801 Islington St., Portsmouth, NH 03801
www.streetfood360.com
The decor of STREET is pretty hip and sends out a really comfortable and relaxing vibe. That is where the GOOD part of my review ends. Unfortunately, STREET is just not going to cut it with such a plethora of other restaurants in the Portsmouth area with better food for your money and friendlier staff. I won't be visiting this restaurant again and neither will my friends who have dined there. During my last visit to STREET- at first the service was prompt and courteous, but that didn't last long enough for us to even get our order in without waiting 20 minutes after we were served our drinks to catch her for our food order. We shared the Yuca Fries ($8)-A South American staple and possibly the best starch you've never had. Served with Peruvian lime dip sauce from the "Smaller Things" portion of the menu and although they were tasty, $8 for an order of fries had me wondering if they were really that worth it. One of my friends ordered the Thai Spare Ribs ($9.50). Although they cook you up a large bowl of them, they are hardly edible unless you enjoy fat more than meat on your ribs. My other friend ordered the Dumpling Soup-Pork dumplings bobbing about in homemade chicken stock w/ fresh spinach, carrot, mushroom and scallion ($12) and I ordered the Pho Bo-Vien ($14)-Rice noodle soup made with beef, Vietnamese meatballs, Thai basil, lime, bean sprouts and hot peppers served on the side so that you can add to your liking. Sure the set up is cool right? Unfortunately both our soups were also COOL to temperature. After waiting 40 minutes from when we ordered to when the soups arrived at our table we were starving. The soups were cooler than room temperature. No joke. When I informed our waitress that the soups were cold she said, "really, they should be scalding hot.....do you want me to return them to the kitchen?" I let her know that wouldn't do as we were already really pressed for time at this point and what we don't eat, I guess we will just have to take home. She walked away. When she next arrived (and No, she never came back to check on our meals again while we were there) with the check (not asking us if we wanted desserts either-no upselling going on here folks) she said sorry for the cold soups and that she checked with other tables and their soups weren't cold (so what did that mean we were lying?) and that she discounted them for us and would gladly put them in take out containers for us to leave with. She discounted each soup $2. We needed change to pay cash on the bill and when she returned my friend let her know that the $2 discount what less than acceptable. She said, "What do you mean? I am the manager and that is the maximum I am allowed to discount any bill." When we told her that there are plenty of other restaurants for us to spend our money at that treat customers better when things go wrong with the meals coming out of the kitchen, she just stared at us blankly. That was it for us and that is it for my friends or myself spending any more of our hard earned money at STREET. I do not recommend anyone being temped by the International appeal that STREET is offering out. We left the take home containers on the table and left without looking back.
