The Rosa Restaurant — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Absolutely the worst dining experience I've ever had. Even though the setting and atmosphere were nice, my food was very subpar and management did nothing to make me feel valued or make me want to return.

First off, I went with coworkers as a group get-together dining experience. After we were seated, we got our drinks fairly quickly and was able to place our food orders. I ordered calamari and the salmon dish with risotto. It literally took 25 minutes for the calamari to come out and another 30 minutes after that for our food.

The calamari was actually great, but when my salmon came out it was very dark, burnt and crispy. I ordered it medium. My coworkers laughed at the knocking sound it made when I tapped my fork on it! I had to wait about 6-8 minutes for our server to even come back to our table to tell him that my salmon was overcooked. He offered a do-over and I accepted. A female manager came to my table, apologized and said a new salmon dish would be out shortly.

About 5 minutes later, my replacement salmon came out and it looked beautiful...until I cut into it. It was completely RAW. After getting my server's attention after waiting another 5 minutes, I showed it to him and said I didn't want anything else in return.

After everyone was finished, we waited about 20 minutes just to ask our server for our checks. After he finally brought them back, I was shocked to see that they still charged me for the calamari and plain soda water that I ordered. I asked for the manager and the same woman returned. I asked her if they were really still going to charge me even though I got a twice-messed up meal and her response was, "didn't you like the risotto?"...which I only ate half of because I was hungry, but had no entrée. I told her that I did like the risotto, but that wasn't what I ordered as my meal! She said I still was being charged for the calamari and plain soda water ($22). All I could do was look at her in disbelief.

I paid the $22, but absolutely left NO tip and left my contact phone number on a comment card upon leaving requesting someone call me to ask about my dining experience. I have yet to hear anything from anyone at the establishment to this day and it's been a week now. I will not return to nor recommend this...

First time visitor. Was pleased that they were able to seat us without a reservation on a busy holiday week afternoon. Everyone was very nice and we were seated in the area of low top tables to the side with a view of the kitchen. Very nice interior. Our server was lovely, attentive and checked in on us several times. The food was good; I'd give it a solid B+. The salad was fresh and the white anchovies were a nice touch, the dressing was ok; a bit bland. Nice fresh baked bread with dipping oil. The arancini was very good and the sauce was pretty good. The chicken parm was a bit disappointing. It was just a few minutes north of overcooked and then I think maybe the guy left it under the broiler a bit too long so the cheese was burnt in spots and the chicken was pretty dry. The pasta was well cooked. Personal preference, didn't like the spicy meatball pizza which was a bit too hot for me but the crust was good and had a nice chew. The heat of the pizza is ironic as my general over all impression of the food was everything seemed a bit under seasoned and under salted. As mentioned we were seated with a view of the kitchen which my chef wife usually enjoys and the kitchen appeared clean and organized. But, unfortunately a couple of the guys must not have been paying attention to their serve safe training that day. One particular guy was eating while working on the line. Not just grabbing a taste of something but full out shoveling mouthfuls of his plate while working the line. He also (along with another guy) were not wearing hats or beard protectors. To make this worse one of the guys was admiring his colleague's haircut and was rubbing his freshly shorn head, then went back to working the line; no handwash, no gloves. This same guy a few moments later gave his own head a good 2-handed scratch and shake, again going right back to food prep. Gross, and really needs to be addressed. So, in summary, nice restaurant, great atmosphere, good food and nice front staff but someone really needs to talk...

This is a solid lunch and dinner option. Where there were tiny issues, many other things made up for those. First off, the service was impeccable and incredibly personalized. We were treated like we were important. Whoever trains the staff has the “secret sauce” - a balance of competency, timing and warmth. Not many places have this today. 3 bartenders all on point. This is a differentiator for sure. Attractive restaurant and bar nicely appointed and lit (dim). Rustic decor matched the menu & concept. It all made sense. Open kitchen was a plus. Pizzas looked great, but we opted for other items. Most importantly to start with the food menu is one of the most economical and fairly priced menus I’ve seen in years. We had the minestrone soup and calamari. Both were good. Beans may have been better than pasta in the soup, but no big deal. The soup was a big portion and was nice and fresh. Calamari was good too, but the dipping sauce was lackluster flavor wise. Overall still good. We had 2 pasta & risotto entrees that surprisingly came with salads. We had 1 Caesar and 1 house. A+ - My wife had Ciopinno on risotto and I had Chicken Marsala over pasta. Both excellent. Pasta was homemade & they let you choose. We also had one specialty cocktail each and a beer. It did appear that the drinks were priced at expected levels, bumping up the check but no big deal. Quality and a good value. This place also has a ton of history, as it’s been serving Portsmouth for decades (with a couple of breaks and owner changes). Great causal Italian place, with an...