We thought we wouldn't need a reservation if we showed up in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, and we were right, but only barely. Our waiter looked inquiringly at us as he seated us in the last available two-seater, and informed us that they served baby pig. He had a bit of an air of thinking we were going to run screaming, but as that was exactly why we had driven up from Coimbra, we simply nodded and specified we wanted a portion for one (by then, we had learned that portions for two are enough to feed four).
Either 'one' got lost in translation or single portions of baby pig are simply not available, but the platter that came out totally dwarved our expectations. It was just a mountain of crackly skin and roasted meat, and this peppery sauce in a full teapot, and a plate of fries and a salad. The table next to ours got theirs at the same time, but finished it while we were still goggling and fumbling with our cameras.
So, my previous experience with crackly skin roasted pork is all Cantonese, and I have to admit I think Cantonese style is generally better (better than this particular restaurant - can't make a judgment call on all Portuguese style roast pork). This version was a little too chewy for me. However, the flavor of the pork was incredible: really gamy, almost like wild boar. The skin was thick enough to crunch like a ten-layer skin of creme brulee.
Honestly, my favorite thing about the experience was dipping their perfect fries in the black pepper pork sauce, which we definitely were not supposed to be doing because we got a LOOK from the waiter. Almost never did any Portuguese waitstaff care one bit about the cultural norms we were unintentionally breaking, but dipping our fries in the pork sauce did it. read more