Place to Avoid in Poco's Bow Street Cantina -Portsmouth NH
Richard A. Handverger
high time I contributed a review. Furthermore the place I hit on Sunday
night was so bad it warrants the full Usenet treatment, and so I've added it
to my ever-growing list of bad restaurants.
On Sunday night a group of four of us ate pre-theater at Poco's Bow Street
Cantina in Portsmouth NH. We went there on the basis of the great
Tex-Mex/yuppie-fern-bar meal we had had there two years ago on a prior
visit.
I think the waitress set the tone for the evening. She had a sullen
flat-line personality and was unwilling to project any feelings of warmth or
hospitality and that mood bounced back to us. She took our drink order and
then abandoned us for at least twenty minutes (in a near-empty restaurant).
On our prior visit there had been free salsa and chips on the table aplenty;
on this visit the table top was bare.
Waitress finally took our order. One of the women ordered chicken fajitas
and asked that it be served without cheese. Response was that "that's
impossible. We can't do that". Her husband asked for the seared tuna steak
rare and was given same response-"that's impossible- We don't do that" . He
really had to beg to get the tuna served rare.
We then asked for some chips and salsa to go with our drinks and were told
that we'd have to order them - that they were no longer giving them out
free. Had we not invested the twenty five minutes waiting for drinks we
probably could have/should have left at that point. But we decided to tough
it out.
Each couple had decided to share a "salad mixta" for our first course. This
consisted of the obligatory mixed mesclun "weeds" topped by sliced mango
that was underripe, hard and chewy. It was served dry - the dressing arrived
a few minutes later, along with second plates for sharing.
The food finally arrived. I had ordered a seafood chimichanga. Here the grim
reality clashed with the menu description A chimichanga is normally a light
crisp deep-fried tortilla with a spicy, tasty filling. This on the other
hand was a soggy mass that had been deep fried in under-temperature oil.
The seafood filling consisted of unrecognizable lumps of mystery fish and
potatoes in a cream sauce whose consistency was midway between that of
mortar and library paste and whose primary flavor was that of uncooked
flour. The whole concoction was served atop a bed of lumpy winter squash.
My wife had ordered a Jamaican jerk chicken. This was served overcooked and
dry with very little flavor,
The chicken fajitas arrived with a side dish piled high with cheese and
other fajita trimmings. It would have been so easy to remove the cheese had
they been willing to be accommodating. The chicken strips were undercooked
and looked like they had been boiled rather than grilled.
The tuna steak did arrive rare. One small victory for mankind.....
We chose top forego dessert and coffee on the basis of our prior experience
and paid our check($90 for four) and left. I loudly told the waitress that
this had been one of the worst dining experiences ever and threatened to
write a bad review (four trashcans) and that we would not be back.
The question I would like to pose for the group is the following:
It was obvious very early on in the ordering process that this place was
unlikely to meet our needs. Should we have just cancelled our orders and
asked for the bar tab and left ?
Has anyone been able to do this gracefully without ruining their entire
evening ?
Dick Handverger
K. Ann Walker
"Richard A. Handverger" <di...@world.std.com> wrote in message
news:GGLwn...@world.std.com...
> I've been a lurker in this group for a number of years and I thought it
was
> high time I contributed a review. Furthermore the place I hit on Sunday
> night was so bad it warrants the full Usenet treatment, and so I've added
it
> to my ever-growing list of bad restaurants.
<snipped>
The evening sounded harrowing.
>
> The question I would like to pose for the group is the following:
>
> It was obvious very early on in the ordering process that this place
was
> unlikely to meet our needs. Should we have just cancelled our orders and
> asked for the bar tab and left ?
I would have.
>
> Has anyone been able to do this gracefully without ruining their entire
> evening ?
Yes. My husband and I find that the decision to go somewhere else is
liberating. It opens up the evening to possibilities of good service and a
dinner you actually want to eat.
Leaving one restaurant for another is a problem only when some people in
your group remain convinced that the first restaurant's service and food
will contribute to the happiness of the evening. Since it sounds like you
all felt that your dining experience was on a downward spiral, it would have
been fine to decide to leave and go get dinner somewhere else.
Ann
>
> Dick Handverger
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Paul Kinnucan
>
> The question I would like to pose for the group is the following:
>
> It was obvious very early on in the ordering process that this place
was
> unlikely to meet our needs. Should we have just cancelled our orders and
> asked for the bar tab and left ?
>
Yes.
> Has anyone been able to do this gracefully without ruining their entire
> evening ?
I walk out at the first signs of trouble if I'm alone or with my family,
even after being seated. At least walking out gives me an opportunity to
salvage the evening. The alternative is guaranteed to ruin it as bad service
puts me in a very bad mood. We usually just get up and leave if the service
is egregiously bad and we haven't placed an order. Interestingly, I've never
had a waitress or hostess ask me on the way out why I'm leaving or offer to
rectify the situation in any way. To me this is the best confirmation that
my decision to leave was the right one.
- Paul