Casa das Ratas — Restaurant in Tomar

Best meal I've ever had in Portugal. This place is not super easy to find, and if you get there before 7:30PM for dinner you will find it closed. But if you wait it will be worth the wait. Every meal is gourmet, and they have great specials. They serve their wine in jugs and give you a small glass to drink it with. The glass is barely large enough to hold a few sips. The place used to be a wine bar in the old days, and these small glasses is how it was consumed. A few cents per glass for those that just wanted a few small snorts of wine. The decor is still the style of the old wine bar, and has these large wine barrels on one side, and cubby holes for bottles of wine on the other side. The waiter recommended the Pork Cheaks, and I've never had them before, so I was a little scared to make that my meal, but I was sorry that I listened to him. It was be best braised meat that I've ever had, and it was served with perfectly roasted potatoes and al dente collard greens cooked in olive oil. I also had some cheese and bread as a app, and all of this for 16 EUR. I was so happy with how amazing the meal was for such a low cost that I doubled the check and left...

The physical space is nicely decorated and very clean. There are seats inside and tables set up outside. We went specifically for roasted duck (a Thursday special) but we found out it was sold out after 5 out of 7 of us wanted to order it. We realize now that it is probably so popular that it sells out during lunch. The food we ordered was ok, standard meals available in most local restaurants. It was nice to have an option of house rosé, which we ordered. It wasn't insanely busy, but busy enough that a few things were missed in our ordering. One of us asked for no potatoes, asking instead for more greens or salad, happy to pay the difference if there was any. The plate showed up with potatoes, and a shrug. Someone else asked for butter, it never showed up. We ordered coffee, it never showed up. All of these are trivial issues and the food was fine but we think maybe another set of hands helping in the restaurant would have made the...

We just finished a fantastic dinner at Casa das Ratas. Honestly I was a bit skeptical because it is rated lower than some of the other places in town. We walked by and I saw the menu and thought it looked really good and the atmosphere was nice - it wasn’t loud and the lighting was good. We had couvert, appetizers, mains, dessert, a bottle of wine and a glass of port each. Truly everything was really good, there were a bunch of dishes that I hadn’t seen at other Portuguese restaurants and they were all really good. Plus the co-owner Joao was lovely and spent a lot of time talking to us about the wine. Honestly excellent food, delightful hospitality and very...