A Prensa — Restaurant in Alenquer

We were advised where to pop in for dinner by the owner of a local prestigious farm - "Herdade da Embereza" - which hosts Large Events and also has a new "Horse Riding School" which is starting to be "noticed" as a quality one... Students of all ages are mounting Pure Lusitano Horses which are extremely well taken care of, classical music playing, for the enjoyment and nerve calming of both riders and horses, and an experienced horse Riding Instructor! We visited this amazing place so I could have a private Riding Lesson! Coming back to "A Prensa", when we arrived at around 19h30, the restaurant was fully booked, however the "Hostess" who received us (which we found out later was the owner) ended up providing us the opportunity to have dinner indoors by moving an outdoor patio table and chairs into the restaurant. The temperatures in November are low, and it was quite cold outdoors!!! This, did make an very positive impression on us, because the last thing we wanted was to drive more than 100km to get home, without a nice meal! Now, when it came to service AND the quality of the meal, we were stunned! In the middle of the countryside, near Alenquer, to find not only a 5 star quality service with very attentive staff, was a refreshing surprise!!! We chose a cut of meat for 2, which came served in a wood plank, meat juices running from the meat, accompanied by proper home made fries and a wet bean rice ("arroz malandro com feijão encarnado") and "migas"(a mix of green leafy Portuguese cabbage and corn bread crumbs)!!! The wine list was very acceptable too. We chose a Douro wine, but you also have a good choice of wines from this region of Ribatejo, but all other Portuguese unique wine regions were available too. And finally, the deserts were home made, and we swallowed - even when we thought we had no more space in our bellies - a very generous portion of the walnut cake with egg base cream, and finishing this meal with a typical short portuguese coffee! We left completely satisfied, to continue our journey back home to "Quinta de EVORAMONTE" (which is a "Casa da Campo/Rural Tourism", located in the heart of Alentejo!).

We certainly will recommend, and return again, as it truly was, simply put, a quality gastronomical experience!!!

Well done to this couple of entrepreneurs, who embarked in this challenging personal project of developing and running this great quality Restaurant, having not only "survived", but are now again thriving, despite the several months imposed long closures of all restaurants in 2020/21, and present enormously challenging restrictions imposed by the Portuguese Government, during this difficult...

Wow, we were en route to Lisbon (from Porto) and found this place on a Google Maps. The place is fantastic- food, service all excellent. Imagine stumbling into French Laundry and they had a place for you - it’s like that!!

Directions: map apps will take you to the front of the restaurant but slow down as you get close … you’ll see a sign for “A Prensa parking”, take that right and a left and you are behind the restaurant.

Logistics: the menu is only in Portuguese but thankfully one of the hostesses was from UK so all good. Also, while they do accept credit cards, US credit cards will not work there but there’s an ATM right outside so you are covered.

Wine: very selection from Douro, Alentejo and other places. The prices had a very small markup unlike the markups in the US 😟. Went with a Freixo as I was planning to have the steak.

Food: I ordered the steak and my wife went with a veggie burger + salad. The steak was remarkable made, the meat quality was excellent, probably exceeding Grade A and close to the legendary stuff like wagyu etc. I had it medium - it was well paired with the wine (if I may say so myself 😎). The steak sides were from another planet wow - you got a kale salad, fries, traditional Portuguese beans+rice and “icing” was a tangy oranges and onions with an amazing light dressing. Wow it just blew me away - one of the best meals I’ve had in Portugal!!!

My wife also liked her burger - no bun and it was a custom made veggie patty. She thought it was divine, with caramelized mushrooms and a side salad. She too enjoyed her food very much.

There was no room for dessert but I’m sure the chef would have wowed us. Highly recommend even if you have to drive 40 Kms outside Lisbon. And BTW this place is one of the top TEN restaurants in...

Atmosphere: it's an old place that if you start looking you notice how old it might be. Your grandfather could've proposed to your grandma in that place. As rustic as rustic can be, but some of it is hidden under normal reparations. Service: they are caring and attentive but also they seem to be trained or in training. There's somewhat of a standard and desired practices that they all follow. They try to make sure you have everything necessary for you to enjoy your time there. Food: it's. A. Lot. Of. Food. Ahaha I do believe the biggest selling point is price per kg of food. 1 portion that mentions 1 person can most likely feed 2. So half the price. For quality, it's good, it's well present. I chose the chuléton and it's a good bone-in beef steak. Is it spectacular? No. But it's really good. Seems to be char-grilled, but matured meat maybe be able to pass as char-grilled even in a gas-grill. This because, there was no grill in sight. Nonetheless, what I would point out as improvement is not the tool but the utilization of it. Beef was asked medium raw but came raw, some fat still actually raw. Now, even raw it was one really good steak, it's just missing that yummy caramelised fat. Sides were good also, just missing some salt for my taste. The wine cart has also something for everybody so try something. It's going to be probably good. Just.. Try to match it sigh...