Barncastle

Very cute, 1890 type bed and breakfast. Pizza was interesting and unique. Good wood fried taste.

Does the trick. Nothing special. Pizza is the best bet. Don’t order anything too fancy — stick with the basics.

A friend had been raving about the pizza for a year. She gave me a gift certificate so I finally went. We went early as we have heard it can be busy. We were asked where we wanted to sit… a room over here, a room over there, or the pub. Pub! My kind of seating. The waitress had us seat ourselves. Go down the right (or was it left) hall at the old kitchen or something. Dark and chilly. Glad to be in front of the space heater. Weird room. The whole place is old and slightly raggedy. After a bit the bartender asked if we wanted drinks. Then the waitress finally arrived. And then she left. Eventually the bartender asked if we wanted food. The the waitress finally arrived. And then she left… notice the pattern? Anyway, we had a white clam and bacon pizza. Good pizza. Slow server. Thank goodness for the bartender or we might still be there waiting our food!

Not that there’s a ton of competition, but if you’re prepared to pay for it, Barncastle has the best pizza on the Blue Hill Peninsula. The barbeque chicken pizza is to die for.

So disappointed. We have been visiting Maine for many years — staying in the Blue Hill area. Sadly most of their restaurants have closed — leaving just Barncastle and Martinelli’s. We have eaten at Barncastle a number of times. It was just ok. This past visit — it was awful — 3x! Terrible service. Lukewarm food — including the soup. We were there for over two hours! 40 minutes into our wait — we didn’t even have a glass of water on the table. Our waitress apologized constantly — but did nothing to improve the service! When we asked for dinner rolls — she said ‘no, we don’t have any’. Never offered a substitute — with plenty of bread and rolls on their menu. We had pizza — which is usually their staple — and it was terrible — mushy, salty, garlicky — awful. We vowed that we would buy roasted chicken at the local Trade Winds before ever returning to Barncastle. Now that they have no competition — they don’t seem to care about their customers. Or perhaps — just locals get good service. It’s a shame — because that only leaves Martinelli’s and Arborvine. M’s is barely edible and Arborvine is pricey. Blue Hill needs help. Stay away from Barncastle — unless you’re going for the music and beer only.

This place is great. Wood-​fired pizzas, the best crab cakes I’ve ever had. Really, I could write paragraphs about the crab cakes. And, to top it all off, the prices are crazy reasonable. Also, open year round!

I live here year round. This is one of 3 year round places you can go and have good food. Does it compare to great places in Big Cities, no. Is it one of the best in this county YES!
Veggie chili is outstanding and I like a meat chili. The Cesaer Salad is always super fresh and crunchy, my son adores the meatball appetizers. I enjoy the ribs and the pizza.
Is service lightening speed, nope. Is it the speed of this area, Yes, it is. You are on vacation. Sit back, relax, enjoy your beverage and chill.

Our party of 6 was seated quickly without a reservation. They had a fun local beer selection and the ones we tried were great. We ordered 5 pizzas to share and LOVED every single one!
We traveled up from Ohio and will certainly go back soon.

Discovered this place from a coworker a couple years ago and have made a point to make the drive from Bangor for dinner at least a couple times a year since then. Just had the opportunity to stay there for the first time. The room (turret) is spacious and well appointed with a gigantic tub. The windows are a bit drafty but that is to be expected with a building this old. Overall it has been restored nicely. The food is good although admittedly I mostly cone for the pizza. Authentic wood fired pizza is not easy to find in this area although it is becoming more common of late but barncastle is still the only one I’ve had where the crust leaves that fine dusting of soot on your fingers.
In occasion when we’ve been here and it was steady the service could be on the slow side but the servers are all very nice and as a food industry person I haven’t seen that the slowness is any fault of theirs. Sometimes good food cooked from scratch takes time sit back chat and relax why be in a hurry for a nice dinner.

Terrible service. Bizarre menu. Drinks took forever to arrive; the bartender was clearly too busy flirting with a few of the bar patrons. This was followed by three out of four entrees being delivered while we waited 10 minutes for the fourth. «Blue cheese» dressing was some actually some other dressing with cottage cheese mixed in to look like blue cheese chunks. They were out of almost every white wine. Flies all over the place. Ugh.
This place needs a major overhaul, new management, and better trained staff. Such a disappointment!

My favorite restaurant in the area! Local ingredients and an amazing atmosphe

Wow, great Pizza! The ingredients were bursting with flavor. We just moved here a month ago and have been referred to the Barncastle by a number of people as the best place around. They were not kidding. Very family friendly as well.

Not to be missed!!! Quirky mansion inn/​restaurant (used to be private residence) with dining nooks, built in shelves with games and books, and several old fireplaces. Bar area is cozy with occasional live music and drink specials. Take out is just as busy as eat-​in. We have only had pizza which is simply excellent — thin crust/​brick oven. we advise spelt crust, roasted reds, or pepperoni (all natural best I’ve ever had) or sea smoke (beware very rich). Salads are just so-​so (make your own if you take out).

Interesting place in a random location. They do not deserve 3 stars for the service we got. There were empty tables and no other guests waiting, and it took them a very long time to seat us — really unacceptable. We almost left, and we are not snooty «we’re leaving!» type of people.
Just get the pizza. Don’t bother with other stuff on the menu, it’s probably not worth it. The pizza and ingredients were high quality and more delicious than expected. I also happened to get an eggplant parmesan grinder, and honestly, it was bad. I ate it, but just so it wouldn’t go to waste. The eggplant was bitter.

Great piZza and many other choices

Food was wonderful… pizza nice thin crust just how I like it! The negative was the «spaghetti and meatball «special». My niece ordered without sauce, plain pasta came, no garlic bread, and about 10 minutes later the meatballs. Price…$ 20.00! Pretty expensive bowl of spaghetti! The scallops were a better deal!

Great pizza!!! Great location!!!
Easily one of the best places to eat in the area. The atmosphere is lively, the setting is beautiful, and the food is extremely good and the prices are reasonable.

Really good pizza in a barn — what could be better? Actually, not much. Love the food and the funky ambience. Only complaint is that when I went during the summer the place was hot and a bit stuffy. Just ask to sit near a window and you’ll be fine.

This place is a real find.
If you have had the unfortunate experience of entering a beautiful New England inn only to have your heart broken by a botched and horrifying renovation inside, then prepare yourself for a wonderful surprise. The Barncastle is lovely throughout.
As an inn in this area I would give it 6 stars and as an inn anywhere I would probably give it 4(we had a couple small issues with the room). So 5 is the average I came up with. I stayed here for about 5 days over xmas 1.5 yrs ago. It is a beautifully restored inn/​restaurant with an atrium style foyer and cozy eating area. Upstairs there are comfortable/​contemporary renovated sleeping quarters. The food is pizza/​pub style fare and is quite fresh and good.
When my wife and I stayed here we had some issues with cold loss through a breezy window and a small plumbing problem. They were quite sympathetic and gave me a night or half a night free which I felt was more than fair. I would heartily recommend this inn to anyone going to the Blue Hill Brooklin maine area and have every intention of staying there again should the need arise.

For people unaccustomed to small New England towns, it’s easy to overuse the word ‘quaint’. In that spirit, Barncastle is a quaint little hotel/​restaurant in a very quaint-​looking part of Maine. Quaint.
Part castle, I guess, but really mostly barn, the restaurant portion offers some cozy fireside dining far (very far) from the madding crowd. The appeal of the menu is that it doesn’t try too hard: all recognizable American dishes with a few gourmet twists. Their menu changes seasonally and includes local microbrews and local organically grown ingredients as well.
Specifics: my brother and I have been conducting informal audits of New England clam chowders for almost two decades now. Barncastle’s fares well. Their wood-​fired pizza, which is about half their menu, is also excellent.
Intangibles: great atmosphere; typically (for the region) courteous waitstaff; and a pool table in a room off to the side.