St. Andrews eats well from June through October and quietens dramatically the rest of the year. The waterfront and Water Street hold most of the restaurants, almost all of them oriented toward Bay of Fundy seafood — lobster, scallops, haddock, mussels, salmon.
The Niger Reef Tea House, in a 1926 wooden bandstand at the foot of the Algonquin's grounds, is the most atmospheric place for dinner: small menu, lots of bay views, reservations advisable. Rossmount Inn, a few kilometres up Route 127, has a longstanding reputation for the most ambitious cooking in the area — multi-course tasting menus drawing on local meats, produce, and seafood. For casual eating, The Gables has a long pub-style menu of lobster rolls, fish and chips, and chowder served on a deck right above the water; queues are long at peak times. Honeybeans on Water Street is the morning coffee fix; Slipway Pub is the late-evening pint.
Lobster prices in summer are usually best at the fishmongers and roadside boil-ups east of town rather than in the restaurants. A standard lobster supper — boiled lobster, drawn butter, potato salad, dinner roll — is the most local meal you can eat.