Tricky. Tricky for a number of reasons. Wel,, two reasons. Firstly, because I was watching Portugal's opening game of Euro 2008 with some Portuguese friends, and secondly because I chose the wrong damn thing from the menu.
Stockwell's a pretty Portuguese sort of place anyway, and on this particular evening the Grelha d'Ouro (Golden Grill, I know, cheesy huh) was packed to the gills with chirpy chatty people. Men who look a bit like Cristiano Ronaldo. Men who look nothing like him, but have opted for his stupid haircut anyway. And plenty of lovely ladies. It seemed very friendly, but I suspect that was something to do with all my co-diners being Portuguese, and doing all the mundane talking / ordering / inquiring stuff for me.
So why on earth did I choose the Bacalhau, which I know to be rather heavy and extremely fishy? I could have had what looked like a tasty beef / pork escalope affair with crispy sauteed potatoes and I would have been perfectly happy. But noooo I chose a hash of salted cod and potato which is great for the first few bites, then gets very heavy and gradually impossible tozzzzz.
Poor decisions aside, it was a fun evening. The place is ultra-simple, but that's no bad thing at all. And the starters were great: nice fresh calamares and grilled king prawns are hard to make a mess of, but these were excellent examples of the genre.
So nice place. It's a long way from me, and I wouldn't normally cross the river to go there, but if I was in the area I'd stand a return visit. read more