Mattie, Brad, Denise, Marg
start time: 1pm
end time: 4.30pm
From the street you wouldn’t know that the main seating area is in a XXXX with high ceilings. Bright, airy and spacious.
Eating:
All the courses were good to look at. The crab and the asparagus starters were too big, perhaps too pricey for what they were. The pasteis desert was disappointing and a teeth breaker. All else was all mighty fine.
Service:
Waiters attentive, but not in your face. No hurry to order, only gently pressed to leave. Wine glasses always topped up, and wine kept out the way on little table to the side. Some loved the waiter’s frank opinion (wrinkled nose, and frank dismissal of the mandarin icecream).
Wine:
All Portuguese, so we asked for ‘similar to’ sauvignon blanc and pinot noir, and the suggestions which were all a success.
Mattie
S: Grilled and marinated asparagus in symphony with warm tomato escabeche lamb’s lettuce
[Wanted the Game soup, but it wasn’t available (a fact that was a little late coming]
M: Braised Bisaro with a bean mash and Madeira sauce
The winning choice! A fatty meat, but oo tasy tender melt in your mouth with little sides of different coloured mashy and things
Brad
S: Foie gras with caramelized apple wrapping with harmony of two sauces
The winning choice. Lots of little flavours, succulent and yummy.
M: Grilled rib of beef in a terracotta pan with garlic olive oil, roasted new potatoes and spinach (shared with marg)
Denise
(joined later for shared desert)
Marg
S: Portuguese crab salad in cornucopia and ginger pesto
It was wearing a cone hat, and sweet gingery crabby coleslaw. Ok.
M: Grilled rib of beef in a terracotta pan with garlic olive oil, roasted new potatoes and spinach (shared with brad)
Served at table from the terracotta pot. Annoyingly they had to dish the lot up all at once. So overwhelming amount on the plate. More done that the medium rare requested, which made it a bit tough. Very tasty, simple sides, good call.
Desserts
Shared 3 :-
1 Pumpkin flan with goat’s cheese ice cream
waiter discouraged the choice, said it was wrong. Turned out to be a perfect combination, neither on it’s own would work. mattie liked it the best. Marg thought it was too heavy to have for one. For adventurous
2 Demi cuit of two chocolates with Mandarin ice cream
Waiter suggested we get a different ice cream. Denise said no, she liked orange. The mandarin ice cream was more like a little spoon of orange sorbet. It was a great combo. Denise and marg loved it. Glory
3 Pasteis de nata with creamy cappuccino
So wrong. The pasteis – two custard cream pastry efforts, with a pastry cup of frothy cappuccino cream (which Brad quite liked) was not worthy. The pastry cup so brittle it hurt the teeth. No.
And brad washed it all down with some desert wine.
Then 4.30pm we are asked to please move off the table… so we wend our way to Brick Lane for a mish mash of Chill, Vibe, Pool bars, oo, and ping pong in the tea room
Total bill 249.00
