Ponte Nova — Restaurant in Montalegre

The cost/benefit relationship wasn't up to par from what I'd expect from a restaurant in the north of Portugal.

I guess the main factor to blame for this is that the restaurant is severely understaffed, I really felt like I couldn't speak with a waiter more than 2 or 3 sentences without them losing focus on my requests.

Dishes take 45min to 1h to be ready and you can be served after other clients that arrived later because of this lack of organisation/coordination between front staff and back staff which doesn't seem to be intentional, it's just a symptom of understaffing.

The food itself was okay, not bad but not good, I didn't particularly care to see the kitchen where the dishes were prepared but I'd wager to guess the dishes could be much better if things were better organised.

I had a beef steak. The flavour on it was okay but it was overcooked and the fries were a bit too oily for my taste.

The food took so long to arrive that the waiter kindly exchanged our room temperature drinks (that had previously arrived cold) with new, colder ones, so at least there's some goodwill.

The outside part of the restaurant is without a doubt better...

Stunning location! Honest and cheap daily dish When you go to a place where area workers go to lunch regularly, you can expect it's good and cheap.

The appetizers were presunto ham and cheese. To then ask for recommendation the dish of the day that was Rancho à Moda do Minho (pasta, grain, chouriço and cow meat). It was a half meal, but you can see from the pictures how much it was! I couldn't even try dessert. I also drank a mug of Panaché 500 ml and a coffee I ended up drinking on the street to enjoy the magnificent view.

All this...

Very nice location, decent meat but poor management and deserts. We asked for two dosis of picanha and after a long wait got just one cause the meat went out. Then we ordered beef just to be asked much later if we wanted desert as they had forgotten the order. The meat was actually OK, not the best we've had in the area. The cheesecake was frozen, to the point we were struggling to cut it, my kid ate it like an ice-cream. There was a lot of wind but nobody was cleaning the flying trash so eventually the outdoor area was...