Restaurante Cucina 37 — Restaurant in Mafra

So this is weird. This place has some really nice memory, as it was the third date with my actual girlfriend and mother of my children. At the same time it is a truthfull review. For the first time I was neither not satisfied or satisfied completely. Great music from random period of italian music, like completely out of context. The food was strange, entrance as small pizza:it was focaccia with random sauces; ravioli, great appearence: it was so salty you cannot enjoy like at all; trofie alla puttanesca: great appearence, again, but not well cooked(not overcooked that I respect a lot, but neither fully cooked...)...and not spicy like at all!! And everywhere around you peppers and tomato to show hoe italian is the place. So, great efford, but let's say a weird substance that kind of scrap the italian cousine but doesn't really get there....If it was even 10 or 15 euro cheaper it was worth. Not definitely. I really enjoyed the Tassoni, but I didn't try the cocktails, luckily, as it felt they salted everything so much to get you drunk. I like the history of the place, as it is the first italian restaurant in Ericeira. Let's hope...

My partner and I came hungry after a day of surf and also loved the look of the prawn linguine.

We ordered the bruschetta and the burrata crudo as starters. The bruschetta was good, the bread was crunch and soft and slightly warm which paired well with the stracciatella and tomatoes. The burrata crudo was an odd pairing of burrata with pickled artichokes and ham - didn't hate it, but didn't love it.

For the main, we both ordered the prawn linguine. It was tasty but quite rich. My main critique would be that the pieces of prawn in the linguine was overcooked, and the prawn on top wasn't the freshest. It had clearly been cooked and kept cold then put on top as garnish. I'm not Italian, but it seemed overly creamy to me to be authentic (she says going to an Italian restaurant in Portugal).

The staff were lovely and I thought the restaurant was very cute in ambience which was nice for our date. All in all, I'd say it's...

Great food (Melazzane, Gnocchi) to ok food (mixed starter set, some pasta a matrigiana) and generally nice location, friendly owner/host: 4 to 5 stars for this.

However, mostly slow and sometimes unfriendly and somewhat incompetent serving staff: minus 1 to 2 stars for this.

Minor minus points for seating 3 people onto a 2-person table.

Last but not least, and worst thing if you want to enjoy dinner as a non-smoking guest in the outside area: chances are you'll be surrounded by cigarette smoke pretty much the entire time during your meal. This can probably be avoided by sitting inside (though I wouldn't say that's very desirable either on a nice summer night) so no stars...