-in
Maine Eats costs nothing and sells nothing. There's no subscription and no advertising, and you never make an account. The lists travel inside the app, so they still open where the signal gives out, Downeast or on the island ferry.
What we keep about you: nothing
Nobody signs in, and the app reports nothing back to us. Distance sorting happens on the phone, and that's where your saved places stay. This site drops no cookies and runs no tracking scripts. The full version is the privacy policy.
Questions
When do Maine lobster shacks open for the season?
Mostly in spring. Of the 37 lobster places on our list, 26 are seasonal, and 19 of those post their dates: 17 open in April, May or June and 16 close in October. Across our guides, 62 of the 141 places keep a season. Shut for the winter isn't shut for good, and each place's season is shown with it.
Does Maine grade restaurants after inspections?
No letter grades. A Maine inspection ends in Pass or Fail under the state food code, and the state's own results are looked up one place at a time. Lewiston posts its reports, so for Lewiston places the app and the web search show the latest posted result, its date and the city's report. We don't make up a grade of our own.
Which parts of Maine does it cover?
Kittery to Madawaska. The directory has 4,216 places in 319 of Maine's 529 towns, cities, plantations and unorganized territories, grouped by the Maine Office of Tourism's 8 regions. 29 towns have a page of their own, and so does each region.
How does a shack or diner get on a list?
Someone looked it up. In October 2026 we searched out the candidates for the lobster, clam, snapper and Italian, whoopie pie, Franco-American, diner, oyster and dairy bar lists, and kept a place only when a 2025 or 2026 source (its own site or menu, Maine news, a town or chamber page) showed it in business. The other 4,061 places in the directory come from Overture Maps' open place data, the state's liquor license list and Lewiston's inspection list.
Why are there no star ratings?
Stars measure popularity, and a list here measures something else: whether the place is in business and what it's known for. We store none, and nothing is sorted by them. The "Ratings, hours & photos" button on a place hands you to Apple Maps, whose card carries Apple's own.
What does Maine Eats cost?
Not a cent. You won't see advertising, a paywall or a login. It's built for iPhone and iPad; anyone on Android can use the web search on this site from the phone's browser.
Do I have to turn on location?
Only for "closest first". The app works out distances on your iPhone or iPad, the website does it inside your browser, and neither one tells us where you are.
Spotted a closed shack or a missing diner?
Send the name and town to nick@eatsranked.com. Corrections ride along with the next data update; Android requests are welcome at the same address.
Find the next shack
The app is headed for the App Store, free for iPhone and iPad. Meanwhile the same lists are in the web search.