Brad M.
Google
Pinks at the Inn at Hancock, a fun but flawed restaurant.
Pros
• Attractively decorated, if not appropriately country, dining room with well-spaced tables
• Menu with numerous interesting meat and fish selections, and several specials as well
• A friendly, attentive and knowledgeable waiter
• Good mixed drinks and an extensive, interesting mocktail list
• Nice jazz music from the lounge, although rather loud even in the dining room
Cons
• Four of us ordered the Turbot special, and all four plates were lukewarm, and that’s being generous. Cold fish for $79 per turbot entree, with no side dishes doesn't work.
• We wanted a nice white wine to go with our fish, but the white wine list has exactly 11 choices. Ten are under$100, and the 11th is a $1,500 white that won't be ready to drink for years. Really? The under $100 list is not well chosen, and the Chablis we ordered was borderline undrinkable.
• Very pricey for what one gets--$375 per couple without the wine. At this price point, a restaurant needs to deliver, and Pinks does not, at least not to the level of the cost.
• When you make a reservation at Pinks, you get an overly fussy e-mail about dressing for the occasion, suggesting wearing jackets “should the spirit move you.” So we all wore jackets, but we were the only table in the entire dining room with jackets. Pinks, the market has spoken, and it's time for this country inn to drop its pretensions about jackets.
Conclusions
• We wanted to love Pinks, but this price point isn’t going to fly in rural NH. So the restaurant will depend on attracting mostly Boston and New York visitors who are more accustomed to paying up. But this audience also knows what kind of a dining experience to expect at the Pinks price point, and Pinks doesn’t provide that, at least not yet
• Everything about the dining room and presentation suggests a top-quality meal is forthcoming, thus making the cardinal mistake of over-promising and under-delivering
• And yet we all had an enjoyable time at the Pinks. I hope Pinks gets its act together and fulfills the ambitious expectations it is clearly aiming for.