Exactly what we were looking for. Great start to our holiday

Father's Day dinner. Wine choices were awesome, went Ruth stag's leap Cabernet, it's a retail value of $59, they charged $72 which is a bargain at a restaurant! Lobster bisque was delicious. Entrees were well prepared and delicious.view was awesome.

We went for the view and we weren’t disappointed. The service was great and we enjoyed the music in the background. Based on other reviews my daughter ordered the lobster pot pie. She said the crust was soggy and parts of it weren’t warm. My oysters and spinach salad were good but the lobster bisque was not. I’d go back for the view, have cocktails and appetizers.

We enjoyed delicious Lobster "out of the shell" and the best Rack of Lamb ever! Both accompanied by freshly prepared vegetable side dishes. Additionally enjoyed the Warm Burata appetizer. Wonderful and attentive service rounded out this memorable meal!

Fantastic meal outstanding service. I can usually find fault in reviewing a dining experience but in this case everything was superb. Easy to recommend

You can not beat the atmosphere and the view. Everything was delightful until our entrées arrived. His steak was not cooked as ordered and needed to be re cooked. In the meantime my fish was ready. So, I ate my dinner while he waited. The second entrée was still not right!! My husband had no dinner!
The restaurant did everything they could to make up for the lack of dinner but we were left wondering "why put an item on the menu if they can not execute the product?"

The food and ambience were both amazing! Service was top notch! Would highly recommend!

Great view of the harbor during dinner. Service was top notch.

Service was average at best. Great venue and view of the harbor. Meals were reasonably priced.

What a delightful dining experience on our first day in Bar Harbor. We had martinis at the bar before our meal and enjoyed chatting with the bartenders. We ordered the Lobster served outside the shell and loved it paired with a bottle of Chardonnay. We will definitely dine here on our next visit. Beautiful setting and great food.

Delicious food, great service, beautiful views and live piano music!

Shana was a very attentive and professional waitress. An asset to the restaurant

Amazing views! The food was wonderful, lots of options. Great wine list. Our server was quite pleasant and did a very nice job. I can’t wait to return!

La nourriture était tiède

Great vistas. Excellent wait staff and fine dining

We really enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately even though we made an early registration, we did not get to sit by the windows and look at the ocean. I am also wheelchair bound and getting around the restaurant was a bit difficult because they did not have anywhere to store their extra chairs except a narrow walkway within the restaurant. The bathroom was a bit difficult to access also. The food was excellent! My children really enjoyed their first “grown up” restaurant. The pianist was wonderful too!

Very nice!

Great food. Good wait staff. Excellent ambiance

Our waiter, Horace, was super and did an excellent job of paying attention to detail. The food was very tasty although the prime rib I ordered was a bit smallish. Great drinks and overall, an excellent experience!

We loved the Reading Room and the Bar Harbor Inn! Excellent service and food! Cool history with updated amenities.

Excellent food and service, with a great view over the bay.

The dining room is attractive and has wonderful views. Our starters of lobster bisque and seafood chowder were good although small serves and we were surprised to be given the little oyster nibbles to put in the chowder, in a packet, in a restaurant that claimed to be "fine dining" The blueberry sorbet palette cleanser was very nice. We ordered the lobster out of the shell but it was dry, maybe prepared too far in advance. It was served with a whipped mash that was bland and unappetising. The green beans were nice and crunchy. The biggest problem was the service and certainly not up to the label "fine dining" On arrival, there was no welcoming smile and the "host" appeared new on the job and couldn't log on to the system for reservations. When the manager arrived to help him, there was no acknowledgement of us at all. It simply needed, a smile, an apology and explanation for the delay and we would have been happy. Finally seated, friendly waitresses greeted us. We ordered sparkling water but still water was brought and poured. The waitress was most apologetic so no big deal. It took a while for our order to be taken but then we were rushed through our meal so quickly that there was no sense of dining out. Our starters were cleared and the sorbet brought immediately. We had taken one mouthful each when our main courses arrived. There was no acknowledgement or understanding that this was not right. Things were moved so the meals could be put down and we were left to rush through the sorbet whilst the main was getting cold. As we left the restaurant barely 40 mins after arrival, we received an email from Open Table saying that we hadn't turned up for our reservation!

Highly recommended to us as upscale dining in Bar Harbor, did not disappoint. Augie an excellent waiter , bus people very well trained and pleasant.

wonderful view, great service. We had dinner with my niece, her mom and two stepsisters, 10 and 14. all had a splendid time. Be sure to make reservations beforehand.

We at at the Reading Room Restaurant our first night in Bar Harbor. We had a lovely table by the windows with a beautiful view of Frenchman Bay. Our waitress was very friendly and knowledgeable. We shared the Beet salad which was delicious and beautifully plated. We were served a delicious Blueberry and Pomegranate sorbet between course. My husband had the Lobster Pie and I had the Swordfish special. Both were superbly prepared. There was lovely piano music in the background. The entire dinner was fabulous. We also recommend a Pre dinner cocktail in the lounge: the Blueberry Martini is excellent!

We had an absolutely wonderful time! Our waitress phelicia was knowledgable, kind, and professional. It was the perfect place to close out our memorial Day weekend trip. The views were amazing and the piano was playing dazzling renditions of classic songs we know and love. We really enjoy that they encourage gently the lack of phone use so you focus on each-other and the meal. I could not talk higher of the place and waitress. Thank you, we plan to return in the future.

Excellent service, good food though the lobster out of the Shell was INCREDIBLY SMALL, the dessert (Bananas Foster Bread Pudding) was exceptional!

Excellent every visit. Sunsets are very memorable. We recommend you try it once and you will return. View out onto Frenchman’s harbor is outstanding. Watching the boats and sea life, enjoying a great bottle of wine

My boyfriend and I made a reservation here while on vacation in Bar Harbor and loved it. Such a beautiful view and delicious food! We had complementary lobster amuse-bouche and sorbet as well. An authentic Maine dinner with a view!

Shana was a wonderful server and made a birthday celebration wonderful.

We went to the Reading Room for a birthday celebration, and we weren't disappointed. Friendly staff, excellent food, and great views.

The Reading Room was recommended by a friend of ours for a special meal and it did not disappoint. Excellent food, good service, live music, great views and reminiscent of an elegance not much found any longer elsewhere.

Fine-dining atmosphere, menu and prices, but almost every dish that we were served fell short either in taste or technique for what they were presenting (i.e. a runny glaze, over cooked steak, over cooked salmon, wrong base for a cheesecake which ended up being mushy and grainy, etc).

The food was great but the friendliness and attentiveness of the wait staff made it most memorable.

This was our second time dining here and I actually enjoyed it much more. The view is spectacular and the piano music lends to a lovely atmosphere. You definitely don’t feel rushed, but along those lines, our server was also not rushed. Of course it wasn’t her fault in that the four or five tables she had were all seated within minutes of each other so from the point we sat to getting beverages was about 15 minutes and then another ten or so before placing our order. Overall though a wonderful meal.

The bar and happy hour pricing were outstanding. The matre d’ could not find our reservation for dinner although we had reconfirmed the reservation at check in in the afternoon He gave the “lovely table with the sunset view” to the couple ahead of us who did not have a reservation and seated us in a corner! We did not care about his concern for balancing the staff load and asked for a better view.
Do not order the prepicked lobster. It might have been picked or deshelled the day before. Definitely reheated and dry and tough. The waitress and the rest of the meal was excellent. The restaurant has a beautiful view of the sea.

I ordered the filet and lobster tail, which was great. The filet was cooked to order, and lobster tail and the mash potatoes a bit on the cool side. Also had to ask for melted butter for the lobster. Service was great, lovely waiter, and the view was wonderful. Highly recommend for a nice dinner out.

The glorious ocean view was only outdone by the gracious staff and delicious food!

It was for my birthday

Wonderful atmosphere and all of the staff were very pleasant. And the food was amazing.