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2013-09-05
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You take the escalator to the 8th floor of this chic building, feeling the coolness of metal all around you, but when you step out of the lift, you're taken to another place far removed from the hustling of the city. Flickering candles on candelabras casting moving shadows on the tiled walls, soft live music from the two guitarists, aged wooden furniture and wrought iron frames separating our little corner from the rest of the room, it felt.... almost like Portugal. It's a good effort on their b
The staff were courteous and helpful, offering "still, sparkling or regular water" and giving some recommendations on the dishes succinctly. The drink list had a good selection of wines and liquors, and I opted for a rose while my hubby went for a full-bodied red. Both went very well with the meal and were very reasonably priced. The warm bread rolls that came coddled by a napkin in the basket were a little bland and doughy, but the herbed butter, soft goat cheese and the pate helped add some flavour. Bread was refilled when asked, as we were salivating just mulling over the menu.
For starters we ordered the mackerel on toast, the piri piri beef stew and the chicken salad. The mackerel was just oily enough but wasn't too fishy, and the beef was reasonably tender (would have been perfect if slow-cooked for a touch longer), but the piri piri delivered a good kick of spice and we mopped up the lovely gravy with the bread. Alas, the chicken let us down, it was dry, cold and looked like it came from a supermarket chilled pack of "chicken breast slices". The dishes were presented one after the other at a leisurely pace which is always a sign of thoughtfulness from the kitchen staff.
The mains came all at once and the massive plates took up most of the table. We went for the suckling pig, which came in 5 large pieces, coupled with a small mound of chorizo rice and some crispy potato chips. Of all the suckling pigs I've tried in this town, these had the best crispy skin on them, and the tender juicy meat was on par with the rest, possibly even slightly ahead as the crispy skin contrasted well with the meat to make them taste more succulent. The fresh bacalhau itself was nicely executed, cooked just right and retaining all the moisture, however the uninspiring couple pieces of choi sum (really? not even some roasted vegetables for more coherence?) and the slightly lumpy and bland cream sauce didn't leave a great impression. The rice dish had a lot of shredded lean duck meat in it and we both loved that part of the dish, but perhaps it's because we were already stuffed by then, the rice seemed less appealing than it would have been otherwise. The rice was grilled to make the top crispy but that might have turned the dish slightly dry.
So we made our way through all 6 dishes and was feeling absurdly gluttonous, however nothing could come between my partner in crime and some chocolate cake. He asked for a scoop of icecream to with it and this was happily accommodated by the staff without batting an eyelid. The cake was almost black in colour, so dark was the chocolate, and the texture was a little dense, but to me it just looked and tasted like any other chocolate cake. This was marketed as a "traditional Portuguese" chocolate cake, so the anticipation of being educated on a national dish yielded no new discovery. Overall we were happy and satisfied customers and would recommend this again to friends looking for something slightly different to the usual Western restaurants in town, and they even have a promotion whereby if you upload your food photos to Facebook and like their homepage, they'll give you a $100 voucher to use during your next visit.
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