The Portsmouth Brewing Co. — Restaurant in Portsmouth

I've been going here off and on for several years, and I have to say that each visit has been its own experience. This historic brewery is locally known as the oldest brewery in Ohio in continuous operation. At the entrance you can see the brewery equipment in use. But aside from the local brew (I recommend the Red Bird Ale) and the historic building there isn't much that sets it apart from other places.

The parking is mostly street parking although there is a now a parking lot across the street from the establishment next to Pat's Cafe. Inside there multiple seating options that are available to fit the needs of everyone from a small group to a larger gathering with high top seating, bar seating, tables, and booths. This may vary based upon staffing. The interior decor doesn't appear to be decided yet: Cincinnati Reds Pete Rose painting, enlarged photos of the restaurant, old Portsmouth pictures, other such randomness. The historic vibe of the building is interrupted by wall-mounted televisions with sports channels and gambling/keno playboards. The acoustics aren't as horrible as you would expect from an older arcade, but this is mostly likely due to the high ceilings. That being said, if garbage cans are pulled across the brick floor you most likely won't be able to heat the person sitting across from you speak. The booth-style seating can use some anchoring. If you are sitting in a booth and a person flops down in the booth behind you you will get moved about.

The food. We were looking for a late lunch/ early dinner and opted for Big Fish Dinner, which is a one pound fried Alaskan Pollock, slaw, and a side. I chose french fries and she asked for a baked potato. For an appetizer we chose fried mushrooms washed down with two Red Bird Ales.

The ales were cold and good as always. The fried mushrooms were a hug portion, well-seasoned, hot, and a golden-brown. These were served with a big bottle of ranch dressing. We could have made a meal of just these.

The slaw was a creamy style. These were served chilled in single use containers. The baked potato was as expected. It was described as done perfectly. The french fries were a large portion (more than I could eat), well-seasoned and hot.

The only downside of the experience was the Alaskan Pollock. We tried for a couple of minutes to figure out what went wrong. One filet was cooked well. The battering was crisp, but not hard; the meat juicy, but the battering still greasy. The other two pieces were deeply brown, crunchy, the meat dry and the battering still greasy with a burnt grease taste. Maybe they were just left in the fryer too long. Hopefully it was just a one-off experience.

All in all the whole meal set us back $48 and...

The menu was pretty limited which was fine, but nothing I tried was what I would consider to be good except for the fried cheese curds. The pickle fries were very salty and over done. The pickle inside was shriveled to the point of nonexistance and the batter was very dark.. Im not someone that likes to complain, but at those prices, I had to. The cheapest thing on the menu was a $5 small garden salad that looked a bit pitiful. I got fish and chips and there was more breading than fish (like 80% breading) and it was also over fried and extremely greasy. My guess is that either they didn't let the oil heat back up to the proper temperature, or that the oil is very dirty which I wouldn't doubt since a large percentage of the menu is fried items. The fries were obviously just poured out of a bag from the freezer and the greenbeans were straight out of a can. $13 for a thin pieces of pollock, frozen fries, and canned beans is a bit much.. also the cocktail menu wasn't appealing and the advertised "Jungle Juice" couldn't be made due to lack of ingredients. All that aside, i gave two stars for the service. The waitress was nice and I feel bad that she had to deal with the complaints. I'd go back only for a beer but NOT the food. I wish I...

I was amazed by this small town brewery. I might now be a beer connoisseur, but I do know my way around a mircro-brewery and I work with wine, so I do know how to pick up taste notes. I personally had the Vulcan dark lager which had almost stout notes of coffee, but still the smoothness of a good lager. The Crisp Gold light lager was light and clean. The bartender/brewer also let me try the IPA which had a lovely citrus almost summer shandy note to it. The pilsner (again sample from the bartender since we got to talking about beer) had an apple note on the first sip which got richer into a cinnamon-apple sauce on the second (have to admit I am not a pilsner fan, but DAMN!) and he even got me a sample of the amber-ale from the vat, TALK ABOUT A NICE WINTER BREW! It was homely like a nice charles smith barbara (talking wine of course) with notes of iron and a good warmth to it!

Another gem of...