If you’re driving up to Maine, Bob’s Clam Hut should be your first stop once you’ve crossed the state’s southern border. They do excellent deep fried whole clams, and they also make the best lobster roll in the entire state. You can choose between hot butter or mayo on your roll, but the cold version is the best because it showcases the fresh, sweet lobster without overpowering it.

You’ll likely have to pay an arm and a leg to park anywhere near Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, but it’s worth it to be able to eat a roll at Lobster Shack’s dark and cozy wood booths. You won’t find any fries in sight, but your roll comes with a generous heap of ridged potato chips and a pickle spear. The lobster is just firm enough to give the roll some bite, and there’s a perfect amount of mayo to dress it. The bread-to-crustacean ratio here is perfect.

Pool Lobster is inside a general store that has everything you could need for a Maine vacation. The shelves are stocked with great bottles of wine, bucket hats, and condiments for a beach-side cookout, but the line out the door is for their steamed clams and lobster that’s served whole or on a roll. The lobster here has a whisper of old bay and mayo to keep things interesting, and while the roll doesn’t come with a side, you can either order some fries or grab a bag of chips at the checkout.

Pine Tree uses a longer hot dog roll instead of your standard length New England bun, but that allows them to serve lots of lobster meat and lettuce without each bite causing a huge mess. Consider this a peak sharable roll—ask them to double the lobster if you want a filling meal for two, or are just extra hungry yourself. At $22, this is one of the most affordable rolls on this guide.

When you arrive at Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster Company, an attendant will guide you into the wharf’s parking lot like you’re at Disneyland. You can order lobster rolls and clam baskets at the window, and whole steamers at the lobster pound around the building’s corner. The lobster roll here tastes sweet, and even though the bread is on the floppier side, it still has enough structural integrity to support the meat, mayo, and lettuce.

As soon as you utter the words “Maine” or “lobster roll” near your phone, you’ll probably start getting dozens of TikToks telling you to visit Red’s Eats in Wiscasset. And they’re right. The lobster roll is fantastic, but you should be prepared to set aside a few hours of your day to enjoy it. Red’s serves their gargantuan roll with a condiment cup of hot grassy butter, and even though it doesn’t come with fries or chips, there’s so much meat that you honestly don’t need anything extra.

You’ll drive past beautiful waterfront homes to get to McLoon’s Lobster Shack on Sprucehead Island. It’s a bit more remote but it still gets busy on weekends. The lobster roll is absolutely stuffed, but doesn’t feel too unwieldy to hold and bite into. The mayo is spread onto the roll rather than tossed with the lobster, and you have the option to add hot butter, which you should absolutely take advantage of.

Thurston’s Lobster Pound is just a few minutes from Acadia’s most famous lighthouse, but it’s also far enough from the main town, Bar Harbor, that you can have a quiet meal alongside day laborers covered in paint having lunch on the deck. You’ll have a great view of boats bobbing up and down in the water, and the lobster itself is much better (and more affordable) in other spots more densely populated by out-of-towners.

It’s hard to find a spot that isn’t overrun with tourists in Bar Harbor, a town surrounded by Acadia National Park, but if you do want to try a lobster roll in the area, it should be at Side Street Cafe. You’ll find Side Street’s porch packed with people enjoying apres-hike beers and lobster mac and cheese, or friend groups looking for an excuse to enjoy alcoholic beverages with blueberries in them. The roll is well toasted, and the lobster is tender and creamy with the mayo.

It’s not often you can physically see where your food is coming from as you eat it—unless you’re at an on-the-water lobster shack in Maine. Shaw’s has a working fishing dock on the water, and there’s a mountain of lobster cages you can see from the second-story dining room and deck. The lobster is evenly dressed with mayo, and the bun has a toasted exterior and pillowy interior. Traditionalists will be pleased to know that Shaw’s serves their roll with a bag of Ruffles and some pickle chips.