Azure — Restaurant in Cascais

I have to first thank the manager who helped us find the restaurant. We asked people on the street, one of whom was kind enough to get directions in Portuguese and translate. Ultimately the manager helped direct us in and saved our table.

My major complaint is that the restaurant is located at the university in one of the buildings though Google Maps and Waze direct to the wrong building and state it’s in the university. It’s a bit tough to find.

The food was great. The servers did not speak much English but the same lovely manager stepped in when needed.

I ate the duck which was excellent. It was moist and flavored well. It was served with salad and roasted potatoes over a bed of sautéed zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant - much like a ratatouille. One of the people I was with ate the fish soup and loved it. He also had the duck. Another ate the Quinoa appetizer and ordered a pizza which she shared with someone else. They said the pizza was spectacular. The same person who shared the pizza also ate duck. He too liked it.

We ordered a combination of sparkling and flat water. We didn’t order any other drinks. For the four of us the meal was very reasonable, bordering on inexpensive - about 17€ each including a Tip.

The experience is worth it. The university is beautiful. The restaurant is not a tourist trap so if you have a little patience or better language skills, it’s the perfect dinner spot not far...

First thing to comes to mind it's the value for money you get here. Most mains are less than 10 euros and are super tasty.

The thin italian-style pizzas from the traditional oven are super popular, but the other options are fantastic as well.

From the meals we tried, the pork and the chicken were grilled to perfection and the sides they came with were great, from mashed sweet potatoes to pumpkin filled ravioli, which look and taste like you the food you would get at an expensive fine dining restaurant, only cheaper and in more generous portions.

Reserving a table is always recommended, but since the place is somewhat hidden away from masses (within the beautiful Universidade Nova campus), you will like not have a problem getting a place when popping by as long as you don't go later than 1pm for lunch or 8pm for dinner.

A minor downside for families is that no children menu is available, but you can always opt for a nice starter or to pack the pizza leftovers from your child at the end...

Called in advance to ask if they could adapt some dishes for vegan, sounded very promising saying they could remove ingredients from dishes to make it vegan like the vegetarian risotto. At the restaurant the waitress was very assertive and said there’s no way they can make the risotto vegan or most dishes and what was left was the vegetarian salad, if removed the cheese. We said that wasn’t the info they gave by phone, she still said there’s no way so I asked the salad……came with cheese anyway. Had to send it back and my friends were almost finishing their food when my salad came (after we remind them it was still missing) As a vegan, specially in Portugal, I’m used to end up eating side dishes or plain salads but that wasn’t what I was told on the phone. Also most restaurants try to make something and accommodate me and here I felt exactly the opposite. Very...