Moxy — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Moxy is a foodie's staple. The food is fresh and explodes with flavor. There are many options to suit any palette.

Tonight's meal started with the Roasted Farmers Carrots with beet relish, crispy onion, Chevre, and maple tarragon vinaigrette. It was unbelievable!!!

For dinner my wife ordered the Crispy Potatoes, spicy tomato with roasted garlic and herb sour cream and the burger sliders. That is an all-time favorite of hers. I ordered the New England Dinner 2.0, consisting of Corned beef brisket, napa cabbage, crispy potato slivers, pickled onions & carrots with Raye's maple mustard. Holy smokes was this good!!! I absolutely loved this dish because it was built to use the nappa cabbage leaves like a taco or tortilla. This dish made it fun to eat your meal with your hands. Man was it delicious. I would definitely get it again.

For dessert we shared the Carrot Cake with brown butter-cream cheese and maple caramel sauce. What a great way to top off the meal. Moxy is a great place to go to give your tastebuds a workout. Everything is so surprisingly flavorful. It leaves you wondering what the next dish will be like.

As an FYI, the dishes don't all come out at once. They do a great job of spacing things out, which extends the experience. Reservations are highly recommended. No reservations for the bar, so if that is your pleasure, get there early as seating at the bar...

It had been 12 or 13 years since I'd last been to Moxy, so I was so excited to bring my fiancé for his first time on Saturday night. About an hour before opening, we were able to easily secure a reservation for 5:45pm and were seated upstairs near the railing. It was his time having tapas so I let him pick most of the dishes to make sure we got things he would enjoy.

For our small plates, first to come out was the calamari. It was perfectly spiced and the peppers were a lovely addition. Then the Moxy bread was delightfully toasted. We also got the crispy pork belly (a top dish for both of us, perfect combination of flavors), the mini Italian sausages (this one fell flat for us), and the mini fried chicken (another top dish). We finished off with the whoopie pies, which to me the filling was a bit too sweet, but the dark chocolate sauce helped to cut that a little bit.

We had a lovely time and can't wait to come back!

For parking, there's some street parking available, but I'd recommend parking in one of the garages and walking, so you don't get caught up waiting for pedestrians and looking for a spot. The Hanover Garage (as of June 1) is undergoing some construction so certain entrances/exits are closed, which can prolong the parking and exiting process. There are signs that recommend the...

Arrived early for drinks and immediately loved the atmosphere. The friendly bartender made me the best lavender-lemon martini I’ve never had with my favorite vodka (Cold River) that I rarely find when I’m out. (Yay!) I have two severe food allergies and the staff was helpful and not judgy which means so much. Had the greens (how someone made a salad taste like crack I’ll never know) and bread and butter pickles which were perfect. (Had some that were also good at a very foodie place the night before but these were more balanced and were lovely.) Dinner was excellent. We shared the chicken thighs. I’m not a chicken person but my friend is. I am now a Moxy’s chicken thighs person. Delicious!

Did want to note that the music was extremely quiet. We eventually were sitting with 3 other couples at the bar and everyone was speaking in very low whispers in order to not be heard by the people next to them. I know that sound is an issue in restaurants with articles about tinnitus etc. But this was reeeeeeeally quiet. Uncomfortably so. Felt like the volume could have gone up by as much as 15-20db. Pretty sure the music plus ambient sound was around 30-40...library quiet.

Other than the sound level it was awesome and I look forward to...