Good Eats in Portsmouth, NH!

I went for a little drive to Portsmouth, NH last weekend with some friends and found a great Tex-Mex restaurant. It's called Poco's Bow Street Cantina.

When we got there we opted to sit outside under a tent overlooking the ocean. Not the greatest view of the ocean, but it was very nice to be outside in the fresh air. For starters, we ordered 2 mojito and a mango margarita. Trea loved her frozen mango margarita piled high in her glass - and I can attest that it was delish. I had a mojito and I found the mint fresh and the drink refreshing. Sheila had the same, but a piece of the mint was rotten which of course, spoiled the whole drink. As a replacement she got a scrumptious pineapple mojito - with fresh mint this time.

For lunch we each ordered an appetizer. Sheila chose vegetarian nachos with chicken...that's right...with chicken(?) The serving was easily enough for 2 and in our case...3. The nachos were great. Served with a bowl of salsa that had a yummy peppery taste - just enough to make it stand out from your standard restaurant salsa. The nachos had spinach, cheese, corn, black beans and chicken and they were very satisfying. Ever go to a restaurant and they pile all the ingredients into a dish like this...as if more is automatically better? Well I'm of the opinion that you need balance. There was just the right amount of each ingredient on these nachos, and I loved 'em.

Trea HAD to have mussels and I'm glad she did! I think we'd both agree that they weren't the best mussels we've ever had, but they were good and they came with some very tasty foccacia bread.

For my selection, I ordered the sweet potato empanada (partly because I knew Sheila REALLY wanted them). They were encased in a delicious golden brown pastry and filled with some very tasty sweet potato filling. We REALLY enjoyed them.

Last of all, we ordered 3 soft shell tacos (beef, chicken and pork). The ground beef taco was OK, but we all liked the chicken - and we especially liked the pork - sweet and tender.

CONCLUSION: If you're looking for real Mexican food - don't look here. If you want to relax by the water, have some drinks and some enjoyable food, then I say, look up Poco's the next time you're in Portsmouth, NH.

CONS: It was a bit expensive (that's why we chose appetizers) and it can get a little chilly under the tent when the sun isn't out. Also, the bathroom is a "one-sy" - so if you all have to pee at the same time (possible when you're drinking), you're out of luck.

MUSINGS: I've checked out other on-line reviews (most of them old) and many people complained about the lousy, rude service. Luckily we didn't see any of that. They were perfectly pleasant to us.