CASA MINHOTA - Resto Portugais - Tapas / Seafood — Restaurant in Montreal

Well, that was kinda unexpected. We’ve been to this restaurant long time (about 15 years) ago and have very nice memories. So, being in Montreal once again we had no hesitation of coming, especially considering all great reviews on TripAdvisor (was this only our experience???)

Anyways, my wife ordered “Cod Minhota Style”, my daughter – seafood platter and I had “Cod Lagareiro Style” (grilled with garlic). We also had an appetizer, calamari.

Calamari were actually quite good no questions there. My fish was absolutely loaded with bones. I’ve never had in any restaurant fish with bones, it was appalling. In addition to this, it was a bit over-grilled…. bead burned and “swimming” in oil, way too much of it.

My wife’s fish was very dry, almost “shoe sole” consistency under the layer of potatoes and sautéed onions… Only later (when we left) I learned how not tasty it was.

Last, but not least, the seafood platter… I tried one clam from it and spitted it out…. I tried one mussel… it was cold… did it come from the jar??? My daughter said that shrimps, scallops and lobster were not that bad, but where did those cold mussels come from??

Once food was served our waiter didn’t bother to check on us, though we did mention that we have great memories and so on…

Was there stranger in the kitchen?? That was really awful meal and waste of $140…....

We reserved over a week in advance for a family party where we were at least 40 people. Unfortunately this restaurant is ill equipped to handle a large number of people despite reserving and allowing time for preparation for such a large number. We arrived at 1:00pm, only recieved our appetizers an hour later, another hour to recieved our starters and another for our entrees. We left before we could have the dessert and coffee that was included in our meals as we were sick and tired of waiting around for food. We were starving when we arrived for lunch and we only ate at 4pm.

My starter salad never arrived, and i had to request it alongside my entree as everyone else had their soup or salad around me earlier on. Clearly I had been forgotten. I ordered a steak medium, and recieved one where it was rare and bloody inside. Everyone else who ordered the same steak had recieved the same cook. Our vegetables were cold on our plates. Another one of us found a long hair in their food. There was only one member of staff waiting on the group who was in charge of taking orders, cleaning up and delivering food. I don't know what the heck was happening behind closed doors but we were very disappointed with the service we recieved as it was clearly too much for one person. Unfortunately we will not be...

These 2 stars are because they accepted my small pet inside and nicely provided a bowl of water.

However, they were kind of a scam!!! We’re from Toronto, so we understand the tips system. No problem to add. They considered us as tourists and grabbed the the machine as well as our credit card and didn't let us choose the percentage of tips! He said ‘no worries, no tips to think of I did everything for you.’ He added 20%!!!!

The problem is that we ordered 3 pichanas (beef) that we're not tenders at all. We eat this type of meat all the time so we know that the meat can be medium rare (red). He even gave us an explanation ‘no picanhas must be only because when not cook it’s actually making the meat’. Anyway, we didn't argue and wanted to give a try.

Please never let them choose the tips for you. And watch carefully everything.

Other dishes or sides were delicious. The customer service overall is good. Washroom quite clean and restaurant clean too.

I am just shocked of them thinking we were all tourists like we didn't know anything (even if we are tourists, they must never do that). And the worst they decided to tip themselves very well!!!

I went home and asked my family about this behaviour as I thought it was maybe normal on Quebec and they definitely...