My girlfriend and I will be visiting the Portland area in late June, Saturday to Tuesday. We will be driving up from Boston on Saturday morning. Since this will be our first time, I am looking for suggestions:

- maybe a place or two to stop on the way from Boston to Portland. brunch or lunch?
- must-go-to restaurants for lobster and specifically lobster rolls
- good breakfast places in the Portland area
- good italian
- bars/pubs

any other suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks

thanks for all the replies! I definitely think we will be passing on the car rental until later in the week when we head to Maine.

I am working on putting together a little itinerary of the trip. I will post that soon.

In the meanwhile, the more recommendations the better!

thanks for the advice C. Hamster and Gretchen!

One of the reasons for the car is that we are driving up to Portland on Saturday and will be up there for a couple of days.

My girlfriend and I will be making our first visit to the Boston area. We are coming in on tuesday, June 21 and will be leaving on Saturday, June 25.

Here are some places/restaurants/pubs that we thought about checking out:

Union Oyster House
Pizzeria Regina (North End)
The Barking Crab (after reading reviews, we may just stop for a beer)
East Coast Grille
Thirsty Scholar Pub
Bukowski Tavern
Boston Beer Works
Cheers (Beacon Hill)
Durgin Park
Terramia
Cambridge 1
Bleacher Bar
Neptune

Fenway Park
North End
Quincy Market
Harvard University/Harvard Square

I realize that the majority of these (or all) are "tourist" places, but then again - we are tourists! I am looking for suggestions on good restaurants, good pubs/bars, other must sees!

We will be getting into boston around noon on Tuesday and we will be renting a car for the week. I haven't booked hotel rooms yet, but I am guessing we will stay in either the downtown, north end or beacon hill areas.

Tuesday:
- I thought about checking out some of downtown, stopping at The Barking Crab, and we are looking for a good place to eat in those areas. We would like to check out a couple of cool "boston" pubs.

Wednesday:
- we are going to the Red Sox game at 1:30 this day. I am planning on heading down to the fenway area that morning (probably 9ish), maybe for a quick breakfast and check out some of the local bars (bleacher bar). We will probably eat at the park, but may be looking for something lighter that night or some pub food. We will probably try to hit some local pubs/bars either in fenway area or back toward hotel area.

thursday:
- nothing planned. We would like to hit Harvard Square and Harvard University sometime. We could either do this Thursday or Friday. So restaurant suggestions in this area/Cambridge for brunch, lunch or dinner are appreciated. I would like to stop in at the Thirsty Scholar Pub.

Friday:
- nothing planned. We would like to hit Quincy Market and/or Chinatown on one of the days. So restaurant suggestions are appreciated.

Here is what we are looking for in food:

- seafood!!
- Italian/pizza
- good food/good views
- brunch spots
- "boston" feel restaurants
- must see pubs/hole-in-the wall spots

Obviously being our first time, it is hard to envision what we can hit in the same day? What restaurants/pubs make sense to pair up on a day?

thanks!!!

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The Barking Crab
88 Sleeper Street, Boston, MA 02210

Thirsty Scholar
70 Beacon St, Somerville, MA 02143

Union Oyster House
41 Union Street, Boston, MA 02108

Boston Beer Works
61 Brookline Ave Ste 2, Boston, MA 02215

Fenway Park
82 Lansdowne Street, Boston, MA 02215

Bukowski's
50 Dalton St Ste 4, Boston, MA 02115

Terramia
98 Salem St., North End, Boston, MA 02113

East Coast Restaurant
1456 Dorchester Ave, Dorchester, MA 02122

Durgin Park
1 Faneuil Hall Sq, Boston, MA 02109