The Colonel’s Restaurant & Bakery

I’m reviewing strictly for the donuts, but The Colonel’s bakes up some of the best donuts you will taste on the island of MDI.
I grew up eating these — the glazed twisty and blueberry are my favorites.

We stopped here for a breakfast donut and got one blueberry and one pumpkin. Covered in frosting they were yummy, decadent pleasures. Rich coffee was great too. There aren’t many stores in this little village’s cute downtown area, but this is a must-​do if you need a morning snack.

The only restaurant we can find in that place at 8pm. Fish burger clam and the chip all not good to eat.

Had lunch here. The scallops were very delicately breaded and fried, and delicious. The fried clams were juicy and again, delicately breaded and fried. There was a minuscule bowl of slaw with the meal. Not sure why it was so small. Fires were good. Our server, Rob, was excellent.

First time visit to the Colonel’s.
Deceptive, as you walk in it seems like a very small area. Then you notice the sign to the right and to lead you to the restaurant. You pass a small bar area which then opens up to larger dining area with outdoor seating.
I had a phenomenal Squash and Apple soup along with a Chicken Cajun Sailor Sandwich, chips with Malt. A Sam Adams was standing by to parch my thirst.
Delicious. Very courteous and efficient service.

A wonderful oasis in the cute town of Northeast Harbor for lunch. We drove to the village looking for a place to eat, and the crowds outside the door was a good clue.
4 of us for lunch, it was packed at 12:30 so we sat at the bar which was great. Haddock Sliders, Fish & Chips, Scallop lunch and barbecue chicken sandwich were ordered. It’s 4 hours later and we are all still talking about lunch.
The scallop lunch was described As perfectly battered, and the scallops were cooked perfectly. The bread on the chic sandwich was great (it is a bakery too), and the sliders were a bar favorite.
Highly recommend it!

What a pleasant surprise. The food is excellent, the price is right and the service is great with a smile.
The mussels are tremendous!!!
The bakery has the freshest and most delicious items you can get.

Good lobster options. This was the only restaurant that was open on a Sunday in town. Their coconut macaroons are to die for!

If you’re in Northeast Harbor and want a great lobster roll head to the Colonel’s.
The service is friendly and you can see why locals, summer residents and people just passing through choose the Colonel’s.
And try a glazed twist before you walk out the door.

There’s a lot of casual family owned lunch spots on Mt Desert Island. Many of them are pretty bad and rely on uninformed one time tourists for the business. Their low quality certainly suggests they aren’t reliant on repeat business. Not so for this place — it was pretty good. I had the stereotypical lobster role, but given this restaurant has its own bakery out front I asked to have it on some more interesting bread than the typical hot dog bun. No problem — and it came out on this lovely toasted oat bread. Yummy. Service was good and décor was simple but adequate. Menu has sliders of various sorts — all well received by my family members. A good find in NE Harbor.

With limited options in Northeast Harbor we decided to eat here our first night in town. We had been here for breakfast in previous years and it was decent so thought dinner should be fine too. While everything was edible it was not what I would consider «good» food that I would return to have again. The salads looked pre-​prepped and the dressing came on the side in small packages. We ordered the onions rings which desperately needed seasoning. The batter was also too hard. Very bland. I ordered the margarita pizza and it was just okay. Again, a bit bland. My husband had the pasta with lobster and a creamy Alfredo sauce. He seemed to feel like it was fine, not great but fine to eat. My father-​in-​law had the baked haddock which did not look like a traditional baked haddock. There was a «patty» of grain/​stuffing as the bottom layer with a piece of fish on top and then a pinkish sauce over it all. Not expected. For desert we had the blueberry pie a la mode and it was delicious. So all in all food wasn’t terrible just not a place I want to spend a ton of money on and will probably only return for breakfast. We had a much better meal in Bar Harbor the following day for less money.

Excellent donuts. Large selection of pastries. They have a blueberry donut that looks delicious! We tried a couple places and this was tops for North East Harbor.

This would’ve been a very different review if it wasn’t for the last couple of minutes of my experience.
I ordered a 10 inch cheese pizza from the bakery and was told it would take around 25 minutes. Well, it ended up taking 60 minutes apparently due to a mistake from a new employee. I wasn’t upset, but the owner/​manager still gave me half my money back along with a bag of free pastries.
Both the pastries and the pizza were delicious, and the way they handled the situation most certainly made up for the wait.

Delicious breakfasts with fresh pastries. Good lobster omelette. Friendly service! Dinner dishes were ok. Restaurant hours are convenient for the quiet town of Northeast Harbor.

Very good food and friendly staff! We had fish chowder, clam tempters, and lobster/​scallop casserole. Also the bread before dinner was amazing, and the pastries were also good!

The staff are friendly and helpful, the food is quick and delicious, and the menu is expansive. What more could one ask for?
Perhaps a location in the stunning Acadia National Park, just a short walk from the coast?

I got the early bird lobster special which was a soft shell lobster served with fries. The lobster was excellent and sitting on on their deck was nice. I was surprised to find the lobster was better here than at some of the lobster ponds I have visited. Go figure! Service here was good too.

OMG — the donuts. Our large group must have eaten half a bakery worth of donuts during our stay in Northeast Harbor. The blueberry were the far and away favorite, but they were all delicious.
The bakery was the highlight of Colonel’s for us. Unfortunately, the restaurant was a bit less so. Parts of our meals (sides and salads) never showed up. A lot of the food was really bland (an order of onion rings needed heavily salted). The waitress was fairly inattentive — there were no refills of anything offered.
Would absolutely recommend the bakery but would pass on the restaurant.

The blueberry donut was decent. It was very sweet, sugar glazed donut. The coffee was not good. It barely tasted like coffee, very diluted and not really any strong coffee taste.
Overall, the place is pretty neat. A cute bakery attaches to a restaurant. The staff was friendly and nice. I don’t think I will go back for the coffee.

Wow the whole building is clean, neat, and very well organized. Its appearance is unlike other buildings on Mount Desert Island that look like they were built during Captain Ahab’s time. That’s because the Colonel’s building is fairly new, it was built in 2009.
The entire building layout is well thought out with a counter/​café in the front, a bar in the middle, and a full restaurant in the rear, each one be separated by a wall. The restaurant is great with sturdy booths inside and few small tables outside (on a wooden deck). Everything is bright, open, and airy. The local artist paintings on the walls are a nice touch.
My food was terrific; fish chowder and a jumbo sized burger really hit the spot for lunch. Service was with a smile and prices were reasonable.
There aren’t very many dining options in the Northeast Harbor, so if Colonels ain’t your thang good luck finding another place. You may need to make a 30 minute car ride to Bar Harbor.
My only regret was not grabbing a few donuts for the car ride home.