Antonio's Seafood & Grill

Antonio's Seafood & Grill sits on the shoulder of Highway 101 a few minutes outside Digby, attached to the unassuming Scotia Bay Motel, and it is, by the numbers, the best-rated restaurant in one of Nova Scotia's most seafood-obsessed towns. A 4.8 rating across 466 reviews on Restaurant Guru and a #1-of-29 ranking on Tripadvisor would be impressive anywhere; in Digby, the self-declared Scallop Capital of the World, it borders on heresy done politely. The restaurant is run by a husband-and-wife team, and everything about the place, from the diner-style room to the coconut cream pie, reflects a family operation that decided to take seafood seriously rather than expand into anything flashier. It slots neatly into a Bay of Fundy itinerary, twenty minutes from the Fundy shore and the Cliffs of Fundy Geopark is an easy day trip east.

The setting is roadside, not waterfront, a practical consideration on a highway strip that trades view for convenience. What you get instead is the kind of kitchen that buys from the wharf up the road and doesn't overthink it. Digby landed its reputation on scallops, and Antonio's has become the place locals send people to eat them.

The Scallops, and the Standards Around Them

The menu reads as honest Nova Scotian seafood with an Italian family's touch; the Restaurant Guru listing classifies it as Italian cuisine, which shows up less in red sauce than in the kitchen's instinct for simple preparation of premium ingredients. Everything is cooked to order, and the fry discipline is real: thin-battered and crispy, per the restaurant's own Facebook description, a style that lets the seafood carry the plate.

• Digby scallops, cooked properly: "Scallops are juicy and fresh" is the recurring note, with grilled scallops praised as the smarter order, with the same care given to the haddock and clams.
• Pan-fried haddock: The other signature. One reviewer gets close to poetry: "I have no idea what sorcery they have here; but there is no better fish anywhere else! The haddock is outstanding, the scallops are second to none."
• Fish and chips, and the donair sub: "We had the fish and chips and the donair sub at Antonio's and both meals were excellent! The owner was very friendly and the service was..." — the sentence trails off in the original, presumably into a second plate.
• Coconut cream pie: The dessert case's headliner, "to die for" by multiple accounts, with chocolate cream pie in support. Save room deliberately; the portions don't make it easy.

The haddock-and-scallop combo and the seafood platter round out the core orders, with onion rings and coleslaw as the standard supporting cast. A poutine recommendation surfaces among the review tags, hinting at the menu's French-Canadian lane, and the kitchen turns out kids' plates and high chairs without ceremony. Prices sit around CA$30–40 per person for a full seafood dinner — fair for fresh-off-the-boat Digby product, and reviewers consistently call the value fair. The wheree.com listing scores the food quality itself at 9.4 out of 10, with service (8.0) the only sub-8.5 line on the scorecard.

A Highway Address That Works in Your Favour

The location is a feature disguised as a limitation. Antonio's sits at 9066 Highway 101, Digby — on the inland side of the 101 corridor rather than the waterfront. For travellers driving the Digby–Annapolis Royal–Valley loop, that's zero detour: you pass the door whether you're coming from the CAT ferry terminal in Digby approach roads or heading east into the Annapolis Valley. The room itself is casual and family-friendly — diner-style seating, a kids' menu, high chairs, and wheelchair-accessible entrance, seating, washrooms, and parking. Takeout, kerbside pickup, and delivery are all available, and there's outdoor seating in season.

Service is a genuine strength, and it's personal rather than procedural. "Everyone is so welcoming, greeted as though you're entering the home of friends/family and welcomed to their table" is one reviewer's summary, and the husband-and-wife ownership is visible in the room. Beer and wine are available, the coffee gets unsolicited praise, and vegetarian options exist for the non-seafood member of the party. The practical amenities run deep for a roadside room: takeout, kerbside pickup and delivery, outdoor seating in season, and NFC mobile payments alongside cards. The restaurant's Facebook presence — 1,890 likes with 428 check-ins against 41 reviews at a 96% recommend rate — bills itself as a family restaurant "known for delicious, thin battered, and crispy" seafood, which is about as accurate a three-word self-assessment as a kitchen can give.

Four-to-Eight, and Other Realities

The schedule is the single biggest planning issue: Antonio's keeps dinner-only hours, 4 PM to 8 PM daily, per Restaurant Guru's listing. That's a narrow window for a destination restaurant, and 8 PM is a hard close in a town that quiets early — arrive at 7:40 and you will be eating efficiently. The wheree.com listing notes a 4–5 PM break some days; call ahead if you're aiming for the early edge of the window.

The other honest caveat is style: this is mostly fried food, as one reviewer noted — "Great place for fish and chips. The fish is fresh, never frozen. We had pan fried scallops and they were good. It is mostly fried food." If your ideal is steamed-and-drizzled minimalism, order the grilled scallops specifically and manage expectations elsewhere. And the motel-adjacent setting means zero scenic payoff; the dig-worthy view is on the plate.

None of this dents the core proposition: freshest-possible scallops and haddock, family hospitality, and pie, at highway-convenient prices.

The Practical Details: Location, Hours & Essentials

Address & Location
9066 Highway 101, Digby, NS B0V 1A0 — on the 101 corridor east of Digby town centre, attached to the Scotia Bay Motel. Roughly 10 minutes from downtown Digby and the ferry-area restaurants; pair it with a morning at the Digby Scallop Days festival if your timing lands in August.

Hours of Operation
Daily 4 PM – 8 PM (dinner only; a 4–5 PM break is sometimes observed — call to confirm).

Price Range
CA$30–40 per person for a full seafood dinner; sandwiches and lighter plates less. Beer and wine available.

Reservations
Accepted; sensible in July and August, when Digby's tourist season peaks. Call (902) 245-6902.

Parking
Free parking lot at the motel/restaurant, with plenty of space; wheelchair-accessible parking on site.

Antonio's earns its ranking the old-fashioned way: it buys the best seafood in a seafood town and cooks it for you like you're family. For any Digby-area itinerary — ferry arrival, scallop season, or a Fundy road trip, it's the dinner reservation worth making early in the evening, and worth leaving room for pie.