Imagine standing at the entrance of the restaurant, waiting, while many Portuguese families with reservations walk in. You keep waiting, thinking that it’ll soon be your turn. People continue leaving though you’re not being seated yet and your lower back start to ache. You see tables that were there for the entire time, sitting and chatting while drinking. You wait inside the restaurant because you’re afraid you were forgotten. Tables clear up and you get excited to finally walk in, though it’s taken by another family who arrived recently. 1.5 hours after arriving you’re finally seated. You already have three items in mind and ask for them, and find out that two are sold out! Disappointed, you choose other items on the menu. By the time you finish eating, you recognize customers who entered before you 3 hours ago who are still there. There are literally tables which sat there before and after you left.

I feel sorry for saying this since the owner and servers are very sweet (which I don’t doubt is why they have such high reviews), but I felt like we were forgotten throughout the night. If we knew the wait would take any longer than 15 minutes then we would not have stayed. On top of that there were so many tables that took a solid 2-3 hours to eat and chit chat, I wish the servers proactively gave tables their checks when guests finish eating so they can leave faster. I’m not sure if it’s a cultural difference, but in places like NYC where almost every good restaurant has a line for dinner, guests are expected to clear their tables within 2 hours max as a courtesy for other guests. Servers tend to the guests quickly to ensure this - give menus right when they’re seated, come back after 5 minutes for orders, and come back once the customers are almost finished eating to ask if they’d like the check. They also start cleaning your table if you’ve finished paying and are still sitting there. It’s also just better for business to do this. It seemed like here, people lingered around for a very long time.

For the food, presentation was good. The food ranking for me is: Salmon ceviche (sour lime sauce with chips and garnished with green onion, refreshing) > duck (a little dry and the fruit need to be soaked in syrup to be sweeter but still good) > fish soup (good and tastes as expected, I wish the the Cataplana was available)

Please just make a reservation days in advance. The painful wait and lack of available items poorly affected our experience and first impression.