Bacalhau na Vila — Restaurant in Sintra

I read some reviews here and wanted to give this place a try. We waited some time for someone to come see us so that we could order, had to flag 2 different waiters a couple of times who nodded and proceeded to do their own thing. So our experience started from the wrong foot. We were 2 people and ordered octopus salad and Green salad with crispy codfish. My salad arrived with a hair on the rim of the plate. The food was just ok, nothing special, they added vinegar in the salads which was not the best, some kind of sauce would be better. Octopus salad also lacked sauce and was nothing special.

For main course we took 1 dish with codfish and potato and another one was with shrimp, codfish and octopus and sweet potatoes. Portions were kind of small, taste was okay, nothing special and cod was kind of too salty. I was disappointed in overall experience, they also gave us 7up when we ordered Sprite. Bathroom was impossible to lock and another customer was locked in the bathroom and had to bang on the door for someone to let her out. I enjoyed so many places in Portugal but this was disappointing and the worst meal of my whole trip, lack of attention from the wait staff made me feel uncomfortable as if it was an inconvenience for them to serve us. Please skip this place, there are other much better...

We ordered octopus and shrimp salad, a spinach soup, pastel de bacalao, a burger and a wrap. We were all disappointed. My son’s burger was way too salty. They should have soaked the bacalao in milk and for longer. This is the practice used in Italy and in our household whenever I cook bacalao. The octopus salad had one tiny shrimp, a very end of one octopus tentacle, very chewy piece of cod sitting on the bed of spinach. They added so much oil to the spinach that I hated it immediately. This is a common practice used by bad cooks, ie adding too much oil or butter to give taste. I think I can still feel the film of oil all around my mouth 🤮. The only edible thing was the wrap. They practically use the same cod spread they offer as a starter but with fresh spinach. Get the wrap if you want something tasting fresh and full of flavour. The pastel de bacalao were just ok, nothing to write home about. Not sure why people raved so much about them. The ones I make at home taste better and I am not Portuguese. Plus, my husband ordered panache but they mix it themselves and have no idea what the ratio of soda to beer should be. Usually it is 1/3 beer and 2/3 sprite/lemon soda. Very disappointing! We left hungry but truly enjoyed the pastries from the pastry shop...

We recently had a dinner here, but did not feel that it lived up to the expectation of the 4.6 star-review on Google. The interior is very basic and the lights were way too bright. This made it feel more like a canteen rather than a restaurant where you’d sit for an evening. The waiter that helped us was a bit cocky, which was quite fun at the beginning, but felt a bit misplaced after a while. We ordered some starters: fish pies (tasted okay, but were underbaked), octopus salad (tasty!), and a leek a bras (very little leek, but tasted good). The main with bacalhau, shrimp and octopus was okay, although a bit dry and could have benefited from some sauce. The mains with only pan-fried bacalhau were too dry and blend, which is interesting considering this is their signature dish. Perhaps we expected too much. To be fair, the prices are very affordable (not even 12 euros for a main). The wine was good. Overall, an okay restaurant if you are looking for something affordable. But don’t expect to have an extended cosy dinner here. If 3.5 stars was an option, we would...