Green Elephant — Restaurant in Portsmouth

We stumbled across this great find thanks to Yelp and wanted to make sure that we paid it forward by leaving our great review of this fantastic location.

We searched for vegetarian/vegan options and this one popped up at the top of the list, and after eating here, we could definitely tell why.

The atmosphere was very cool with lots of interesting mandala art on the walls and cool decorations. Andrea, our server, was totally relaxed and helpful and put us all at ease. She had several great recommendations for things for us to try, especially the "crack" soup... but more about that later.

We started off with samosas and the hot-spicy chick'n stix. The samosas were served in soup spoons and had a very light and flaky crust... more like a spring roll. We liked this better than the traditional thicker crust as it made for a less HEAVY treat. As for the stix... they were okay but no one's favorite for sure.

Now on to CRACK soup... well it actually wasn't made of crack... as far as we knew... but it was so good and tasty that we knew there was something highly addictive in there. In case you want to order it, please don't ask for the CRACK soup... well actually you should and then post your own review with their response. seriously, it's latin name is Crackius Soupium, but in the restaurant they call it Fragrant Coconut Soup with Tofu & Baby Bella Mushrooms. The only thing we would personally change is to leave out the scallions and onions, but just because that is not our THANG.

After splitting all of the apps, we moved on to our entree buffet that we created. 3 dishes...

1. Chinese Broccoli with Crispy Breaded Soy Filet Stir-fried broccoli, Chinese broccoli, carrots and Thai bird chili in a brown sauce. Moderately spicy... now I like my food pretty spicy so I asked for them to make it a 3 out of 4 stars, but next time, I would go for the full four stars as it was barely warm. That was my only complaint about this dish. This MASTERPIECE had so many delightful yet subtle flavors going on that I could not stop eating it. And the crunch on the soy filet was like it was made in the skillet of somebody's grandmother in the deep South.
2. Tofu Tikka Masala Spinach, edamame and chickpeas in a Masala curry sauce. Served with brown rice seasoned with curry powder, peas, carrots and shallots. My wife ordered this one and didn't share very much... and for good reason. This had a wonderfully warm Masala curry and the perfect mix of vegetables to add texture and crunch to the dish.
3. Peanut Curry Slow cooked in coconut milk with soy-meat, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, carrots and onions. Another WOW dish that we all enjoyed.

We were going to bring home some leftovers, but when we looked down... magically it was all gone.

We hope to return to Portsmouth one day and will definitely make this a return spot for lunch...

Terrible Sunday Night Dinner Our Sunday night dinner was definitely a huge disappointment. I wanted to treat my family to a nice dinner, but we didn’t feel like going out and we loved the Green Elephant so I decided to place a delivery order through a third-party. The food arrived, and we opened the bag and discovered the 2/3 of my son’s meal was missing. He only had plain white noodles to eat. It was very apparent that the restaurant did not check the order before giving it to the Uber delivery person. The obviously new person answering the phone at the front desk was unapologetic and not helpful. I had to call back twice. The first time, after asking for the manager, she disconnected me. I called back to tell her that I was disconnected and she laughed. She was clearly distracted and did not want to help me and was giggly on both of our calls. Peter, the manager was not helpful at all either. He was quick to pass the blame to Uber Eats “it’s the third-party fault” he repeated numerous times or even made it sound like it was my fault for ordering through a third-party company. Maybe they shouldn’t do business with a third-party company if they’re just going to blame everybody else. But I do not put blame on Uber Eats - the bag was sealed when it arrived. The Uber Eats delivery person did not take my food out of the bag and not deliver it to me. I’m pretty sure that. It was clearly the Green Elephant’s fault for not getting my order correct and handing it off to a delivery person. And, I had zero recourse; the restaurant can’t deliver my food, I can’t reach out to the Uber Eats driver to go back to get my food and I’m certainly not going to drive to the restaurant after I just paid a premium to have my food delivered. Green Elephant you were totally at fault, you should have checked my order before handing it over to a third-party and your front desk staff and manager should try to be a little bit more friendly and professional and not giggle when they hang up on you. So yes, by the time I got to Peter the manager, I was not happy. ...

Everything from menu to atmosphere to bar selection to service was perfect! I am a vegetarian and I am always on the hunt for a place that is also enjoyable for carnivores, since I married one. Ended up taking my husband and my father in law who are both meat eaters. They were very skeptical walking in but we were to indulge me since it was my birthday. We waited for about 45 minutes to sit because they don't offer reservations. Once seated we all ordered a couple drinks from their extensive bar and drink list.

For appetizers we ordered the spring rolls and dumplings. I sat back and let the 2 of them try it first to see if they were going to be happy enough with the food to order dinner also. Both of them were mmm'ing and wowing at how good everything tastes and didn't even miss the meat in the dumplings. The sauces were perfect and went great with both items.

For our dinner we ordered the spicy vegetables, Thai basil fried rice and pad Thai. The soy meat product in the Thai basil friend rice was cooked so perfectly it tasted exactly like ham. The server asked our spice level before ordering and what we asked for on each of our individual dishes matches our choice from 1-4 in spice level. The ride was ordered with medium spice and definitely met that expectation. The spicy vegetables were ordered as a 3 and came out perfect and full of flavor. The pad Thai was ordered as a 1 and was so perfect. The tofu was nicely cooked firm and flavorful with lots of traditional pad Thai flavors without the worry of fish products, as I am allergic and this is always a struggle.

For dessert we ordered a French press coffee and the orange chocolate mousse. The coffee arrived in a cute little mini French press you can press yourself and pour. The mousse was silly and smooth and the chocolate covered oranges tasted so rich.

Everyone left the restaurant having fully enjoyed their meal and we will definitely return for...