Wow
Located at Strawbery Banke this is an exceptionally fine dining venue. Only surprising that they offer such a delighful lunch.
We had the Dunaway burger with gruyere chesse and the fresh fish catch of the day sandwich which was halibut. Both were outstanding served with fries that were spiced and to die for.
For dessert we shared a satsuma tangerine sorbet which was also perfect.
Nice atmosphere and great service, what more could anyone want.
A little pricy but well worth it.    [13 Jun 2006 10:45:46]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: fish sandwich

     ­Isabelle   

Overrated
On a recent visit to Portsmouth my wife and I wanted to try something different. It was my birthday and my wife wanted to make my dinner special, after several inquiries, several people recommended Dunaway. We have visited Portsmouth many times and are familiar with many of the restaurants in town but Dunaway was new and was receiving lots of attention. Upon arrival for dinner we were promptly seated and ordered our dinner.
My wife ordered a salad and I ordered a cup of soup. Both had minimal flavor and were definitely lacking any creativity. The dinner was even worse. First, it was delayed and our waitress had to apoloqize several times for the delay. Upon arrival of the dinners, both were overcooked . The halibut was so dry that it needed to be cut with a knife and I am sorry to say that even I have not destroyed a fine piece of halibut this badly for years, since I first started to cook. We mentioned this to our waitress but nothing was done other than "we are sorry".
I thought this was an isolated case but we overheard the table next to us expressing dissatisfaction with their meals and the fact they were overcooked.
To make matters worse,upon arriving home, my wife contacted Dunaway via e-mail to express her concerns but never received any type of acknowledgement from them.    [20 Sep 2006 20:16:18]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: Chose carefully !!!!!!

     ­Wayne Dallas   dallaswp at npenn dot org

Not Impressed
This place was recommended to us by someone at Fore Street in Portland and we simply were not impressed. It was obvious that there is way too much effort going into the main courses. There were 4 of us and one dish was so bad that it was taken off the bill. The staff was excellent but the upstairs seating was just ok. It felt a little cramped. The total bill was $230.00 for four main courses and 2 bottles of wine, no appetizers. I'd say it's a little pricey especially considering it's not even downtown. We also took the only reservation available which was 8:45 but when we got there the place was less than half full. Doesn't make sense. There are many other options in Portsmouth or making the 45 minute trip to Fore Street in Portland will solve all these problems.    [21 Oct 2006 10:12:32]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: None

     ­Peter from Mass   

Very Disappointing
After the rave reviews for this restaurant and the chef's reputation, we expected a much better meal and service. We received neither.

To begin, the waiter's attitude was aloof, and the food for one of our group was overcooked and dry and for two others it was over salted. We were never asked if our meal was ok and watched the server pass our table numerous times without even a glance in our direction. We finally got his attention and asked to speak to the Manager who was very helpful but the damage had been done. They did take that dinner off our tab but it was still 203.00 for a second rate meal. The wine though, was excellent.

Needless to say, the tip reflected the service.

There are too many other excellent places to dine to tolerate this.    [07 Jan 2007 18:45:47]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: None

     ­Ginny   

good food, somewhat overpriced and service is slow
I had dinner on a Saturday evening with two guests who had just arrived in Portsmouth after a long flight. The restaurant was full when we arrived. Given the small number of tables in the restaurant, the serving staff should not have had any difficulty in keeping up with their tables but they did.

Our appetizers, oysters, arrived straight away and were excellent. It took another 45 minutes for our entres to arrive, irritating my very tired quests. In fairness, the waitress did her best to keep up. It was dark in the restaurant, making it difficult to see the food, read the menu and the darkness detracted from the atmosphere.

Our entrees (chicken, lamb and tuna) were competantly cooked, interestingly seasoned but not really remarkable. Servings were modest which is not a bad thing but none of us found our entres filling. We all felt that something was missing, the entrees were sort of an unfinished sentence. Given the small servings, the addition of a second vegetable, particularly an unusual one, might have helped fill out all three entrees. We didn't have dessert because of the slow service.

Overall I was disappointed. The atmoshere was hurried, despite the slow service, and it was dark. Our overall experience was one of being in a restaurant that was trying hard to be something special but not quite succeeding. I expected a richer experience overall.    [29 Apr 2008 13:39:48]

Food:    Service:    Ambiance:    Overall: 
Recommended Dishes: oysters

     ­Anonymous