Conference jump4::eats

    Here is a NON-recommendation for Portsmouth...Kukula's on Market St. We
    had dinner there about a week ago, a Sat. night. The place is small,
    VERY intimate (they feature "European" seating...if you have a spare
    seat or two, you may have strangers seated with you). Candles
    everywhere, to the point of my feeling very uncomfortable wondering
    what would happen if a fire broke out since the place is very crowded. 
    
    No reservations are accepted for under 6 people. But we only had about
    1 10 min. wait for a table. And its BYOB, something my husband enjoyed.
    Food is very eclectic, and they have LOTS of specials, both appetizers
    and main courses. THe chef seems to like to combine a minimum of 6
    major flavors into every dish. THe kitchen is open and the 2 chefs are
    clearly busy. The portions are large and quite tasty. My reason for not
    recommending them is the length of time it took to get our food. We
    waited about 1 hour for our appetizers to arrive (they arrived
    asynchronously, my husband was almost finished when mine arrive). Then
    another 90 min. went by before our mains arrived (again, asynch).
    Things came out one at a time from the kitchen, and somehow, when mine
    arrived, it was warm at best. People who arrived somewhere between our
    appetizers and main course managed to get 3 dishes/course  served
    before I got my main. 
    
    THe bill for 2 meals and 2 appetizers was $75. A bit high in my mind.
    We got all specials, should have stuck to the menu as they were quite a
    bit less pricey. We told them we were disturbed about the length of the
    wait and they offered us free dessert, but we really didn't want to be
    there another hour. So they gave us a $10 gift certificate to come back
    and try again, which we gave to the folks at the adjoining table.
    
    WE won't be back. WE like a leisurely meal, but this was ridiculous!
    
    Debbie
    

I went there a year ago on Valentine's Day. They had a special meal that
included appetizer, entree and desert. We did have reservations for that day
(required on that night). It was very crowded and fairly noisy, as I recall.
I don't recall having a problem with service, except that they had trouble
squeezing us in and getting to our table.

We decided to try it because we had heard/read good things about it and also
because it was BYOB. In theory, the same meal will be less expensive if you
don't pay the markup on the wine and you get to pick a wine that you know you'll
like. It turned out that the meal was at least as expensive without the wine
included, which I thought was a bit high. I think it was $42 or so per person,
which is about what the Blue Strawberry used to charge (and was worth it).

The entrees were "specials", but were not the type of thing that really
impressed me. I like seafood and poultry more and ended up with a big piece of
beef, with mashed potatoes and shrimp or something like that...

It was ok and I'm glad I tried it, but I'd there are quite a few places in
Portsmouth (one of my favorite restaurant towns) that I would go to first. My
top two are still Porto Bello and Karen's.

-Jeff