favorite seacoast restaurant? (Dover, Portsmouth, Hampton: hotel, house, buying)

[mrdude]

my girlfriend and i are finally moving to new hampshire this weekend. her family is coming along to help unload, and will be there for a few nights. we would like to know of some good restaurants in the area. my girlfriend and i were there for a few days during march and went the the lobster house over in maine, the dinnerhorn, and the muddy river smokehouse; muddy river smokehouse being the best.

so what restaurants would you recommend? also, none of us are real big seafood lovers.

thanks!

[CityGirl52]

If you enjoyed the Muddy River Smokehouse in Portsmouth? Then I KNOW you'll really like this Goody Cole's Smokehouse which is located at 374 Rte. 125 in Brentwood. www.goodycoles.com

If you're near the Newmarket, NH area? Look for Panzanella's on Main St. They have the BEST steak tips and their other menu choices are wonderful here too!

If you want another great place for lunch or dinner? It's actually like you're in an English Pub, it's called Abercrombie & Finch . The menu is very good here, it's got a variety of different items and specials on it every day. It's located at 219 Lafayette Rd. in No. Hampton. Here's their site to check it out:

Abercrombie & Finch
Abercrombie & Finch Restaurant

There's many different restaurants on the seacoast. SO many to choose in such little time! It also depends on your families taste buds! For instance, do you want Italian cuisine with a relaxed, fun setting? Then check out Ronaldo's in No. Hampton some day soon! It's truly awesome here, make reservations, but check their site first to see how many in your party you need to have for these reservations. It's going to be well worth it for you here. We get it "TO GO" a lot of times at Ronaldo's, that's how good it is here!
Ronaldo's of North Hampton, NH (603) 964-5064

If you wanted Italian cuisine in a much fancier dining room instead? Then remember to check Portsmouth's Ristorante Massimo. It's another wonderful establishment and at the top of our A-List for great restaurants on the seacoast! You'll really like it here a lot. It used to be called "Anthony Alberto's" for years; but a few months ago (back in April 07) they changed the name of it from Alberto's TO Ristorante Massimo. It's still quite the place! The atmosphere is JUST beautiful here and the cuisine is top shelf; in my book!

Would you like a great brunch in NH instead? I have a couple to recommend to you. One of them is the Old Salt Restaurant in Hampton at Lamie's Inn & Tavern:

Old Salt and Lamie's Inn

It's got one of the best best brunches I've ever been to and it's SO reasonable! It's set up like a cruise ship! The other place that's got a wonderful brunch is the New England Center at Acorn's Restaurant right at the campus of the University of New Hampshire. The kids are all gone for the summer season and NOW's the time to go there. They do up brunch here like you wouldn't believe. It's positively excellent. There's floor to ceiling windows in their dining room they use. A gorgeous huge fireplace. This is also very reasonable here for their Sunday Jazz Brunch. It's $18.95. WHERE can you go and have all of this for that amount of money?? It's a place that you should put on your list and try to go to. Remember it too because it's a gem! They also have a luncheon buffet every day I believe it is. Just go to this site to see about it. It's another idea to throw out at you and it's definitely WELL worth every dime you pay for it! It does get crowded though during the college school season of course, but that's expected. We've gone when the students have Christmas break and the floor to ceiling windows looking out at the snow and all the trees? Was well worth it. We enjoyed it immensely and I know you will to, no matter what time of year you get the chance to go here! This Spring in to Summer season right now that we're going through? Is the time to go to Acorn's Restaurant while the students are gone. It's nice and quiet on the campus and hopefully you can get reservations here because this way you can see what I mean about it:

Welcome To The New England Center: A Conference Center, Hotel, and Restaurant (broken link)

Well I think you have a few good ideas now for going out to lunch, brunch or dinner, whatever suits your fancy. I also made sure not to list seafood restaurants, since you don't really care for seafood to begin with.

If you're in Kingston, NH, then head to the Pond View Restaurant, it's got a beautiful atmosphere here and we really liked it for lunch a few times. It depends on where you're located in southern NH to get to this gem of a restaurant. It's always been consistant and we really like the atmosphere here the best, check out their menu & site to see what you think.

http://www.pondviewrestaurant.com (broken link)

All right, I can go on and on. There's a good website too that lists southern NH's seacoast restaurants. It's good because you can narrow the places down and view them all by location and type of restaurant. This would be good for you to have any way where you're new to the area:

Portsmouth NH Dining and Restaurants -- Seacoast Eats -- Restaurant Dining Guide for Portsmouth and Seacoast New Hampshire and Kennebunk and Southern Maine, ME

Good luck and enjoy yourselves!

[MrsM]

We live near the Town Lyne Grill on the Exeter/Hampton border and have really enjoyed that restaurant many times.

For lunch, the Loaf and Ladle in downtown Exeter has mindbogglingly good soups and sandwiches, the bread is made right there and is some of the best bread I have had in years. We go through two loaves a week and there are only two of us. Me & Ollies (several branches) is also excellent for lunch.

If you are heading up York way, hit the Stonewall Kitchen complex on Route 1 and eat at the Stonewall Kitchen Cafe before or after shopping at the store there. Yummmmm. You will never recover after a dose of their addictive Roasted Garlic & Onion Jam. I've been buying it for about 15 years, ever since they were a tiny business being run out of someone's kitchen and sold only at local farmer's markets - I even had it shipped to me out in Chicago before they went nationwide! If it's good weather, get your food as takeout and head over to the beach.

Just in case anyone likes lobster, I think the best lobster in the seacoast can be had at the Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier. A little bit lacking in the ambiance department - you fetch your own food from the "shack" and eat at picnic tables outside on a pier sticking out into (of course) Chauncey Creek - but just plain darn good lobstah. I think the piers and shacks have better lobster than the fancier restaurants do. They never waterlog their lobsters the way so many other places in the area do. They've expanded their menu but you can also bring along anything they don't serve there!

There's another English pub in Portsmouth called Coat of Arms. Great food - the sausage rolls and Scotch Eggs are terrific, ditto for the Ploughman's Lunch. For more of an Irish bent there's Biddy Mulligans in Dover - they often have live music too.

If you like good beer and good food, you can't beat the Portsmouth Brewery. I don't know if you still can as we've been an alcohol-free family for a while, but you used to be able to get a selection of several different beers in tiny glasses so you can taste a bunch of different ones. We used to like the "Weizenheimer" beer. It's surprisingly family-friendly for a brewery too.

[05cherokee]

Petey's Summertime Seafood & Bar Rye, NH
Petey's Summertime Seafood Restaurant, Best Seafood in NH, Private Parties, Catering

AMAZING FOOD.

[unknown stuntman]

Best I've had subtracting the seafood ventures...


1. Penang in downtown Exeter: if you love Asian you can't go wrong w/ the huge selections of Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese including a raw sushi bar. And they sure can make alot of the dishes spicy if you dare!
2. Riverworks in downtown Newmarket: great nightly soup, entree, and desert specials. Fantastic cooks for all-round cuisine.
3. Loco Oco's in Kittery: just over the border from Portsmouth at the intersection of 103 and the Rt 1 business route. If you like authentic Mexican, this is the place- don't buy into the Mickey Mouse hype over Margaritas.
4. Farr's on Hampton Beach just a block off the strip: long standing semi-fast food shack, serving lots of chicken and BBQ ribs. These are the best ribs and bbq I believe on the seacoast. I wasn't crazy at all about Muddy River's ribs a couple years back. Goody Coles on 125 in Brentwood is a good choice though I will concur.
5. Panzanellas in downtown Newmarket was mentioned. I still to this day nominate it for best pizza in the region.
6. I'll also nominate Loaf & Ladle in Exeter for cafteria style lunch and excellent selection.
7. Molly Malone's in downtown Portsmouth near the bridge: some dam good upscale appetizers in a casual setting and Irish bar. Try the bangers. Far and away the best I've ever had.

[pmjinnh]

Warrens in Kittery has a good menu and very good salad bar.

The Weathervane is over rated.

Saunders in Rye is very good.

[Annabelle]

For seafood, my vote is for Petey's in Rye Beach as well. A great place to eat in or take out. A great little bar too!

[Valerie C]

Ron's Landing at Hampton Beach, one of the best in the area. Upscale dining, but decent portion sized, wonderful preparation and presentation.

Mojito's in downtown Dover. Dinners are MUCH BETTER than lunches, be sure to order their namesake, a Mojito, with your dinner, you won't be sorry. Imaginatively prepared foods, can be loud, but fun. Bring the kids along to play with the Wii on the big screen, they'll have a ball...

Michael's Harborside in Newburyport. Get lunch outside on the deck before the night crowd comes in. Casual dining, great fried seafoods, steamers, etc (never tried their lobster)





I'm printing out this entire thread and taking it with me on vacation. Lots of places I already knew of, but lots I need to check out after driving past them so many times and not stopping in (Stonewall Kitchen in Maine is a definite must do next week on vacation!)

[bluegreen]

jumpin jays fish cafe is excellent

[399083453]

I second Ronaldos. One of the best italian seacoast restaurants. Its in a mini mall but dont let the location fool you. Its been there 10+ years and has amazing food and a good atmosphere inside.

Ronaldo's
North Hampton, NH
(603) 964-5064