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The Lobster Rolls banner outside Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven.
Martha's Vineyard food guide: ranked lists for best lobster roll, breakfast, pizza, burger, and ice cream. Town-by-town tours and BYOB tips for 2026.
Martha's Vineyard is a beach island that also eats very well. It has over 40 working farms, centuries of fishing behind it, and chefs who change the menu around what the boats brought in that morning. We rank lobster rolls, breakfast, pizza, burgers, chowder and ice cream, then go town by town. For full town guides, see Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, and Vineyard Haven.
Filmed July 2022The island moves on: shops, signs and prices may differ from what you see here. The text of this guide was checked October 2026.
Wicked Burger restaurant storefront in Edgartown.
The Food Truck parked beside a shingled building on a gray day, its flag out.
Breakfast pizza from The Black Dog, served on its dog-print paper.
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Grilled shrimp with capers, parsley and a lemon wedge over a creamy purée, served in a takeout box.
Sandy’s shares a sign and a roof with John’s Fish Market, so the fish in the fish and chips comes from the counter next door.
Most spots charge $28–42, and most let you choose Connecticut-style (warm, buttered) or Maine-style (chilled, mayo). The budget pick is the Grace Episcopal Church lobster roll, $20 with chips and a drink, Fridays 4 to 7 PM from mid-May to Labor Day, a 30-year tradition with proceeds supporting local nonprofits. Offshore Ale pairs theirs (knuckle and claw meat with mayo, Dijon, red onion on grilled brioche) with its own craft beer, brewed on-site.
Quitsa Kitchen (455 State Rd, VH): bakery cafe from longtime island caterer Theresa Manning, opened in early 2025 in the former Humphreys space. Scones, muffins and cookies fill the case up front while the kitchen turns out breakfast and lunch specials.
The pastry case at Quitsa Kitchen: scones, muffins and cookies under the flowered wallpaper and the menu screen.
Hours on the window in September 2026: Monday to Friday 6:30 AM to 5 PM, Saturday and Sunday 7 AM to 3 PM, with the kitchen running 7 AM to 2 PM (breakfast until 11, lunch after). Breakfast plates run $10 to $14 (the Morning Stack biscuit $10, breakfast burrito $11, shakshuka or the blue corn waffle plate $14); lunch sandwiches $14 to $18 (French onion grilled cheese $14, the Sicilian $16, Fire and Honey Chicken and the Cuban $18).
The hours and the whole menu are taped in the window at Quitsa Kitchen, Sunday hours added by hand: breakfast 7 to 11, lunch 11 to 2.
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Porto Pizza (36 Water St, VH): a slice counter minutes from the Steamship terminal, thin crust and deep dish both, with evening delivery down-island. Handy for a cheese slice while you wait for the boat.
The slice case at Porto Pizza near the Vineyard Haven ferry: veggie, white and special pies laid out under the menu board.
Fresh-baked cookies from a Martha's Vineyard bakery.
Ice cream: Mad Martha's (3 locations, 50+ years), then Ben and Bill's (Circuit Ave and Dock St, novelty lobster ice cream), then Delicious MV (VH, in the old Bernie's spot).
Burger: Fat Ronnie's (OB, MV Magazine 2026 winner, best late-night), then Brick Cellar Bar (beneath Atria, Edgartown, 2026 runner-up), then Offshore Ale (OB, the half-pound tavern burger).
Chowder: MV Chowder Company (the island's only trademarked chowder recipe, gluten-free, no pork, no roux; Yankee Magazine Best Chowder in New England), then Offshore Ale (TripAdvisor reviewers keep calling it "best chowder I've ever had"), then Atlantic Fish and Chop House (the Boston Globe's "best chowder on the island"), then Black Dog (quahog, year-round), then Menemsha Fish Market (silky, and an MV Magazine readers' choice winner). A cup runs $10–15, a bowl $14–20. At Menemsha Fish Market a medium lobster bisque came to about $17 in October 2026.
By the scale at Menemsha Fish Market hangs a framed cover of Martha’s Vineyard Magazine’s July 2022 Best of the Vineyard issue.
Bar: Offshore Ale (9 rotating taps), then The Ritz Café (4 Circuit Ave, since 1944, live music nightly), then Newes from America (Edgartown, pouring in a tavern building that dates to 1742), then Alchemy (MV Magazine cocktail runner-up in 2026 after a long winning streak).
Bakery: Back Door Donuts (No. 4 doughnut shop in the USA, USA Today 10Best 2026, and Martha's Vineyard Magazine's Best Bakery 2026; back door open 7 PM–midnight in summer, with shorter weeks in spring and fall; apple fritter about $10, honey dipped about $3, line runs 15–45 min; bakery roots back to 1948; 5 Post Office Square, OB), then Scottish Bakehouse (VH, since 1961).
Post Office Square in daylight: benches under the trees, canna lilies in the planters and the Back Door Donuts sign on the brick building at the right. At night the line for the fritters forms along this side.
The Black Dog Bakery Cafe in Vineyard Haven, with the hours on a chalkboard and red umbrellas over the patio tables.
The ferry docks here, so you can start right away: Net Result for a lobster roll, ArtCliff Diner the next morning once it reopens (it was closed until further notice in fall 2026), 9 Craft Kitchen for cocktails with dinner and El Barco for tacos by the ferry. New: Ocean Club, from chef Marc Orfaly (seven-time James Beard nominee), with a table behind a bank vault door, booked on OpenTable. Mad Martha's covers dessert.
Biscuits for breakfast, then a graze along Circuit Ave: Giordano's, Offshore Ale, wings at Coop de Ville. Red Cat Kitchen has only 20 tables, so dinner there means booking on Resy. Newer arrivals are Black Joy Kitchen (African diaspora fine dining from Chef Ting, open year-round) and Highlands General (fast-casual and year-round, in the old Linda Jean's). Back Door Donuts opens at 7 PM, and the apple fritter is the one to get.
Coop de Ville’s hanging sign by the harbor (seafood, raw bar, wings and craft beer), with the World Famous Wings board propped beside it.
TigerHawk Sandwich Co (12 Circuit Ave, sharing the Mad Martha's storefront): a counter spot for stacked hot sandwiches and a properly crispy chicken sandwich, good with a glass-bottle Coke.
The crispy chicken sandwich at TigerHawk Sandwich Co on Circuit Ave, fries riding along and a glass-bottle Coke on the side.
Mo's Lunch (137 Vineyard Ave, inside the Portuguese American Club): the island's least advertised sandwich counter, run by Austin Racine and Maura Martin since late 2020. Towering Italians, rotating specials and the twelve-dollar Leo Burger, eaten at picnic tables or in a clubroom that feels like a friendly basement rec room from another decade. Lunch through early dinner most days; closed Sunday and Monday. The club behind it hosts the Feast of the Holy Ghost every July.
Walking into Mo’s Lunch at the Portuguese American Club: chips rack, stickered coolers and the counter crowd.
Détente for a special dinner, Alchemy for cocktails, Among the Flowers for brunch in the garden and 19 Raw for oysters. Bad Martha Brewery pours its beer in a barn, with pizza and live music.
The clipboard menu at Bad Martha’s: the tap list and a frosé slushy, a new tacos sheet clipped on top, and the week’s live music and trivia nights.
A smash patty with melted cheese and lettuce, a box of fries alongside.
The usual plan: call Larsen's early to pre-order lobsters, bring your own drinks (it's a dry town), pick up at 6 PM with chowder and oysters, and walk over to Menemsha Beach to crack lobsters as the sun drops. Islanders tell visitors about this meal, and the beach crowd often applauds as the sun disappears. The Bite, the fried-clam shack, has closed, replaced by Iggy's Bread (pastries, croissants, coffee).
Morning Glory Farm (Edgartown, year-round). West Tisbury Farmers Market (Saturdays June–Oct, 40+ vendors). State Road Restaurant (James Beard semifinalist; its own wine list, no longer BYOB). Chilmark Tavern (BYOB, staff provides mixers). Beetlebung Farm for artisan bread. North Tabor Farm’s self-serve farm store.
The self-serve fridge at Mermaid Farm: cheese, raw dairy and labeled bags, on the honor system dawn to dusk.
There's more in our full restaurant guide by category, plus where to stay and getting around without a car.
The Food Truck says it on the side: where the locals eat. It parks at the Airport Business Park for weekday lunches.
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Step 1 · WhenMonth PickerTwelve months compared on NOAA numbers, crowds, prices and what is open. 
Step 2 · DaysDay-by-Day Trip PlannerMorning, afternoon and evening sketched for every day, events dropped in, emailed to you. 
Step 3 · CostTrip Cost CalculatorFerry, beds with the rooms tax, meals, getting around and activities in one price range. Our first pick is Larsen’s Fish Market in Menemsha, around since 1969, with cold lobster rolls from the cooler case, priced at market. Lookout Tavern in Oak Bluffs, MV Chowder Company, the Net Result in Vineyard Haven and Sandy’s Fish and Chips round out the list.
$28–42 at most places. The budget pick is the Grace Episcopal Church roll in Vineyard Haven, $20 with chips and a drink, Fridays 4 to 7 PM from mid-May to Labor Day, a thirty-year tradition that funds local nonprofits.
ArtCliff Diner in Vineyard Haven, since 1943, arrive by 7 AM once it reopens (it was closed until further notice in fall 2026); Biscuits in Oak Bluffs for Southern and Caribbean plates; Among the Flowers in Edgartown for the garden patio; and the Scottish Bakehouse on State Road, which opens at 6 AM, the island’s earliest.
Just one: a Dairy Queen in Edgartown. Everything else is independent, cooking from more than 40 working farms and from what the boats bring in.
Connecticut-style is warm and buttered; Maine-style is chilled with mayo. Most island spots let you choose.
Island tip of the day Shopping No. 31 of 86 New tip at midnight, island time
The Chappy Ferry costs $5/person round-trip and $17 for a car with driver. Cards work at the Edgartown-side kiosk; bring cash for the boat itself.
Where Martha's Vineyard's oysters, bay scallops and quahogs come from: the public solar hatchery on Lagoon Pond that turned fifty in 2026, the dozen oyster farms in Katama Bay, Menemsha Pond and Vineyard Sound, the wild beds in the great ponds, the autumn scallop season and its limits, visitor shellfish permits by town, why rain closes a pond, and where to eat them.
Lobster on Martha's Vineyard from trap to paper plate: how the small Menemsha fleet fishes, the Massachusetts rules on size, egg-bearing females and whale-safe gear, where to buy lobster off the boat (Larsen's, Menemsha Fish Market, The Net Result), how to eat it on the dock with your own bottle, and how a visitor can get a permit and catch a few.
Every supermarket and market on Martha's Vineyard with posted hours: Stop and Shop, Cronig's, Reliable Market, Alley's, the meat and fish markets, the Falmouth Stop and Shop before the ferry, Instacart and pre-stocking delivery, and an honest word on island prices.
Is Martha's Vineyard a dry island? Town by town: Chilmark is fully dry and BYOB, West Tisbury and Aquinnah pour beer and wine with meals, Vineyard Haven serves full liquor but has no liquor store, and only Oak Bluffs and Edgartown have package stores. Corkage, beach rules, the ferry and the state laws, checked September 2026.
Every farm stand and visitable farm on Martha's Vineyard, checked with the farms in September 2026: Morning Glory, Beetlebung, North Tabor, Mermaid Farm's 24-hour dairy shed, Native Earth, Allen Farm, Island Alpaca, the FARM Institute and the West Tisbury Farmers Market, with hours, honor-system rules and the fall pumpkin dates.
A reader planning a trip for May 2027 asked us what would actually be open. The honest year-round map: restaurants, cafes, trails, museums and services that never close, town by town, plus the calendar of when everything else reopens.
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