I am astonished that this restaurant has retained its Michelin 1 star rating. We had dined at Feitoria in Lisbon the night before, and that was a Michelin 1 star experience, absolutely.
There was nothing about Henrique Leis that even remotely resembled the quality of the experience we had the night before. This is truly a mediocre restaurant out in the country side that is frequented by tourists who probably don't have much experience with world-class dining. The woman who greeted us, possibly the chef's wife, seemed very scatter-brained and not very professional at all. The drinks expert, or as she called him "Sommelier", came over. I inquired about the "Dry Martini" ... and ordered a Hendrix gin, very dry and with a twist, as I am used to having them in the US. My daughter had a Mojito. The Martini wasn't dry at all, but the usual European version that has much too much Vermouth so that the Gin was completed obscured. The Mojito was overly sweet and lacked the fresh mint flavor my daughter enjoyed so much the night before when we had a drink at a simple bar in the center of Lisbon.
I should have realized at that point that this wasn't the place to carry on. But, we had already ordered at this point. The Amuse Bouche came to the table ... 4 items, a small, brightly red colored cone of something, a bright blue ball of something else, a reddish ball and one mostly brown. All overly processed food submitted to artificial coloring and all seemingly deep-fried to varying degree. Then, in the middle, a shot glass filled with some foam and creamy liquid that nearly lacked all flavor.
Next, the John Dory ceviche with Japanese dressing. It was split for us and an ample portion. I am not sure what the chef thought was Japanese about the way it was dressed and flavored, but I might be more familiar with Japanese cuisine that he is. Next we had the Burgundy snails and the shrimp with three raviolis, all of which tasted nearly the same so that I had to look at their interior to determine which has the truffle, shrimp or foie gras filling. The snails were small and rather insignificant but the Porcini chunks actually weren't bad.
I inquired with the server, somewhere from Eastern Europe and not at all prepared for questions about the food, where the chef got fresh Porcini this time of the year. He never returned with an answer.
As main courses, we next had the Algarve lobster and the pigeon. The lobster was a bit tough ... slightly over-cooked. The entire dish was also ruined by the inclusion of chopped capers and even one or two whole grape capers that were so acidic that they overwhelmed the lobster entirely. Why ruin a 40 Euro lobster tail with capers? I had the pigeon ... legs and breast. The two legs were partially wrapped in wonton wrapper and deep-fried, the two breast pieces were covered with something which essentially looked like a dollop of green puree the origin of which I could not identify. Also on the plate were two red dollops that vaguely reminded me of ketchup.
Now, the legs were okay, however, the breasts tasted so gamey and "ripe" that I wasn't able to eat them at all. They really tasted quite foul. Nothing at all compared to the tender, delicate Pigeon breasts that I had the night before at Feitoria which basically were half the size and melted in my mouth. I think this must have been some gamey bird much too old to be eaten or one that lay around in the chef's refrigerator for a few days too long.
While the setting on the outside patio was fairly nice, a German fellow two tables down ruined it all by smoking cigarillos all throughout the meal. Whenever he wasn't eating one of the courses, he puffed away and must have easily smoked three or four of them within the two hours we were there. Obviously, he didn't care at all about the taste of the food, else he wouldn't be smoking those between courses. He probably just dinned there to impress the much younger local woman who was his dinning companion. All fine for some tourist restaurant in a beach town ... but a Michelin 1 star restaurant that lets its patrons smoke cigars while dining and thus objecting all the other diners to the smoke? Even on an outside patio this is quite unacceptable for any fine dining establishment, especially if the slight breeze blows the smoke across the other diners' tables.
Obviously the chef and staff don't care about the quality of the experience they offer.
I truly can't imagine when this restaurant was last reviewed by any Michelin critic. I have enjoyed quite a few 1 and 2 star Michelin restaurants and have never come across a restaurant that just doesn't meet the level of excellence in any regard as this one does. read more
