Tasca do Celso — Restaurant in Odemira

Ate here for our anniversary on April 20th, Saturday lunch. First, i called at 12:00pm, and asked if i could reserve for 1:00pm, and the man who answered the phone stated that there were no tables available, and that in fact he was book until Sunday. I told my wife that we should show up anyway, and that in fact we should show up 10 minutes earlier than when the opened, because i know how it goes here in Portugal. You can never trust what is told to you. We were the first ones at the restaurant. We walked in, asked for a table, and sure enough we were directed to the best table in the house, near the window.

The restaurant is nicely decorated and cozy. The waiter was very nice and attentive.

We found the restaurant expensive for what you get.

My wife ordered the "Frango" which came with fries and salad. The frango meat was dry and hard. Not juicy. The skin was rubbery. We usually get chicken at other places that comes with crispy skin, juicy chicken, with a olive oil, piripiri sauce. The fries were boring. How about some parmesan cheese and rosemary on the fries? We had to ask for PiriPiri sauce for more flavor. No salt or pepper on the table.

I had the Raia no Tacho. Basically Raia, sliced potato, in a wine garlic sauce. That's it. How about onions, broccoli, carrots. Or peas? Getting vegetable in your entre, in a country that has immense open space of farm land,...

A good restaurant that seems to be missing something in order to be a 5 star experience.

First you need either to be lucky or to book early in advance in order to get a spot there (2 days before in my case). Then they have a couple of rooms where you can be seated and you can that the original room is the best looking one and if you’re lucky to be there then you will have a better experience.

The menu is nice and big and the food was quite good, we asked the steak for two and also and an appetizer and the food was good enough but a bit overpriced in my opinion (and if you consider other restaurants around then it’s really overpriced).

The wine list is quite good but again steeply overpriced, specially if you compare with other restaurants in the same town.

The service was just good. The waitress was nice but always felt rushed which was also a bit of a letdown.

Considering all this I’ll still say go and try it. I know I will again in the future just to make sure if it’s really a strong 4/5 or if...

We ate here while walking the fisherman’s trail and the restaurant was recommend by our hotel owner. Atmosphere is cosy and inviting right from the front entrance. The restaurant is rustic and very charming within. Someone has put a lot of thought into all the details. Service was impeccable and added another layer to the dining experience. Our waiter was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. He recommended a bottle of wine for us that was amazing. He checked with us on price before he made his selection. Servings are very large and were served to us from the serving plate at the table which again was very charming. My husband had the black pork with clams which he enjoyed and said was nicely spiced but he found it very rich (not a complaint just a point to be aware of). I had a monkfish stew with was served with rice in a tomato based sauce along with clams and shrimp. This was a very hearty dish which I enjoyed but it was also rich. A wonderful restaurant and an overall...