The Poynt

I was a little disappointed with the food. We ordered the fried calamari and it was served in a small bowl on top of lettuce. This caused the breading to get soggy and the lettuce to wilt. The grass-​fed burger was tasty but pretty overcooked. The service was good and the atmosphere was nice; however, the food did not live up to high standards.

Great food and the head chef cares about the experience of the customers. The evening we were here there was a power outage and I must say the entire staff did everything in their power to make everyone’s night as enjoyable as possible. I watched the head chef run around all night (in reduced light lol) like a man on a mission to make everyone’s night go as smoothly as possible. Regardless of the issues tonight I will be back because the food and service are great.

Absolutely awesome! Had a family Sunday brunch in their private dining room… Very cozy spot to have a nice spacious intimate outing… We had 12 people, service was great… Chicken friend steak is insanely tasty and I just barely finished, filling portions… Do yourself a favor and ask Sean the bar manager to make you a Steve McQueen (vanilla infused bulleit rye)… I’m heading back there this weekend.

Open kitchen provides for fun atmosphere and conversation starters during the meal.
Kung Pao roll was fantastic for an app. Beet salad was mediocre and peaches were not ripe at all.
The grass fed burger was delicious as was the roasted cod.
Service was ok but I expected it to be better for this level of restaurant. Would return for the food and atmosphere but hope the service to steps it up.

I’m not big into Unilocal but felt the need to write a honest review. I’ve been coming here from opening weekend and have had nothing but wonderful experiences. The food, service, atmosphere and patrons are what keeps me coming back; who doesn’t love a good football Sunday. I’ve noticed in the past few weeks they have addressed the noise complaints, and installed panels that seems to changed the loudness, but I’ve never found it too loud to enjoy. Overall great place for brunch, dinner, family, friends it’s a place where anyone can feel welcome and enjoy.

Friendly service and food is a little different from standard Newburyport fare. The large center bar is the focus which makes it very social. There are also two separate rooms which I like the idea of. I like the Frisée salad but wish the croutons were more garlicky and the lardons a bit larger like they make it in Paris-​do that for me and I will be there more often (please!).
They have an app to help you gauge when to go since they do not the reservations. It works very well.

The bar manager, Brett, has always taken care of me and has always done a great job behind the bar. One of the best mixologist in Newburyport.

Three times I have had dinner or a small plate here and it’s pretty good depending on what you choose. I won’t have a burger again but the flambé is tasty, tuna tartare excellent, daily sushi good, pizza over priced for size, sweet potato chowder delicious. Drinks are good not watered down. Drink specials are overpriced.
Chocolate torte with fresh cream one if the best around.
It is loud in there but that’s the scene.

Third time here for dinner
Each time horrible
Food quality is an insult
Burger full of grizzl and fat couldn’t eat it
Cocktails below par
This place is pretentious and a ripoff
Stay away you have been warned
Just another foofoo Newburyport restaurant

This is a new to the Newburyport scene restaurant, they have one of the most creative menus I have seen in a long time, we had dinner at the bar and the service, ambiance and food was all fantastic !

Dear Poynt, Love that bar, nice touch with the little hooks for purses. Your menu is simple and well-​written, yet thoughtful: drinks on one side and food on the other. Drinks sound so good, I had a tough time choosing! But as the second establishment in a week to snub the vegetarian population, you let me down. We tried the beet and pear salad, which was fresh and tasty with just enough goat’s cheese. But then we had the baby kale salad «flatbread», which was truly just what it sounds like, and yet for some reason we expected more of a pizza and less of a salad. and way more avocado and mandarin (skimpy!). This was rather challenging to eat, actually — can’t really pile a salad on a slice, but cutting it into forkfuls was just as hard. We added a side of Brussels sprouts in an attempt to round out a meal, but they weren’t rich enough to satisfy us, either (the boy is veg, but out of guilt I couldn’t really explore the menu). Think you can meet us half way? Vegetarian just isn’t that hard! I’ll even throw some awesome recipes at ya! Because I’d like to sit at that bar again. Thanks.

I went here last night on a date. I ordered the scallop ceviche appetiser and cod main course. They do have a nice selection on their gluten free menu which is fabulous and refreshing and thank you for that!
The ceviche was interesting but lacking something which makes me order it whenever I see it on a menu. The portion was very small I thought. I am celiac (gluten free) yet they put a crisp on the plate not OK. My companion ate them.
Then we had our main course. The cod was cooked perfectly and was nice but the portion small. It was served in a bowl over beans which was not a good flavor mix. The flavors clashed. Then to the side, on top of the beans was a bit of marinated tomatoes which were lovely, but mixed on top of the beans ruined it as the flavors didn’t mix well. The plating was terrible and the beans were a bad choice and dull. The cod and tomatoes were fabulous.
The atmosphere is another reason I give it such a poor review. After a million dollar renovation, this place looks and feels like a cafeteria. Bench seats and the noise! Ugh! It wasn’t even full and my companion and I could not hear each other without almost yelling, and I’m not always a quiet person. My companion had a headache. As the people got louder so did the music as if someone kept turning it up. It was so loud it completely ruined our experience.
The waitress was amazing. I wish I could tell you her name but she was an older woman with dark hair and bangs and she was simply wonderful and an asset to this restaurant. She adds one star all on her own otherwise it would be 2 stars. The staff «uniforms», or lack thereof, goes along with the cafeteria style casual loud dishes clanking in the open kitchen feel (which we heard multiple times sitting on the complete opposite side of the restaurant away from the kitchen). Jeans and t-​shirts not my idea of nice and put together. If your spending $ 150 on a meal for two, I would expect more in the atmosphere department.
We would have stayed for dessert and another drink but chose to leave and walked elsewhere to a more pleasing environment and had a lovely dessert and conversation since we could finally hear each other speak without yelling
There are many other more relaxing and enjoyable environments. I probably won’t be back.

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the terrible «No Wait» app this restaurant uses instead of reservations. I got «in line» when the wait was an hour and a half. Arrived at the restaurant one hour later and was told it would be an ADDITIONAL 2 hours. 45 minutes later, we were seated. Huh? Many other complaints from friends regarding the system being totally inaccurate.
I also agree with the menu being limited and bland. I am a pretty good cook so I like going out for something different. I can make a burger, steak, roasted chicken or bolognese at home and it would be just as good. Sushi rolls too big and too much rice. Cantonese lobster overcooked on a bed of mediocre Chinese noodles.
I would go back for the drinks and the atmosphere, though something definitely needs to be done about the acoustics.

I love what these guys are doing here. It’s new for this area. Large, fun and lively restaurant with modern design and good food and drink menu. Great large bar for after work drinks and dinner. Food quality/​flavor could come up a notch for the price but overall great place to meet friends for a more exciting night out in Newburyport.

What a FANTASTIC addition to the Newburyport restaurant scene! Ate here last night, and had a great experience — love the ambiance — a little bit more light than the average place and this was great for my dad’s ability to read the menu. The service was excellent — our server was super responsive and really pleasant. The food was outstanding — we had the tarte flambé (basically cheese/​bacon in pastry dough), and the duck pizza (make sure you eat it with the thai chilis — key to the flavor and not too spicy). For cocktails I had the Steve McQueen, made with Vanilla Infused Bulleit Rye, peach liquor, orange bitters — a great, smooth variation of the Old Fashioned.

Well, The Poynt was definitely disappoynting. We’d been looking forward to trying this place and figured it must be great considering the long wait times.
The sushi rolls were not good. Rice was under cooked and while the descriptions sounded delicious, actually eating them left something to be desired. We tried the blue crab and a special pork belly roll, both were bland and unexciting.
Everything else our party of 4 ordered was simply blah. Not horrible, but nothing we’re looking forward to trying again anytime soon, especially at $ 150 a couple. The house frites tasted as if they were frozen and were somewhat cold in the middle. It didn’t help that our waitress was also cold and very unfriendly.
Drinks were pretty good, especially the after dinner coffee drinks. Our favorite item was the calamari small plate.
The atmosphere is awesome and it’s a very lively place! I’d be inclined to go back and have a couple of drinks at the bar, but that’s about it. I feel really bad giving such a mediocre review because I had high hopes for this place. Hopefully they are still working out the kinks… Newburyport could really use a new great restaurant.

The best Clam chowder!
Great tuna tartare!!!
Mussels are delicious!
Beautiful restaurant…
I have fun

So here’s an update. Firstly, we dine out 4 nights per week so we have now been to The Poynt 6 – 7 times now… trying to give the menu a fair shake as each time we go we order something different… and have now had each one of the appetizers, most of the small plates, two of the salads, one pizza and three or four of the entrees.
The lobster cocktail and fried green tomatoes do not disappoint and are very good. The scallop ceviche (uh. …no) and all of the sushi rolls are just «meh»…rolls have too much rice, too big to manage, tough nori, and somewhat flavorless. The calamari is horrible, too sweet, soupy, and soggy. Clam chowder… blech.
The burger is just so-so…a bit small and overwhelmed by the bun. There should be more options to add to it. The Caesar salad is excellent but the peach and beet salad (although pretty and colorful), is lacking flavor… again, perhaps add something crunchy.
The pizza crust is perfect… thin, crispy and doesn’t overwhelm the toppings. Just perfect. But… would love more variety for toppings and maybe a gluten free crust so our friends have options!
The entrée selection is limited, which is quite surprising since the open kitchen allows one to see the literal crowd of cooks in there. They could use a few more choices for sure.
The absolute best thing about The Poynt is the staff. Professional, convivial, and attentive. And the drinks are fantastic. We’ll go again but are running out of choices on the menu :-(

As usual please note that the following review is an opinion…
P — O — Y — N — T
Pretentious
Overpriced
Yobs of (rhymes with blobs of)
No
Taste food.
As a local I already know that everyone will try this place at least once. This is one of those «The Emperor Has No Clothes» things. It’s all very pretty and focused on presentation.
I urge you to listen to your friends as they tell you about POYNT — the phonies will tell you how great it is. (The Emperor has clothes on) but remember that a real friend will tell you when you have a piece of spinach stuck on a tooth.
You won’t be waiting for the off season to get in this place if you are honest with yourself.
I had the orange colored clam chowder that had a pile of decorative shredded carrots on top. (Honest)
I am your friend so of course I will tell you that the chowder was, in my opinion, as crappy as any chowder made with a sweet potato could be. Underneath the orange goop that you couldn’t see through were two tiny anatomically correct whole clams complete with the shell still on. As I mentioned this place is focused on presentation. I believe the only clams in the chowder were hiding in an embarrassed state because you could not see them.
In my opinion it’s easier to dig a clam out of the flats than to get those two tiny pieces of the only clam in your orange chowder out of their shells with a soup spoon.
I feel bad for the two magnificent creatures who were entwined with our New England and our local culture. They died not reaching their intended destination of either being breaded and deep fried or placed in a heaven of cream, potatoes, (not sweet) and onion. These two clams went to «sweet potato hell»
I can be an adventurous eater and trust me I’m not picky. I urge you to read the other reviews and rely on your good sense. You have spinach on your tooth and The Emperor has no clothes on.
Off season is almost here. We will hunker down, but not at POYNT.

First time here and honestly, I’d heard a lot of good things about this new restaurant. There was a 1.5 hour wait for a table so my 2 friends & I opted for the bar. That too was no easy task as you need to wait around until seats open up and there’s no real place to wait… so you are in the waitstaff’s way, as well as in the ‘face’ of the customer seated at the high tops… so space is tight and there’s a bit of a claustrophobic feeling about it, even though the ceilings are super high. Architecturally the space is gorgeous; acoustically the space is ATROCIOUS (I understand they are doing something about this — hope it’s soon).
I too was surprised that we were charged $ 3.00 for a club soda. but hey I guess that’s what they call upscale?
The salad was excellent; the pizza on the other hand — for $ 18 — was small w/​not a lot of toppings and hugely over priced. I am OK with paying dearly for food but there has to be some value as well.
I would give this place a 2^nd chance, but ONLY after they deal with their acoustic issues; I left with a headache! :-(