Solar do Forcado — Restaurant in Portalegre

Be warned, It's not for vegetarians, and especially with all the bullfighting posters all around the room! This could make the experience a little heavy. It's a small space after all. It was a little noisy and I felt a little hemmed in.

The waiter was very courteous though being usually busy, you may wait a little for refills etc.

It's hard to get a table here so book a day or two early and especially on the weekend well in advance. My booking experience was not cordial. I've heard that the initial process: booking right up to being seated at the table can vary in congeniality...

For meat lovers there are some less usual local options (venison, bull, etc). My partner decided on the codFISH fillet. She enjoyed it's moist texture and it was not overly salty (time enough to dilute the salt). They also do Tuna steak regularly. I opted for venison medallions that were a little overcooked (dry). Some of the local desserts can be sweet to our tastes, and also a little heavy, so we gave them a miss. Sericaia is probably the best known sweet in the Alentejo (eggs, lots of cinnamon, sugar, lemon rind, and milk)....

Well, what can I say. This is simply an amazing place in the small town of central Portugal. We were invited by local winemaker, and they treated us very well. It is a kind of place where everything is in perfect order. Service very friendly and at the same time very professional! Special attention is given to products they select to bring only top-quality raw materials. Their pork knuckle was just perfectly cooked! Wine was served by our host winemaker, but they have the best selection of local small wineries. A must repeat place! And all this with just amazing...

It was just fine... nothing was particularly bad, but at the same time, nothing was particularly good. We started with the cabeça de xara and acorda, the cabeça was not for our palette, and the acorda was decent but nothing special. For the mains, we had the deer and bull, and once again, nothing was awful, but nothing great. Overall, it is a bit loveless and lack of passion. Service was clumsy and impersonal. Everything was fine, but this kind of restaurant was expecting a higher calibre of care. In general, it was fine, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it...