Apeadeiro — Restaurant in Sintra

Table for two. We were served a "free" welcoming consisting of 2 breads, olives, croquetas (2), and cheese. We ordered the mixed appetizer plate and received canned tuna (was mentioned in the POR menu but not explained in the ENG one, waiter did mention truth to be told), but also what looked VISIBLY like supermarket prosciutto and cheese slices (they had round corners.. ), with salad. I suspect the plate had been there for a while cos the prosciuto was soggy at the bottom. For main dish we ordered the Codfish Apeadeiro style. Codfish was served with fried potatoes, but it was also dripping frying oil. The waiter commented on the leftovers we left, we tried to be polite about it and said we were full but he was upset enough to add another comment. We had to insist for the bill, but before we got it we received a "free" sweet and a taste of ginjiñha each. After spending the weekend with multiple local guides, we knew 1. It's supposed to be served cold, and 2. It's supposed to taste like cherry. What we were served was warm and tasted like alcohol. Even if we completely misunderstood and this wasn't, in fact, ginjiñha, it was really off. We headed to the till to pay a total of 40€: 1 entré, 1 main, half a bottle of viñu verd and the "free" covert: 5.50€ in total. (We split 1 menu in 2 since we were not very hungry.) While waiting to pay, we saw someone in the kitchen refilling the ginjiñha bottles they use to serve the tables with unbranded bottles. I have no idea how a restaurant like this is still operating, or able to be full on a tuesday evening. It must be living off its reputation, or the chef changed recently. I had great food so far in Portugal, this was the first restaurant I really would...

"We've charged €2 for few drops of olive oil" I was very sick with my pregnancy with motion sickness I explained I couldn't drink any as I had a water my husband ordered beer and 2 garlic coriander soup and 1 monkfish rice as I don't think I can eat much at all but the woman insisted we need large portion for two people and I said I am feeling really not well so one will be enough for us then she said you don't drink you don't eat that's why you are sick like this and I explained my condition again then she said you ordered garlic soup? Let's see I am sure you will go to toilet straight. She asked some bread and olive for start, I said only some bread maybe, then 2 bread came in the wrapped by clingfilm and left in the table without butter or olive oil. I asked olive oil to dip bread while we waited 20mins to soups to arrive. We only had one bread with few drops of olive oil. Soup was okay but not much flavours and seasoned. Monk fish rice was quite generous portions flavour was good but salty had only half of it as it was a way too salty to finish. We asked for the bill they seemed not happy that we don't order the desserts or coffee then bill came, charged for the few drop of olive oils for €2 one bread €2 each she said yes we have to buy the olive oil and it is not free for even one drop. The couple sitting next to us was shocked. I gave up for argument in this place for common sense or being reasonable. As I am regular reviewer and blogger this place is required to learn how to do customer service and understand customer's needs. Very poor...

tl;dr: beware of the surprises they offer, or there might not be any room left in your stomach 🤣

After walking around Sintra all day (which can be quite exhausting if you explore Quinta da Regaleira and Palácio da Pena), eating a well-deserved meal (or many meals) here was a good idea. A Portuguese friend of mine recommended the place, so I knew it was legit and anything I ordered was going to be good. Indeed!

I was going to order appetizers, but they got the jump on me by bringing some bread, cheese and olives (you do pay for it), so I just ordered a couple of rissoles to go with them.

Then it was, of course, cod time! I went with the house specialty (bacalhau à Apeadeiro) which is baked codfish, potato chips, garlic, carrots, ham and olives). Delicious! I would've added a touch more salt.

A meal in Portugal is not complete without some marvelous portuguese pastry for dessert, so I went to town and ordered 3 of them (coconut cake, queijada and travesseiro, a typical Sintra pastry). It's always a good idea to stuff ourselves with dessert.

LITTLE DID I KNOW, THOUGH, that they were going to bring surprises to the table in the form of more queijada and a mini travesseiro 😅😅😅😅 much appreciated, but at that point it was just too much for me!

Service is as nice and polite as it gets, though the main dishes took a little while to get to us (the place is popular and it was bit busy) but it was an acceptable delay (not like we sat there starving for an hour with no attention from the staff).

Pretty...