Portugalia Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in Newark

A buddy of mine frequents Ironbound often so I asked for his advice on a nice place that serves great seafood, but not as formal as Forno’s, so he recommended Portugalia. We had a knockout dinner in the dining section, which is right next door to the bar. It’s a smaller space, they have a TV on the wall and of course, soccer was on. It was an early Saturday dinner for us and the weather was gorgeous for mid-October. We didn’t make reservations- just walked in and were seated. Everyone in this restaurant seems Portuguese, patrons and waitstaff, and although this may not be the case - it is an authentic experience. Knowing a few dishes beforehand will help to navigate the menu. We went with the following: for apps, the cottage cheese (fresh and creamy), garlic shrimp (famtastic) and chorizo (flame grilled table side, robust and smoky sausage goodness). My wife is a super finicky eater and I tried to convince her to get a Cod dish but she was boring and got a filet mignon. I was disappointed because you come here for the fish, it I didn’t say anything. It wasn’t t a petit filet either, she had plenty to bring home. Also ask for the red chilled house wine, it’s nice and smooth. Now for my dish: I got a grilled seafood casserole in sauce. It was $90 and could have fed 4 people easily. Why did I order so much food? Because this is one of my absolute favorite dishes. It’s like a bouillabaisse or a chopping. It had clams mussels scallops prawns shrimp and fish - everything was fresh, perfectly prepared.and not overcooked. It came with plenty of rice on the side. I brought 80% of it back home with me and will have some more of it again, tonight. It’s so good. We didn’t stay for desserts and espresso and aperitifs because our stay was getting long as it was and our waiter kind of disappeared after they wrapped all our food, so I was getting impatient. The atmosphere is a little lacking in the dining room, you might have more fun in the bar side, where you can also dine. But definitely, without a doubt, these guys take...

Food here is always great. I've came here twice in the past couple months for lunch but have came many other times in the past. I had the squid lunch special one day and a fish dish another. The squid was great. Came properly seasoned with chunks of garlic and olive oil with potatoes that tasted excellent as well. The fish dish I had another time was good and had great flavor. I sat at the bar and both times it took about 5 minutes before I received service. One worker was talking to other customers about soccer and never came over. I had to flag down the other server that was at the end of the bar. Both times I didn't get bread until my food came out and I never got olives. (They're supposed to give you bread and olives before you get the menu.) Seems like mostly locals at the bar and they get the best service. I had an expresso and it was 👌. The dessert was also excellent, well presented, and tasted as good as it looked. Food is pretty expensive for lunch but you get decent sizes and it's always good. I wish service was better. The older Portuguese gentleman was the best server out of every visit. The younger girl behind bar walks around with an attitude. She walked by me twice without asking if I needed any help when clearly I had just gotten there since I had no drink or anything in front of me. (The mid aged server also had seen me walk in and sit at the bar and was the one having conversations with customers. He continued to converse while I sat over 5 minutes without help. Yes, I'll come back but I hope to receive better service and bread and olives before the meal like it's supposed to be...

I went to this restaurant with 4 coworkers and we sat at the Bar and ordered food. I immediately noticed a difference in the way my coworkers were greeted versus how I was not greeted at all. The waiter took their drink orders but completely ignored me, so much so that another waiter ended up taking my drink order as well as my food order. I was sitting in between my coworkers so he took orders all around me but choose to skip me. My food was decent, not good enough for me to endure the clearly racist waiter again. When I was attempting to pay for my meal I held up my payment method so he would know I’d be next to pay and again I was skipped, another waiter had to take my payment method. I was the lone black person in the entire restaurant and unfortunately I did not feel welcome so I will NEVER return to that restaurant again and I will tell anyone who’ll listen about my...