Paço do Conde — Restaurant in Coimbra

We were having a nice walk and looking for a place to eat when we stumbled on this restaurant. We found it inviting, seeing the grill from the street it seemed the food would be good - even if we had to wait for a while, we didn't mind that. So we got in, that was a mistake. The staff wasn't super friendly, the waitress was a bit rude while we were ordering, but we were in a good mood, so we just shrug it off. All of us ordered pork: costeletas, espetadas de lombo and espetadas mistas. The meat wasn't fresh and even though it was not spoiled, it's always disappointing. Top it with underseasoning, overcooking and drying the meat, but still managing to leave some pieces raw, serve with a poor salad, a tasteless, oily rice, and soggy french fries - that was our experience. We were so dumbfound with the lack of quality of the food, I asked the rest of the party to leave the restaurant, and went to pay as quickly as possible so we could still try to save our night. We paid around 25 euros for 3 people, with soft drinks, the dishes I mentioned, bread and olives. It's cheap, but it's terrible. There are a lot of places with much better food in Coimbra with similar prices.

Bonus negative points for a waiter from whom I moved away, since he had dishes in his hands and I was in his way while waiting to pay. He tried to be funny asking if I was afraid of them, because he could see I was shivering (I was not), when I tried to say I've moved to let him pass, he cut me off saying "Are you afraid of me? Don't be! If you get frightened that easily you should buy a knife or a gun!" I said nothing, paid and walked away. Maybe he was trying to be funny? It was...

One of the best authentic restaurants in Portugal I have met. A girl from the hostel told me to go there because the food is nice. So I went yesterday to that place and I left this restaurant really happy.

The service is really good, the food, I had a good meat from the young calf, was excellent. I got rice and beans, chips and a nice salat with it. I also ordered "vinho verde", the green wine, which is really tasty and I had a mousse au chocolat as dessert. When I had my coffee at the end, Alfredo, the owner came and then he talked to me and the other custumers and it was nice because he created a really good atmosphere to meet people and so I left the restaurant when they closed. I didn't expected that warm and welcomed atmosphere since I am on the pilgrimage from Lissabon to Santiago, because most people are afraid of Covid19 and avoid other persons, but in this restaurant it was different, even with all the restrictions they had to follow.

Alfredo, I will come back to your place when I am in Coimbra again and thank you for your...

⁉️ in general ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ very typical food, tasty, cheap and in a lovely location.

🐟 Fish ⭐⭐⭐⭐ tasty, well done, not too dry nor too soft: really well cooked. I gave 4 stars because it is not a lot of fish but a lot of side dishes. Overall 🤤.

🍖 Meat ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ i took a estufado not the barbecue meat... It was soft, well cooked and tasty. In this case the portions are big enough to satisfy any appetite.

🛋️ Local ⭐⭐⭐⭐ it has a lot of space, there is space both inside and outside, even if outside is like an internal court. Simple furniture but still in line with the food ✌️

👥 Staff ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ super friendly, fast in the orders and if they like you well enough they'll offer you...