Portsmouth Brewery — Restaurant in Portsmouth

One of the things I was really looking forward to on our family vacation to Portsmouth was the brew pubs. Honestly, I feel let down. Perhaps it was a family group, my “kids” range from 8 to 28. Maybe it was the size of our party. Or maybe families just are not the favorite customer demographic, a vibe a caught at several eateries in the area. Regardless of the reason our greeting, seating, and follow up service was not exactly red carpet. Of course, every server(s) can be having a bad day, so I was still anxious to sample both the food and a few of the very local beers.

Let’s start with the beers. I went straight to the Coffee Milk Stout without passing go or collecting a hundred dollars. I was on edge as many craft brewery stouts lean towards the over sweet chocolate profile. Not this one. This milk stout tastes like it has some Russian Imperial Ale in its linage somewhere. It was smooth, creamy on the pallet with a hint of sweetness. My daughter had Omission Pale Ale. She is a vegan with allergies to gluten, lactose, and meat proteins and the Brewery did not have any house gluten free beers at the time we visited. My wife had the Dirty Blonde Ale and was satisfied if not overly impressed.

Food. Honestly, we had great food and lousy food all in the same meal. Starting with the Appetizers. You may recall I mentioned I had an allergy laden vegan daughter. So, we ordered the Vegetarian Nachos with the BBQ King Oyster Mushrooms. We asked for the Cheese and sour cream on the side for obvious reasons. The Oyster mushrooms were missing when it was delivered, and it took two requests to get the sour cream. The mushrooms never showed up. They don’t put Guacamole on their nachos, so they were pretty basic. Oh well. We also ordered two of the Jumbo Pretzels. They were hot and delicious and really are jumbo, as in dinner plate size. The cheddar ale sauce was good but not mind blowing. Point to the brewery.

Main Course. The vegan had a stripped-down salad despite the fact the restaurant has a vegan vegetarian menu. If you work at the Portsmouth Brewery or know someone who does, this is the problem. Not all vegetarian and vegans eat that way because of lifestyle choices. Some have restricted diets and cross contamination is everything. In an age where you can’t open peanuts on a plane without being jumped by an Air Marshall, I would think a small separate grill and fryer should be standard equipment in a commercial kitchen. Just think, it would also make some of your more orthodox Jewish and Muslim customers happy. Just a thought.

My oldest daughter had the Vermont Burger which she claims is the BEST burger she has ever had in her 28 years of life. Enough Said. Son number 2 decided to turn two appetizers into an entrée and ordered the Grilled Flatbread which he said was tasteless and dried out and the Carnitas Street Fries which were “ok”. My wife had the Brewery Burger. In retrospect burgers are the way to go at the Portsmouth Brewery. Her order was hot, cooked perfectly and tasty. In fact, the other half of it was pretty good reheated the following day. I had the fried fish. Along with a good stout beer fish and chips is one of my default choices for lunch out and I have had versions all over the world. This one was fair. Heavy on the batter but a decent portion. I had asked for some malt vinegar and some of the restaurants signature garlic aioli on the side. I got the aioli, but the malt vinegar got lost with the mushrooms from the nachos. The two youngest had Mac and Cheese and chicken tenders, respectively. My youngest loved the mac and cheese the rest of us found it bland as bland can be. I do not recommend ordering it. The chicken tenders were, well, chicken tenders.

All in all, I found this restaurant to be right down the middle for price,...

When I want a good meal with great beer and no fuss, The Portsmouth Brewery is steadfast and dependable like an old friend; a worthy local institution.

The place is solid and the price point is totally reasonable. Almost the entire menu is good-to-great and rarely fails to deliver. This is actually noteworthy for the area, as the large menu changes with the seasons and is one of the larger (people capacity) places in town. If I had to pin down the crowd favorite, I'd say it's the curry mussels. However, this is one of the few places at this price point where I'm not opposed to some menu exploration and I have yet to be disappointed after said exploration.

The food spans a fairly broad culinary range from comfort and pub fare, to seafood and chowder, to late night snacks. Typical pub fare is spot on - wings (volcano is HOT, like really hot), burgers, nachos, etc. - and are all a cut above average. The entrees are accessible with satiating portions, while being fairly inspired and well executed; my personal favorite being the saffron salmon. And the weekly specials span a similar culinary range and are as solid as the static menu, perhaps with a heavier dash of pizzazz.

The beer is in a tier competing with the rest of the local favorite craft brewery offerings. The Portsmouth Brewery (PB) is somewhat sistered with Smuttynose, so you might find some thematic similarities. I must say that I enjoy PB's various offerings more than Smutty, but I'd say the execution expertise is similar. The dozenish or so native offerings includes a solid foundation of year round staples, with seasonal brews effortlessly following New England's fickle weather backdrop.

It should be noted that the PB is on the beer map for Kate the Great, a Russian imperial stout festooned with Beer Advocate's "Best Beer in America" title in 2007. Kate appeared in the winter and demands hours-long (sometimes overnight), cold waits in queue with serious brew aficionados and curious casual drinkers alike. Unfortunately, Kate no longer appears.

The vibe upstairs is family friendly during the day and dinner-time, with a few clustered groups that may hang around the bar and high tops until the nightly midnight closing time. It is a pretty large open space, so peak time can get a bit boisterous, but I've never found it to stifle conversation. It is one of the few downtown Portsmouth places that can host a large group of 12+ at their roundtable with day-of notice.

The average age dips in the downstairs Jimmy LaPanza Lounge, where people surround the shuffleboard and pool table. At night, the cozy atmosphere might have you befriending a local as you'll probably need to ask for space to line up your pool shot. The full food and beer menu is offered, along with some additional finger friendly foods.

The brewery is busy all year, but you can almost certainly expect a wait in the summer months at lunch and...

It was a very disappointing night at your place last night. I live an hour away from Portsmouth, but each year my boyfriend and I would come to your place often during the summer and even brought friends with us who are from MA. We always stay downstairs because of their great beer, food and friendly staffs. Last night, after visiting our other favorite place shooting few hours of free pool and drinking few beers, we headed to Portsmouth Brewery and made it as our last stop of the night as we usually do. When we arrived at the door, we were stopped by two door guys asking for our I.D. We showed them with no problem and one of the guys asked my boyfriend how much he had to drink before we got there. My boyfriend told him honestly that he had 3 drinks before we got there. Right away, without saying anything else, the door guy said that we were not allowed to go in. It's getting even more frustrating that when I asked him why we were not allowed to go in, by what he was judging that we shouldn't be served. Without answering my question at all, he said: "you are creating a scene right now, and we will call the cop." This is ridiculous!!! I never see anyone at the door who would handle the situation like this! He asked us how many drinks, and we said three, but the fact was that 3 drinks was consumed from 530pm -9pm! Also, while I was trying to ask him the questions, I witnessed him kept letting at least 5-6 other people going in without asking them any questions!!! So why were we being treated so differently!? Obviously it has nothing to do with how we acted cause when I asked him was it because we acted inappropriately, he got no answer for me. Or was it because I am the only Asian in the town!? And the door guy happened to be a shaved white guy? I need an explanation and apology! We even called and talked to the manager on duty because the door guys refused to get us the manager, and the manager's response was the door guys have full power and authority to turn anyone away, and he refused to come outside and talked to us in person. I managed a billiard club that has 40 staffs each night before and this is definite very unprofessional on dealing with issues...