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2013-09-07
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After reading some good reviews online (and in search of a venue for a private dinner), I decided to check out Portofino tonight. Unfortunately, we had the great misfortune of going on a "Fado Night," which happens every 2 months. Basically, during this evening, guests are limited to a set dinner of $450 + 10% service charge each, and they get to enjoy live Fado music all night (singer + guitar player, singing Portugese music). The menu tonight roughly includes the below:StartersCod Fish CakesTu
Starters
Cod Fish Cakes
Tuna Patties
Cheese & Ham Patties
Patanisca Cod Fish Steak
Vegetable Patties
Grilled Smoked Red Wine Sausage
Grilled Alentejana Sausage
Grilled Paprika Chorizo Sausage
Grilled Smoked Pork Blood Sausage
Grilled York Sausage Extra
Grilled Short Thin Sausage
Grilled Traditional Smoked Lean Meat Sausage
Grilled Bacon Extra
Grilled Smoked Shoulder
Grilled Smoked Collar Sausage
Grilled Black Pudding
Main Course
Oven Roasted Pork Tenderloin
Creamy Cod Fish
Grilled Sardines
Oven Roasted Potatoes
Chorizo Rice
Mediterranean Salad
Dessert:
Serradura
Member’s: $450 (no service charge)
Non – Member’s: $450 (+ 10% service Charge)
We were not aware that a la carte was not available at reservation (come to think of it, they really should've told me at reservation. I would not have come otherwise!), but my friends and I thought, why not? It sounds like a lot of food, we will get to try a little bit of everything and enjoy live music. Worse decision of the night! It forced us to sit through a whole 2 hours before we could leave. It was so terrible, it drove me to sign up for an Openrice account just to review this. I'm not a foodie, but I still enjoy quality food!!
To begin with, while the menu sounds like a lot of food, it is actually just about 2 plates of appetizers, 3 dishes of main course and a dessert. So really a 6 course meal.
It started off with a plate of luke warm fried potato things which all tasted about the same (some more terrible than the others) - bland, soft and a little salty. I get that perhaps these are very traditional country Portugese dishes that may just not suit my palate, but for $450, I'd expect something a little bit fresher than some pre-cooked fried mashed potatoes, that's been under the heating lamp for too long. To give them credit, when the waiter noticed that I only took a bite of everything, he asked what was wrong. I pointed out that it was a bit luke warm, and he explained that food is traditionally served lukewarm in Portugal, but offered to heat up another dish of it for me. I honestly did not want to eat more of that, but he insisted, and let's just say that it did not taste remarkably better hot either. I get that maybe Portugese like lukewarm food, but you'd think they'd cater a little bit to local taste. I've had fried mash potatoes at Spanish restaurants in Hong Kong for example, and they are always freshly made, hot and tastes excellent! But anyway, I think this whole process extended the evening by another 15-20 minutes. The next dish was a cold platter of sausages, with some lukewarm french bread. After the fried stuff, the normality of this plate was somewhat of a relief, if a bit salty.
After another 10-20 minutes (I really don't know what is taking them so long to serve up these clearly pre-made, and reheated dishes), our main course appeared. It was a plate consisting of pork, some salad and some rice. It was edible, but pretty bland and average. For a moment, I felt like I was back in my college dining hall.
Then came the cod dish, which is kind of like a side of potatoes mixed in some salty cream sauce with some cod fish. A bit salty, but we thought it was probably the best dish we've had all night. It came hot! I think there was a mix up with the restaurant and they served this dish up twice... though it did come on a different shaped plate the second time, so perhaps it's something different that tastes the same?
The last main dish was the sardines. We couldn't help but laugh our heads off when we saw this, because it looks (and tasted) like something out of a can. What I imagine cat food to look like. At this point, we just wanted to finish the food and leave (it is sad that we had to pay $450 and have to choke down food we didn't enjoy).
But we had the dessert to contend with (by now, we've taken to walking out and asking them to serve the next dish, to speed up the process). It was basically cream mixed with some digestive cookie crumbs. It was not bad, but not quite something I'd pay to eat. After that we quickly forked out $500 each (ouch!), and made our exit feeling extremely ripped off. Over all food wise, it was terrible. It all felt very pre-cooked and rhamshody. There was no thought and passion put into the food at all. If we could've cancelled the rest of the meal after the first dish (as another reviewer did), we would've.
Service wise, they are ok, but not very well coordinated. The waiters sometimes ask us the same questions twice, we had to ask them twice for napkins, they're quite slow in between dishes, and they may or may not have served us the same dish twice. They were nice enough though, and they do try (heating up my dish and all).
Ambiance wise, it was not bad. The decor is simple and modern. I didn't check out the bathroom. The only thing was, whenever they started singing the Fado songs, they dimmed the lights really dark and its really loud. So it is really hard to chat with your friends, if that is your intention. In fact, I think there's a little card somewhere, which recommended you to be silent during the singing. But you'd think guests would have the option... definitely not what I had imagined.
It may just be my bad luck that I came on a Fado night and Fado is not my thing (to be fair, we were amazed to realize that the restaurant was surprisingly crowded), but we were so traumatized by the food that we will definitely not be back!!
題外話/補充資料：
Check to see if its Fado night, and avoid!
(以上食評乃用戶個人意見 , 並不代表OpenRice之觀點。)
張貼
