On a blustering cold winter night, we stumbled into Ember after discovering the eatery as a nearby…read moredining option while visiting the area. A convenient parking lot directly across the street was a gem since we were in a hurry to warm back up inside. Upon entering, it seemed like a quiet night for the restaurant. The hostess at the front desk was not particularly welcoming or friendly to our family of four, and although there were available tables on the main level, she said she was seating us upstairs. We followed her up to a beautiful dining space with an impressive bar, warm lighting, rustic details, and so much charm. Our server, Scott, was fantastic! Incredibly knowledgeable and patient, providing great recommendations from the menu. We were able to enjoy a delicious dinner, featuring the Ember Burger (so many layers of flavor with a shallot jam, mustard aioli, and cherrywood bacon), a kids' pizza (which is basically a whole medium pizza), and delicious Chicken Vodka Parmesan, which has some kick from the house-made spicy vodka sauce. In the mood to be adventurous, I explored the specialty cocktail menu, crafted with unique ingredients and thoughtfulness. Based on Scott's recommendation, I opted for the Hummingbird Down, made with green chartreuse from Carthusian monks and house-made honey syrup. The herbaceous, spirited beverage was so complex that I enjoyed it until the last sip. I can see the appeal of this location for an intimate date night, chill girls' dinner, and even private events; the space is beautiful! If we lived locally, we'd certainly be coming back!

Found this place in a whim at the last minute. Had a group of 5. They fit us at a nice table by the…read morebar. The place has a great feel to it. Well decorated and lively. Cool vibe. We steered some cocktails and apps. Wow! Our Entrees were also pretty fantastic. Our server was sweet. A little less attentive than I would have liked but fine. This is one of those reviews I hate posting because I like this place so much I still want to be able to get into it! Will be back very soon.

We absolutely loved this place and made sure to come back on this trip! We grabbed seats right at…read morethe bar, and the bartender was so nice and welcoming. This time we had dinner along with a few cocktails, and everything was absolutely delicious. The atmosphere is lively, colorful, and has such a fun energy without feeling overwhelming. We had another great experience and can't wait to come back again!

Restaurant Week in Portsmouth was the perfect opportunity to try out Moxy. Plus an added bonus of…read more$42 for a 4-course meal made it more interesting. We found street parking close to the restaurant so that was great while paying close attention to the fact that street parking is not free in the area until 8 pm. I made a reservation and we were seated right away after we entered the restaurant. Our table was situated on the first floor so the area was small but we had enough space between table to have a private conversation. I started out with salmon tartare and it was my least favorite of all. I found the pita to taste somewhat stale and I ended up not eating it. Salmon was good but I did not find that cream cheese added to the dish. It might be a matter of personal preference but I wished I started out with something else from the menu. My shrimp scampi was delicious and I would come back for this dish. Pasta and sauce were great and shrimp were a nice size. I then went with the beef stew. I found the pastry to be somewhat salty but it balanced with the stew that was slightly underseasoned. Maybe it was intended to be that way. It was a decent dish overall. I loved the strawberry panna cotta. Their rhubarb chutney was beautiful and the dish was a great way to end my meal. I would come back to this restaurant in the future to try out their regular menu.

I wanted to love it here so badly. The reviews looked good, the views are incredible... but when…read moreyou're paying for a nice dinner, you expect the food to be as good as the view. It even says on the bottom of the menu "no substitutes. Our chefs make the menu for a specific purpose." Or something like that. But if that's the case, then I'd like to think the food would be good! Maybe our chef was out or something because it was bland and cooked improperly. First of all, it took forty five minutes just to get appetizers. And then our waitress took another 30 to take our food order. And then it took another hour for our food. We were there for three hours. Which is fine, but we were starving!!! The drinks were delicious but one was a bottle of wine, so that seems like the bare minimum. Beside service being slow (our waitress nice but very busy), let's get into the food which was the most disappointing thing... the flatbread was dry. The Brussel sprouts were good but the lardons were hard as a rock (clearly they cook things too long here). The salmon was good but portions seemed small. The soup was fine. The steak was supposed to come medium rare, but as you can see, it was closer to medium well (for $48 that is upsetting and embarrassing they couldn't cook a steak properly). My aunt got the chicken dish and she said it was the blandest thing she's ever had. But the biggest issue was the burger... It was my dad's birthday. So it was extremely frustrating when the burger, the thing he ordered, came out black. And there is a picture of it if you want to take a look. BLACK. Why bring it out? That is so bad on the restaurant! Our waitress immediately came over and said "we are making a new bun right now." So why bring it out? And the fries were cold. Same with my mom's haddock (everything was cold). He also asked for the burger to be medium rare and it was quite literally gray. I think when you go to a nice restaurant, you expect good food. And it was disrespectful to my father on his birthday. Thank goodness they took it off our bill (for that we are grateful), but clearly the kitchen needs some assistance because it ruins the experience when everyone is waiting to eat because one dish is done wrong. And clearly done wrong. It's expensive to go out nowadays. I'm not spending money on food that is mediocre at best. This was frustrating. Thank goodness for the nice view otherwise I feel like this restaurant wouldn't exist. sadly we won't be coming back and waiting weeks for this dinner was not worth it. Don't waste your money here. Or go for cocktails. That was at least good.

An amazing spot right next to the water. We've had a difficult time finding good clam strips this…read moreyear, but we found great ones here! Delicious! Great service and relaxing atmosphere!

Always an amazing experience - we go here every time we come to york!…read more The meatball is good, any fish entree is very strong, tasty, and overall delicious

We had the pleasure of going to a pop brunch at the incomparable Central Restaurant in York today…read more They're only open on Sundays a few times a year and over the last few we haven't missed one! When we entered it was packed along with its sister the Bar Next door. As always we were greeted like royalty. As the owner Kiersten greets every one! Our incredible server recommended the Shrimp and andouille sausage with grits! Spicy and hot, the most delicious dish I've ever enjoyed ! Me wife had the clam chowder almost like a bisque that was out of this world. This my favorite place for a dining experience !!

I love discovering restaurants that support local farmers and butchers and make everything from…read morescratch. You can truly taste the difference, especially in the fresh homemade pasta. The atmosphere is warm, inviting, and perfect for a relaxing meal. We ordered three appetizer-sized pasta dishes so we could try a variety, and every one of them was outstanding. Our favorite was the clam pasta with its bright, citrusy sauce--it was absolutely delicious. The lamb stew parppadelle was flavorful, although a little saltier than we prefer. We finished with dessert, and they were just as impressive as the rest of the meal. I'm so glad we discovered this gem during our visit to Portsmouth. It's exactly the kind of restaurant we love and one I'd happily return to.

Great atmosphere, great food, great cocktails but the prices were far too steep for what you're…read moregetting. To clarify, the cocktail prices and entree prices were fair. Do NOT order the charcuterie. $9 for a single slice of cheese (some varieties of which you could purchase at market basket) or for a single piece of prosciutto. Absolutely absurd. And charging for bread and butter is kind of....different. Additionally, and not unimportantly, the music they were playing was so loud it made it difficult to hear people at our own table. And the air conditioner made the room extremely cold. Overall, could have been a better experience for the prices we paid (about $500 with tip for 4 people).

Annabella was great! Service was top notch, food and…read moreatmosphere was amazing! Very accommodating! Five star service

My wife and I were dropping our daughter off at school and I wanted a cool place to enjoy our last…read moredinner together for a while. I had been eyeing this place for a while, so made the reservation. We arrived and the sun was going to set in 45 min. There were plenty of tables available in the sun so I requested one. The hostess ignored my request and sat us in the shade on the other side of the roof from where I requested. She just said that table wasn't clean even though I stated we would wait. That table sat in the sun for almost an hour, never bussed. So, we sat down ready to enjoy a nice evening. We waited for a server. None came. I watched other tables and they seemed to be experiencing the same lack of attention. Finally, after 20 min, a server came by and apologized, saying there was miscommunication and no one knew whose table we were. I laughingly said that the wait was worth a round of drinks on the house and he said "you are right." So we were happy about that. He took our drink and app order and disappeared. 20 min later he came by and said the bar was backed up, but our drinks would be out soon. They did arrive. Mine wasn't even the correct martini, but I drank it because we couldn't find our guy, again. Soon after our apps arrived, we asked the gentleman that delivered them to bring us place settings. He told our server who came over and said he'd bring them over. We stared at our apps for 15 min until I got up from my table, walked around the restaurant, found clean plates and service for 4, greaves everything myself and brought it to my table so we could eat. Surprising, after such horrible service, the food happened to be good. The wings were tasty, the crispy cauliflower was also very good. The lobster wontons were OK. We finished our apps in time for the arrival of our entrees. The delivery staff just pushed all our empty, dirty app plates to the center of our table and dropped the entrees, never removing the finished dishes. The hostess was walking around, she walked right past our table to a dirty table and began bussing it. There was no one there yet our table right next to her was teaming over with dirty empty dishes and cocktail glasses. She looked over several times but just kept bussing the other table. Still no sightings of a server. We finished our meal and had already decided we were escaping this place. The only thing our server did do quick, was take my credit card. BTW, the table I requested, was still dirty and empty when we left and he never comped our first round. The view was nice, the atmosphere being outside under the sky, was nice, but I would only come back to this place to sit at the bar and have an appetizer. And maybe get the cocktail I originally ordered. There are a lot of great spots in and around Portsmouth. This place needs to get it together. The rooftop is really the only thing keeping the doors open.

Excellent spot. Their food is so tasty and their cocktail list is thoughtfully curated. They also…read moreserve their own wine and vermouth! The whole experience is charming.

Wonderful Portuguese / Azorean restaurant in Newmarket. Spencer and Amanda (The chef with Azorean…read moreroots) were welcoming. Spencer made me The Golden Mash, a delicious bourbon based drink with homemade ingredients. The bread and butter were perfection, no bakery in the seacoast can compare and the salt balance was the best I've had in years. The salt cod cakes were sensational although they could have been a bit more crispy. The cavatelli tasted as if was all fresh from the garden and wasn't too filling because it was complemented with vegetables grown locally on a farm in Lee. This was the hit of the evening! The kitchen is open and spotless. The ventilation is excellent. The decor is beautiful and I would put this on the list of the top restaurants in the Seacoast Cons: the menu is limited, I hope they offer a greater variety of entrees or specials as this would draw us back more often

This was my 4th time here this season so I guess you can say that we really enjoy it…read more As always the food and service were fantastic. We had a variety of appetizers, salads and entrees and all were delicious. Our server Charmaine could not have been better. She was so pleasant, patient and efficient with our group. The only complaint was there appeared to be no air conditioning in the restaurant. It was an extremely hot day and possibly it couldn't keep up with the heat but it was very uncomfortable. I cannot even imagine working there especially in the kitchen in those conditions. A very good value for the money. Highly recommend.

This place has it all. The food is excellent. Service is lovely. The building and grounds are…read morebeautiful.