Casa Amiga — Restaurant in Scotland

This is an excellent and totally authentic Portuguese cafe with a nice chilled ambience

You really should give it a try - the coffee and Pastel de Natas are 5 star !

Here is some context for my review:

I was born in Whitburn but now live in central Portugal (near to Nazaré where you find the biggest surf waves in the world)

I have been there for 6 years and love it as much as Scotland.

What a great surprise to now find Casa Amiga in Whitburn ! In fact it is more Portuguese than real Portugal 🇵🇹 - there is a huge selection of traditional Portuguese artefacts, wall prints and wall tiles

The owner Patrícia is from Porto and is a lovely person - very kind and friendly.

In Portuguese… Muito amigável.

Patrícia speaks perfect English with what seems like an Australian accent… but she has actually spent a bit of time in South Africa.

First the coffee … the machine is a La Cimbali (top range Italian - and they really know how to use it ) and the beans are Delta Platinum - truly authentic from the very start but with the possibility to have fresh milk based drinks like flat whites, cappuccinos etc

In Portugal most people simply drink espresso. The main milk based options are Meia de Leite or Galão but it is mostly made with UHT milk

In Porto you ask for espresso with “Um cimbalino por favor” (from the name of the machine)

Next the Pastel de Natas …

Freshly baked each day and as good as any you will find in Lisboa - try them with a sprinkle of cinnamon

There is a huge selection of other pastries like Bolas de Berlim (a doughnut filled with confectioners custard) and very tasty toasted sandwiches

The cafe is also like a little Portuguese delicatessen - you can get just about anything there - Piri Piri sauce, Delta Coffee, olive oil, cheeses, chorizos including morcela (black pudding here) - go check it out

Thank you for a very memorable Portuguese experience - I will be back

Muito obrigado e até à...

August 2022, grand as ever. Always my venue of choice. Keep it up Pat.

April 2022 - as good as ever and I continue on my daily venture. It is also very good that the team has as yet managed to continue without putting up the prices, at least of what I buy. The raw material and supply chain costs will have to be passed onto the customer, but I'm totally ok with that, it won't stop me going. A great wee place. Roll up and support it.

September 2021 - I'm leaving this update to the review simply to highlight that I continue to go many days of every week. Standards have, if anything, improved. It is still consistently, without fail, very clean, lovely staff, exceptionally well presented, and the owner is friendly, chatty, very polite, and deserves to be very successful. Casa is a prime example of why people should support their local business. Go.

Late 2019 - Been before. Nice mix of seating, always spotless, nicely stocked, you could eat your food off the floor, lovely staff. One thing, in this day and age everyone should take contactless and card. They do but you have to spend £3. Bit of a 1st world problem but I think there should be no minimum. I can't think of somewhere...

Wonderful bakery which we visited yesterday. Good selection of sweet treats as well as some savoury options. I tried the chorizo cheese and ham bread thing (sorry I can’t remember the name) which was very tasty. The bread was very soft. I also had the cod fish cake which was also nice. Crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside. It was surprisingly tasty despite having it cold. The star of the show was the Pastel de nata which was amazing! Nice pastry on the outside and lovely custard on the inside. The lady that served us was also very friendly. I would love to come back to try something else next time because they have very...