Casa Madeira — Restaurant in London

Dinner at Casa Madeira was . . . An experience.

4 of us went there for dinner based on the nice variety of options on the menu. We got 2 “margherita” pizzas, 1 order of mussels and 1 grilled sea bass which came with boiled potatoes and veggies. The pizza was really a plain cheese pizza which my companions described as “okay.” The sauce for the mussels was delicious, but about 1/3 of them hadn’t opened their shells, which was offputting. The grilled fish was lovely, really nicely prepared and tasty, but I never got the side of a sauce I had requested. However, we received a gravy boat full of melted butter. A large gravy boat. Full of butter. No one ever explained what it was for, but in part I used it for my veggies which was fine.

We got bread and olives. The olives were nice, the bread was freshly toasted things that looked like English muffins (just muffins on this side of the pond?).

Our drinks order came out with 3 of the 4 requested beverages, and the meal came out with 3 of 4 plates. In each case, they seem to have been confused by the fact that 2 people got the same drink and 2 people got the same pizza. They made it right when we pointed out the issue.

The service was also a bit problematic in other ways. In the middle of taking our order the waiter said he’d be right back. He left for about 10 minutes and seemed to spend the entire time moving other tables around and cleaning them off. He had been put off by us asking questions, such as “what is the soup of the day?” And “what is in the house sauce?” (Answer: “It’s just a normal sauce.”) Upon his return we tried to put our orders in very efficiently.

There was also a mix-up with the bill where we were charged for gin we didn’t get, and it was inordinately complicated to explain that and get it corrected.

The atmosphere was described by one of my companions as “Portuguese sports bar with Italian soccer on TV.” It was friendly and homey but also a bit noisy due to being able to hear the passing tube trains.

To their credit, the folks at the restaurant apologized for all the mistakes and comped us some desert as we were heading out. That gesture was appreciated, but didn’t make up for such a...

Casa Madeira Restaurant, first time my wife and I visited, we expected better food quality and service to. First we order bread, butter and mixed olives two times, when they bring us the second round of mixed olives, the waiter didn't ask us if we finish our first bowl of mixed olives, he just took it away.... hey, hello waiter "I pay for all those mixed olives bowl". As a starter I order Melon and Parma Ham, my wife order Cod with cream, but neither I can't taste or feel the slice of boiled potatoes should be inside, they tell us their grid so smaller pieces.... Bizarre, because you must be feel and see the slices of boiled potatoes inside when you bite. I order fried beef steak (a small piece, I saw more bigger steaks in other Portuguese Restaurants here in London but I don't talking about Sirloin Steak, watch out) with white rice, French fries (chips), fried egg on top and light salad of tomatoes, cucumber slices with little bit few pieces of red onions and lettuce. The bottle of Portuguese Green Wine it was so nice, the cookies cream cake was so dry the sponge, also the cream on top and the pieces of milky cookies decorated all over tasted soggy not crunchy as "fresh cookies" should be. I invested nearly £90.- i don't regret at all.!!! but also the waiters must be re - inducted or training again, because no one come to check on us and neither ask if how was our food or if we enjoyed. But after all I complaint about all this to the Manager and he was so charm and kind with us, he apologise for what we experienced and he offer us after pay the bill 2 traditional Portuguese Cocktails from Madeira Island. We definitely will back soon, but.... hope fixing all that issues I complaint now. Because early October we have to celebrated my wife Birthday on 1st of October and our Wedding Aniversary on...

Wildly mediocre food at best. I have no idea how this place has such good reviews. I quite excitedly took a friend to the restaurant to give him a taste of Portuguese food. The location was lovely, and they have a great outside eating area. That's about as good as our experience got. I've never been so disappointed and pretty embarrassed. The food is so far from authentic it's incredible. The portion sizes are really big, however that means nothing when you're eating what could quite easily come from a kebab shop at 3am.

The bolo do caco, which is a traditional potato bread, was a standard white bread drenched in garlic butter. The chourico was poor quality- bright red, and overly fatty with hard chunks of fat that had to be picked out. Polvo a lagereira- which is flame-grilled octopus, topped with fresh garlic, parsley and a light drizzle of olive oil, was served as sweet, oily, pan-fried octopus slices with soggy fried peppers and onions.

I desperately wanted to cancel our mains order, but wasn't able to.

I had ordered a "'Bacalhau assado''- traditional grilled salted cod. The portion size and cut of fish was great- however the amount of salt made the fish completely inedible. The plate was absolutely DRENCHED in olive oil. The correct way of serving the dish is with charred sliced green peppers and onions, and a little bit of olive and garlic. This had sweet pan fried yellow pepper and onion swimming in olive oil, served with boiled broccoli, carrots and potatoes. My friend ordered a meat skewer. Its hard to ruin plain grilled meat with chips. It was average, but cold.

If you are looking for authentic Portuguese food, DO NOT bother with this restaurant. You couldn't pay me to go back there- not even the £98 I...