Black Trumpet — Restaurant in Portsmouth

I hesitate to give an honest review, because I live in this town, and the owner is well-loved here. But I feel compelled because of one area of our experience at Black Trumpet that stands out so clearly. The good: wonderful service by Marissa, our waiter, and young men who kept filling our water glasses. Very nice! The room is enchantingly historic and well kept. Nice ambiance! The bread, pino noir wine, and dessert (Enna’s chocolate-pistacchio pie) were all extraordinary. The bad: medium and main courses all sub-par. We ordered the medium sized dish as an appetizer. It was described to us so enticingly. Sounded so good. It was not. Mind you, we had skipped lunch on this day, our anniversary, to save room for lots of good food in the evening. We finished it, but not wanting to admit, while we ate it, how distasteful it was. I won’t even go into details because my stomach turns just thinking of it. Strong fishy odor and taste. Very unpleasant. Then came our mains. My husband was not happy with his duck meal, either, but I’m not going to speak for him. I ordered the sea bass, wrapped in a leaf on a bed of quinoa and a sauce. Sounds great, right? Not so. It had a similar and very strong fish odor and flavor that made me feel ill even before I took a bite. The meal was edible, and I ate it all, which was commented on when I issued my complaint. But there was nothing delicious about it, nothing intriguing or savory or tempting. It was simply edible. Not good, definitely not great. Overall each dish, aside from the bread and dessert, was small in portion size, served unadorned, drenched in sauces that were not enjoyable, either overcooked (veg) or undercooked (duck) and unattractive in appearance. I expected more in the way of garnishes, pretty flourishes of presentation, for such a high-priced restaurant. The plates were served in such a plain manner, like what you’d see at a diner. Unattractive as heck! We left with sick feelings in our stomachs, but oh, how we tried to enjoy our expensive night out on our anniversary! We tried keeping positive and keeping hopes high. I did tell the waitress that we were unhappy with the appetizer course and I did not enjoy my meal. I said I wanted to let them know before I went home and wrote a review, “because I do write reviews.” I never saw her again. She avoided us thereafter. The maitre d came over and gave us our check and a gift certificate, which I doubt we’ll use. He says they took off the dishes we had not liked. Oddly, he asked if I wished that he would let the kitchen know of our complaints. I assumed that would be a given, so I asked him what he meant and he repeated it. I said “yes, of course!” From here on the staff just made it all worse by a very cold and snooty treatment of us. That was probably the worst thing. You want to give honest feedback. You want them to learn and do better. All of us can improve on so many things. Is it really a crime to give your honest impression of a meal that wasn’t enjoyed? So we left feeling mistreated, which was the most imperfect ending to a most imperfect meal. We’ve had 33 dinners celebrating our wedding over the last 33 years. This was definitely the saddest experience of all. We got home and spent some time nurturing each other real good. Black Trumpet...

My rating specifically reflects the food quality compared to price.

Very nice ambiance, I had made a reservation for the wrong day and they found a table for us! Polite and accommodating staff.

For drinks we chose the Black Trumpet and their special "Bee" drink, both were fantastic, but i highly recommended the namesake! After, we got the foie gras, head cheese then bleu cheese charcuterie, duck breast, and pork carnitas.

This was our first experience with foie gras and it was amazing. We were not aware of the inhumane method until the waiter told us, but thankfully they source theirs ethically! According to the staff, those geese are held in dark areas to trick their minds into overeating. Microgreens were covering much of the fig compote which would have complimented the dish well.

We ordered the made in house head cheese, excited to try a locally made cheese! We did not know was not cheese..? This may be obvious to some, but we had never heard of this before. In my opinion charcuterie should be flavorful to compliment each component. In our opinion, the head cheese reminded us of boiled pork mixed with cooled fat (which is what we were told) but it lacked flavor to be paired with pickled veg and jam. I did not eat much of this, but my partner did while trying to enjoy it. We did tell the server about this politely and they actually removed it from our bill and offered another option for charcuterie!

The bleu cheese was beautiful! Very funky and flavorful. The jam and whole mustard paired so well!!

The duck breast was served in 4 quarter inch slices. Even with small portions, it was underwhelming in flavor and tough considering what it was. The polenta was much better, but not worth ≈$30

The pork carnitas pavé was alright, not enough flavor from the meat but accompanied with poblano puree and creamed street corn. The sides were good, but we have made better street corn at home (Google deconstructed street corn, you won't regret it!)

Spent $150 before tip for two people, we do not get the chance to go for dinner often. We don't plan on returning as the prices did not reflect the...

Family was thoroughly disappointed - especially after reading the raving reviews. Aside from the cozy ambiance, feels more like a has-been place with the chef checked out.

Cleopatra's review below was relatable... bland and never asked if we even enjoyed the food. The experience started and ended with with maitre d who didn't care. They only do dinner so it seems they could put in some effort, joy and love into the experience at Black Trumpet on a Saturday evening.

Our dinner was meant to celebrate 2 birthdays - we were disappointed enough to skip the dessert.

I think we only liked: grilled eggplant spread steak and cheese presse venison

The worst: Coulotte Steak was tough & sinewy (!): should have sent back Mountain Paella was bland rice porridge Tagliatelle: large chunks of squash slopped on a dish with a negligible portion of pasta

The following were not particularly memorable: Snail Gratin: no bread offered so had to add $9 bread/spread to enjoy the sauce which turned out to be blah Mezze Tartlette

We told ourselves that we would have eventually gone through this disappointing and overrated experience since we're recent regular Portsmouth visitors. Skip this for other more pleasant options like...