This little place is tucked away on a narrow side street and is frequented by a mixture of locals and tourists (the menu was available in a wide variety of languages). It has three interconnected rooms and at 7.45 on a Saturday night we were lucky to grab the last available table on what was a very busy night for the staff at O Forninho Saloio
The decor is very traditional with blue and white tiled walls, heavy wooden tables and paper tablecloths. Friendly waiters soon had us seated with menus, a dish of nice olives, crusty brown bread rolls and a plate of cheese to nibble on while we decided what to have for our supper.
To drink we had a bottle of the house white from the Alentejo region while our dining companions went for a bottle of the tinto Borba from the same area. Both wines were drinking very well and came at very reasonable price, we also tried a small jug of the very cheap "cooking" white (order a 1/2 or a full jarro) which was a fine choice if you are looking to eat out on a tight budget.
Our main courses however, were much less successful than our wine selections. The salt cod casserole was pretty disappointing; a big slab of fish it ranged from over salted at one end to dry and tough at the other. The accompanying fried potatoes were a bit soggy and did not benefit from standing in the pool of oil which sat at the bottom of the casserole dish. B had the monkfish skewer which was a mixture of squid, prawn, peppers and monkfish; sounds great but the execution was a real let down as it had been badly over cooked with the result that it was all quite tough and had lost most of the delicate flavours. Our pal John made the most successful choice with the sea bass which came with some nice baby roast potatoes and a salad; he declared it to be pretty tasty and he was the only one of the four of us to clear his plate.
We skipped the desert selection which looked to be a pretty standard selection of ice cream, some cake choices and little glass dishes of chocolate mousse.
A quick cafe pingado for me and we got the bill which came to a very reasonable 60 euros for the four of us, with plenty of wine having been consumed. However, despite the cheap prices and the jolly local atmosphere this is not somewhere I would recommend as the cooking was so poor. For a slightly higher price I would wander five minutes down the road on the way to the old town and have your supper at Ze Varunca which is serving up some top notch local food. read more