Restaurante RC — Restaurant in Porto

Really a place to avoid. Confused and inattentive staff (no dedicated table waiter) and slow service. On arrival we were asked if we wanted "Fado" - this was poorly explained to us as "with music" or "without". We chose "without" and were shown to a table where we waited almost 15 minutes to get the menu, and were given no chance to order drinks. Once we did order, and following receiving the starters the lights we dimmed, and a rather strange and haughty, but multilingual lady explained that the singing was about to begin, and that customers should not talk during the "performance". And so the "Fado" (as we now discovered this was) began. A sort of opera singing as the singer(s) passed between the guests and in some cases invaded their space. We were "entertained" by three different singers, the lady herself (who sang terribly), a younger guy (who was excellent) and an older guy (who was creepy). Because no-one was allowed to disrupt the singers the service was stopped. When it did resume and our main courses were served, they were cold, as they'd clearly been waiting for the singing to end (as we were too). The rest of the evening was decidedly average, and the food was disappointing. When we received the bill we were charged 20€ (4x5€) for the Fado, which we rejected, as we'd specifically requested a room without music and for us it destroyed the evening and the dining experience. Ok, we were dumb tourists in Portugal and maybe should have understood the principles of Fado (which we subsequently do), but Porto is a tourist location, so maybe it could have been better explained. This restaurant boasts Fado "every night", so in my books is a...

Beautiful interior, but clearly, the current iteration of this restaurant is designed for tourists. The fado, service and wine/port list are adequate. All of this would be forgiven if the kitchen was not so plebian. Mundane. Boring. There are no dinner specials. The mussels were tasty, but slightly overcooked and rubbery. The Portugese Cod fillet was abundate in serving size, cooked properly, but flavourless (except for oily). Considering an actual living fish died for me to eat, the kitchen's mediocre output is an insult to the Cod, everywhere. The tomato-mozzarella salad was equally flavourless (except for the vineagre de vinho & salt, which I added). Whatever green leaf (basil? arugula? spinach?) was chopped on top, had long since lost any aroma, or flavour.

Despite the musicianship and expertise of the performers, and the quality front of house staff, the overall experience is not one to entice a naif to either Fado music, nor Portugese cuisine.

But, seemingly catering to the short-term visitor, will RC care? I hope so, because the staff seem sincerely interested in ensuring a quality, memorable experience. The kitchen however, seems certain to derail those hopes.

PS: Totally...

The service, albeit friendly, was very slow. We ordered cocktails and asked about them three times, but they never arrived and then our meal came so we cancelled them. The food itself was disappointing as well, especially for the price here in Porto. The ribeye for two people was tasty in the beginning but became very chewy and dry in the middle of the cut. What surprised me was that they didn't even ask how we wanted our steak done, and it was a bit overcooked for me. The vegetables and fries that came with it were bland and not so warm when the dish arrived. My friends had a fish dish that I tasted which was rather dry and chewy as well, the flavour was ok. Afterwards we got the excuse that Portuguese people like their meat this way. Maybe so (although I doubt it), but I've had the juiciest, tastiest piece of beef I've ever had in a smaller town here in Portugal not long ago, so there's that. I think this place suffers from understaffing and internal communication issues and an outdated vision of what food should be. All in all our experience was very...