Casa das Minas — Restaurant in Sintra

We had the vegetable pie, the pork steak sandwich and the tuna sandwich which tasted fine nothing special but for the price more than okay tasting. The female server was really friendly sadly not the male server which acted as the owner of the restaurant. I made a big mistake by ordering the boiled baccaleau/cod which came with a really strong fishy smell and bitter and fishy after taste. After confronting the owner that the fish did not in fact taste like anything fresh. The owner was justifying the quality of the fish by stating it was fresh which was definitely not the case, anybody could tell that the cod was obviously frozen. But the disaster came when I tried to pay. The server simply told me that I have to pay for the cod because it was made for me. he tried to explain that to me and I quote him verbatim, 'I also don't just come to your country and order what I don't eat.' This statement was the tip of the iceberg for me, because I didn't eat off my plate after eating a little bit of fish. This behavior was highly unprofessional and disrespectful, he was so gracious in the end that I did not have to pay for the fish after I said several times that I would not under any circumstances pay for this disgusting and mean really disgusting fishy warmed up obviously frozen fish. Apparently the waiter is not good at handling criticism, which I regret because I really liked the location. It's a shame, really, a shame that the waiter or owner has forgotten how to deal with customers and justifies poor quality with 'it always tastes that way'. And yes, I know how cod tastes because I've been fishing for it in Norway every year since I was a child. I did not include a picture of the cod because I couldn’t...

The most beautiful entry, with antique statues, very quaint and delightfully. you feel like ur a princess in Rome. We were seated at a cute dreamy table with a stunning view overlooking Sintra. But the dream didn’t too long once we ordered from the hodgepodge menu. Half an hour later the exasperated waitress told us they didn’t have what we ordered. We reordered and soon one of our soups arrived. It was another 20 minutes before the soup spoon came. It ended up being far too salty to finish.

After asking for a third time, our truffle fries finally arrived. They almost tasted like oregano, oh wait… it was oregano. No truffel to be in sight :( I don’t know if people are familiar with those two flavours but they are wildly different.

What a great spot. If only they could get their kitchen together. The waitress was way overworked and had no idea what the kitchen was doing. We watched other people wait longer than normal for their food or decide to leave before something had come. Fine for a drink and a good view… maybe...

The view from the restaurant is amazing and the service is very enjoyable, because of the friendly staff.

The food however is mediocre at most and the chorizo I took was far from tasty, although it was presented in a very appealing way. I couldn't take more than one bite but because I don't like to waste food, I had to force myself to eat more and feel disgusted every time.

The price for the food was also overpriced in my opinion, even though the place had a beautiful view, I felt like I fell for a tourist trap. This place was definitely not for the local people.

When the payment had to be made, it was a negative experience. Only cash and several online payment services were accepted, so it gave me the feeling the foreign owner wants to evade taxes illegally. Eventually the price was higher for me because I didn't have cash and had to pay extra fees for the transaction. Not very customer-friendly...