I was extremely excited to come here following a recommendation from somebody in Portugal - it was to be the only Portuguese meal that we had whilst here so I was keen to go all out.

However, it didn’t live up to my expectations. I’m giving three stars because the food, although not bad at all, was nothing special or outstanding but I would have probably given 4 stars had we had better service.

Our waiter was not the nicest, we felt as though we were not wanted there. Bread and butter was put on our table (we didn’t ask for this) and having seen a previous review saying that they were charged for this bread, we decided to ask our waiter if it was free or not. He sarcastically said ‘nothing is free in this world’, which, fine, and it was only cheap, but we hadn’t asked for this bread; we decided to not eat it out of principle if nothing else. This seemed to visibly annoy the waiter. Interestingly too, their menu states the law that unsolicited food will not be charged for.

The food (cod and octopus) was nice - neither of us are massive seafood people but we wanted to try these typical dishes and I’m glad we did still. However, the side vegetables were indeed soggy and clearly from a cheap frozen bag of mixed veg that you buy in a supermarket. Still tasted good, but you expect more from a restaurant.. similarly, the boiled potatoes that accompanied the main looked basic and bland - still nice, but nothing special at all and the presentation could be improved.

Overall, I’d still recommend this place if you want to try Portuguese dishes and I think our experience would have been far more positive had we had a different waiter. The decor is nice and bright and it was busy when we went.

Also, pop over the street to the mercado opposite the restaurant to grab yourself a beer whilst you wait for a table - the owner of the shop is absolutely lovely.