If you have been following me for awhile you know that I already wrote a review on the Tuscan Market in Salem NH. After waiting as patiently as I possibly could, the Portsmouth location is finally open and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! The new location is at 581 Lafayette Road, Portsmouth, NH. I am so thrilled to have this restaurant and market so close to us as the Salem location is an hour away and I would always bring a cooler with me so I could take home all of their amazing dishes!
If you are from the New England area, you may have heard of the Phantom Gourmet. This is a show that reviews New England restaurants. The show is hosted by the Andelman Brothers. Not only do they review various places, they also have various events throughout the year. They have BBQ Festivals and a number of events at Fenway park, but also participate in grand opening events. Well, when I heard the Tuscan Kitchen was having a grand opening event that was going to include the Phantom Gourmet, I knew I had to go! This post is going to be a little different as I will be sharing lots of pictures from the grand opening event. I will also share my typical review as we went back a second time for our anniversary. The Portsmouth location is their biggest location, although as of this post the market side of the restaurant in Portsmouth is not open…but should be open very soon! At the grand opening we were treated to many items that will be sold in the market and all of it was just incredible.
Ok, so…I’m going to give you a quick overview of the grand opening event to start. This event was held the night before the restaurant was open to the public. Everyone going to the event had to register for free tickets through the Phantom Gourmet and only so many were available. Needless to say, I signed up right away! The night of the event they had the red carpet out as you walked up to the door. As you walked in you were handed a glass of Prosecco and welcomed by all of the staff. They had a number of stations set up around the restaurant starting with a slice of Parmesan in truffle honey, a bread and cured meat station, then onto the pizza station where you could sample a number of their creations. This is just the beginning! Next was the seafood station where you had so many choices, shrimp, lobster, and oysters. Then onto the fresh mozzarella station, wine tasting, pasta and being finished off with a wheel of Parmesan and a carving station with prime rib. Are you hungry yet? Still not done…they had a huge table filled with various cookies, pastries, cakes and cannoli’s. Last, but not least, they had a gelato station with a number of different kinds of gelato. We tried the pistachio gelato and it was spectacular! Not only could you go to each station as many times as you wanted, they also had waitresses walking around with various other selections for you to try. This event was hands down the best opening event we have been to. We were so stuffed when we left. If you ever get a chance to go to any event hosted by the Phantom Gourmet, you will not be disappointed.
We went back just a few days later for our anniversary, so here is my review of that visit! We made reservations right from their website and I would highly recommend getting reservations anytime you plan to visit. We were promptly seated with menu’s and a plate of bread and dipping oil to enjoy while deciding what we wanted.
We decided on the Calamari Fritti to start. This is a fried calamari and cherry pepper dish with a lemon basil aioli. This was one of our favorite dishes. The calamari had a light crispy coating and paired with the lemon basil aioli…was just delicious! We cleaned that plate pretty fast!
I ordered the Ravioli ai Quattro Formaggi “di nonna”. I know that’s a mouth full, but this is thin pasta pillows stuffed with Parmegiano, Reggiano, Burrata, Fontina and fresh ricotta with sweet Italian sausage in a roasted tomato ragu with torn basil. This dish not only looked great but smelled amazing. One bite was all it took to know this was going to be a favorite. The ravioli was so light, the sweet sausage and the roasted tomato ragu makes this the perfect dish. I would eat this any day of the week!
Jim also had a pasta dish with spinach, pine nuts and Parmesan in a brown butter sauce. His dish was slightly sweet and just as tasty as mine! Needless to say we cleaned both plates. We don’t always order dessert, but it was our anniversary, so we decided to share the Torta Calda al Cioccolato. This is a warm chocolate cake, milk chocolate sauce with toasted almond gelato and candied almonds. This dessert was absolutely sinful. I’m not sure how we possibly finished it, but we did. This will make any day an amazing day. Tuscan Kitchen made it special with the “Happy Anniversary” message.
After eating all that food I bet you think we were done?! Well, not just yet. When we came for the grand opening their was one pizza dish that we could not get over and wanted to take it home with us…so that’s exactly what we did. We ordered the Fichi pizza to go. This pizza is so good! It has black mission figs, Parmesan, rosemary, house made burrata cheese and thin slices of prosciutto. It’s sweet from the figs and savory with the prosciutto, an amazing combination.
As you can see they have some amazing dishes and the service could not have been better on both occasions. Check out their website for more information and to make reservations!
http://www.tuscanbrands.com/Kitchen/Salem/locations-and-hours/
Enjoy!
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