Leão d'Ouro — Restaurant in Mississauga

It was my mother-in-laws 80th birthday and my wife and I decided to take her to your so called authentic Portuguese restaurant. Both my wife and mother-in-law are from Portugal and we were all looking forward to some authentic Portuguese food at a, what we thought a high end restaurant. This restaurant is a 2 trying to be a 8. Firstly what they show on their website as prices is not what they show on the menu when you get there. More then a $10.00 difference. The waitress we had told us they just changed the prices a week ago. We asked if the owner would honor his website prices but no honor. We ordered three glasses of wine and placed our dinner order. She slammed three wine stained glasses down on the table and we never saw her again the entire time we were there. There was a male waiter that was serving the table beside us and we observed some very strange behavior. I'm guessing he thinks he is a smellier because he poured some wine into a customers glass, swirled it around and shoved his nose into the customers glass touching his lip. Then he gave the glass to the customer. Ever heard of Covid. If he was a smellier he should have used his own glass. Then he came to our table and said your not having soup so you don't need the soup spoons and rudely removed them from our table. This is proper educate, you never remove settings after the table has been seated. That's just rude. Also I'm guessing the restaurant only has three spoons for the whole place or they didn't want us to dirty them. After an hour waiting for our dinner, it finally arrived. My wife and mother-in-law ordered Beef A Casa and I had sole. Beef A Casa doesn't come with gravy or ham or pickled veggies. The gravy was clearly a powder mix gravy and was so salty it killed everything on the plate. My fish was under cooked and it came with a small cup of rice. I had a salad with my meal and it came with my warm food. Should have come before I got my meal. Propper restaurant educate. In all this place is nothing what it tries to come across as. Like I said a 2 trying to be a 8. Oh yes the washrooms were so cold you could hang...

We reserved for a party of 7 (a birthday). We arrived on time (6:30pm on a Saturday), and ordered appetizers. After about 30 minutes, when we still hadn't been able to order, we flagged down our waiter, who said he'd be "right back". It took another 30 minutes to get menus and be able to order.

Looking around the restaurant, it seemed like no one was eating; everyone had drinks and appetizers, but despite being full, no one seemed to have received their meals.

The fact that it took almost an hour just to order didn't impress us. After we ordered, we waited, and waited, and waited. After 45 minutes, we were told that the food would be here "soon". After another 20 minutes, one of our party successfully flagged down a waiter and asked why it was taking over an hour. Five minutes later, food started to arrive, at least for three of the table. This was more then two hours after we'd been seated.

The other four waited, and told the first three to go ahead before their food got cold, especially since the other meals were going to be there "in five minutes", we were told. Those five minutes turned into more than twenty, and those who had food were offering to share with those who didn't. Twenty eight minutes after the first three meals had been served (and were now mostly finished) the other meals started to arrive.

Of course, after waiting for so long, people just wolfed it down, so we can't really speak to the food quality (although one person claimed his "fresh fish" had been frozen, but I had no similar complaint).

What was especially surprising was that people who ordered the exact same meal were being served almost half an hour apart.

One of the reasons that we'd booked for 6:30pm was that we'd planned to get out by 8:30pm-9pm, and catch a show. As it was, we didn't even get the bill until almost 10pm, almost three and a half hours later.

Was the food bad? Not really. Was it worth waiting almost three hours for? Definitely not. There are lots of places in the area where similar quality and similarly priced food can be obtained, without waiting two and a half...

Notwithstanding previous unpleasant experience with food (bacalhau a leao d’ouro) I specifically discussed with the waiter and said ‘ if the cod cut is the tail let me know and I’ll get something else as I don’t want another plate of fish bones. He guaranteed speaking with the chef and will get a center cut. Surprise (or many not..,) another disgusting and embarrassing piece of cod (tail) full of bones and hardly any fish. When called to verify the waiter went to the kitchen and all you could see was arms gesturing in a less than happy manner. Which, leads me to conclude, not only are you incompetent in the quality of food you serve still want to be right about it. Unbelievable. The waiter came back apologetically and indicated that that’s all the cod they have…so, pick something else if you want. At his suggestion I got grouper (no way…dense and dry fish; anyway, I played along and got on with my life. Btw…at our table (of 14 guests) we also had many other complaints about the quality and temperature of other dishes. Including appetizers such as coconut shrimp (cold and soggy…previously cooked quite evidently); sardines were just mush and nasty; piri piri shrimp…cold, bitter and super small…again, no pride on quality or taste. I could go on…but you get the point. After being away from this place for several years due to service, I recently made three attempts again to support our entrepreneurs…but nothing changes. Therefore, I will never go back or recommend to any of my family and friends as I’ve done in the past. To everyone else, you can try and hopefully have a better experience; albeit, perhaps better off not running the risk of disappointment and go elsewhere. Entertainment dollars are hard earned and should be spent to give pleasure, satisfaction and happiness. Not eat garbage and feel frustrated by the complacency demonstrated by...