A Assembleia — Restaurant in Arouca

Nicely renovated place. Rude staff, poor food. Think thrice before going. Highly not recommended.

It may please Portuguese but if you are a tourist... there are plenty of better places in Arouca. Whole meal was all about waiting and rude staff and bad food.

Here's my experience.

Staff A (a tall middle aged man with glasses) came off friendly at the start, spoke English with us (I’m not Portuguese but my friend is). He introduced us their veal steak which we gladly accepted. Food took almost 30 mins to reach, we were both hungry were hoping food was worth the wait. Note - we were both hungry. And to the both of us, food served was 6 pieces of significantly different, rubbery and bland meats with tough and crunchy rice and bad fries as the sides. Yikes to bad fries.

After the meal, Staff A came to clear the table and we confirmed there will be no desserts or coffee. 10 minutes passed. No bill. Maybe he thought we were going to sit there until we were happy to pay the bill, not too sure. So I signaled to the nearest wait staff to fetch us the bill. He acknowledged. Another 10 minutes passed. No bill. I was getting a little frustrated at this point so I called out to Staff A and told him we were waiting for a while now. He said his colleague doesn’t speak English hence he didn’t bring us the bill - but dude, I signaled. And that signal is almost international. There were barely 8 tables of diners at that point, and they had a total of 4 wait staff. Yet I have to wait close to 30 mins for just a bill.

So Staff A finally came to the table with the bill. Decided to suddenly switch to Portuguese and spoke to my friend in Portuguese, telling him we were making a fuss. I confronted him on the need to suddenly speak in Portuguese and he said it’s his first language so it is easier for him. But he was fluent during his recommendation?

Anyway, we paid and we left and we will never...

We had a reservation for 5 people at 14:00, we arrived on time and were told to wait, it’s now 14:22 and we are still standing outside waiting. Meanwhile there are empty tables 🤷‍♂️

UPD: We thought it wouldn’t be possible to go anywhere at this hour, so we stayed. Our order was only taken at 14:43. The men’s restroom was filthy and had no towels.

UPD: But the food turned out to be great! However, eating out is not only about the food, so I won’t be coming back, but if you are looking for good food and don’t mind the above, you...

We have enjoyed our lunch very much here. The roast veal with onions, peppers, carrots, cabbages, and potatoes are extrordinary delicious. The owner let us try his home made honey wine, which is unbelievably superb. The dessert, Super Walkways (ice cream topping on apple pie custard with cinnamon and a spring roll like dessert with yellow sweet stuffing), is the number 1 dessert we have ever had so far in Europe. If you have come to Arouca Portugual, you must stop by here to dine. The owner is really passionate and ...