Clipper Tavern — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Hole in the wall? Sure. And once you get inside, it is absolute fathermothering Burger and French Fry Heaven... And we don't tend to swear a lot. Enter through the yellow brick arched entry wall, and you are in a little dive bar that feels very old school seacoast New England~ complete with sports-on-the-wall, (not too-terribly loud) Rock music, exposed beams and ceiling fans, the echo-ey banter of happy customers, and maritime memorabilia all around. So, imagine that you are craving a burger and fries, and you've been everywhere else... the drive-throughs, the midscale chains, the upscale gastros, The Four Seasons (although the pumpkin and fig entree is unbeatable there), and you have been to your Uncle's backyard BBQ where the burgers are handmade. But you're looking for something special, you're tired of the soggy white bread, the French Fried promises, and the carelessness, and you want real cheese, dammital. In short, you've been looking for love in all the wrong places. Well, we came here with that in mind, and we can say that we were thoroughly loved... and we left with not only full, happy bellies, but with a place to recommend with our full, happy-ass little hearts. So the Patty Melt. This is a half pound that is actually a half pound and was obviously lovingly tended back at the haminger garden. Real Swiss cheese, and chonks of fresh sauteed onion served on thick slices of this lovely grilled (and Buttered) grainy bread that made me glad that they were out of marble rye. Now, the French Fries. Holy Mother of Batman wait till Ireland hears about these fries.... Fresh, hand cut, skin retained (that's religion where I come from), Buttered (yeah, but...Yeah), and a blend of fresh herbs that we heard whispers of but they may have to kill us if we told you~ so for your safety, we are keeping our mouths shut. Just go try them~ do it for the Irish that your Grandmother didn't tell you is really in you, and for the sanctity of all that is Potato. So, we could be done here but... the Pickle spear~ In a world where we fry our pickles before giving them a chance to explain (and they make those here too), the pickle spear that is curated here could only be described by the label on the can of our favorite (probably extinct) curry powder... It's the perfect piquant peppery. The coffee too is local, fresh, and delicious and today was hand- delivered by their kind and humble chef Brian. Regrets? That we cleaned our plates like heathens~ leaving us no room for blueberry-and-creme biscuits or chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches. We will just have to force ourselves to return. Restrooms are important too, and can make or break whether we return to a place. Theirs are not only nicely clean, but they too are absolutely old school (you just have to be there). P.S. our excellent and very gracious server (apologies for not recalling her name) had to follow us out (which she did very sweetly) because, in our post-dinner stupour (and our wanting to clear space for the Friday night crowd) we initially forgot to pay~ and to not pay for a meal like this would be criminal, whether you are related to Pirates or not. So if you come and eat, bring your broken hearts and your empty bellies, and for God's sake, don't bypass...

I was expecting great things after seeing 4.5 stars and their sign outside advertising the lobster rolls. Sadly this was not the case, we did go on thanksgiving day because we are vacationing away from family, we sat down to a nice up kept tavern and that’s when things went downhill. We had to wait a bit for service as expected eating out on thanksgiving day but when we got our menus and saw all we had to choose from was off their thanksgiving day menu. Standard bar apps fries, fried pickles and some chowder sounds good, entrees turkey dinner, Alfredo and baked scallops. Where to start, my daughter had the turkey dinner, who goes out for more poorly cooked turkey dinner, she said “it tastes like they don’t normally cook turkey and mashed potatoes” big shocker there, my wife had Alfredo with shrimp and there was nothing good about it terrible Alfredo sauce possibly from a jar and over cooked shrimp, literally a stones throw from the Atlantic. My baked scallops were terrible the mashed potatoes were not fresh possibly from a box and the vegetables tastes like fish. If all this was not bad enough I asked twice before ordering if there were any other options or a traditional menu and was told no just the thanksgiving day menu I even asked separately about lobster rolls as they were on the sign out front I was told no just the thanksgiving day menu, so I succumbed and made my order not 10 min after I ordered I see a plate of nachos go out 20 min later lobster rolls them the cherry on top the family that came in minutes before mine got their food burgers all around, none of this was on my menu, the only menu they were serving that night and when I ask I was told oh that’s off our late night menu that we don’t serve till 8pm, it had just turned 8pm as I was being told this. Super bummed about the experience, and the $140 spent on food none of us could even eat we all left our plates with literally 2...

Went with the family on thanksgiving, for the record we were having dinner at a tavern because we specifically did not was the traditional thanksgiving food. We go in and are given a “special” thanksgiving day menu”. We even asked the waitress if there always anything else available because we were not wanting any of that and asked if we could order lobster rolls that were listed at the front door. We were told no, that the only things that were being made today were the special thanksgiving menu. Which guess what? Has only 3 main dishes thanksgiving dinner, Alfredo and scallops with veggies. We each got one of the choices, all of which were awful. We left full plates of food behind because we each only had a couple bits and couldn’t handle finishing it. Also, the whole time we were there the whole rest of the tavern was getting nachos, lobster rolls, and burgers. My husband asked and was told “well that was all on the night menu that started at 8”. Everyone else got that food before 8 and we even tried to get any other options when we sat down and were told no. Also, we were never offered refills. It was by far the worst restaurant experience ever. And I tried to chalk it up to being a holiday and busy and probably skeleton crew but no, our waitress was hanging out with other patrons and chatting and hugging them. We have gone out on holidays and left $50+ tips because we both know how it can be as a waiter on a holiday. This was awful I would never recommend anyone traveling through to dine here as there is clearly favoritism towards people they know and strangers are completely blown off, ignored and treated like they...