One of the few Portuguese style restaurants open on the main Sagres strip on a Tuesday night, which Tuesday seems like most of the restaurants are closed in Sagres. Also restaurants open later like after 6PM.
We walked in and there was a whole German tourist group filling up two rows of tables, and that is probably why the glowing yelp reviews in German. I am assuming they were German, but could have also been from Austria or Switzerland. For some reason the waiter wanted to sit us right next to them.
We kept it simple and ordered a garlic crouton soup, sardines and seabass which are all cooked whole. The garlic crouton soup was very blah, like they filled a bowl with stale bread, chopped garlic, and cilantro, and poured hot water over it, then finished it with a big splash of olive oil. The sardines were some of the best I have had since coming to Portugal but the seabass, although cooked perfectly, was not seasoned. I never salt my food but had to sprinkle some on the fish after I removed the bones. Yes, served whole too. The potatoes were undercooked and we're also bland. Maybe they serve it that way since they are waiting for zee Germans?
Maybe we should have ordered the hot pots since it seemed like every table was sharing the 30 euro hot pots.
BTW, my last name is an anglicized German name and my Great Grandfather came from Germany so there is no German bashing here.
Service was mediocre but adequate, although one of the food runners did smile at us.
The best thing was the bread, olives, and sardine pate that we ordered. BTW you have to pay for your bread and butter at seemingly everywhere you go in Portugal.
So if you are in Sagres on a Tuesday night and want Portuguese food head down to the greasy spoons at the Square or forego Portuguese food and have Indian or Middle eastern. read more