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So I'm finally trying to catch up on the many review drafts I started and didn't finish, while on vacation a couple months ago, including quite a number that I had to add to Yelp myself. This one is particularly silly that it wasn't listed on Yelp, being literally in the Michelin guide (though it sounds like it is not, itself, Michelin *starred*, a completely arbitrary designation you shouldn't care about.) This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip - their 8 course meal, of which a couple courses were also in multiple parts, was an *absolute* steal (they also have an even cheaper 6 course, as well as an even more elaborate 12 course version, but I was glad we did the version we did. Unlike some high-end tasting menus, we absolutely left *quite* full.) I've been to a small handful of restaurants at this caliber, and this was definitely the best experience I've had, both food and service. It probably also didn't hurt that, being quite out of the way, and on a week day, we were literally the only customers until halfway in, when one other couple showed up. Each course showed up literally as soon as we were done with the previous, and they were happy, even excited to answer as many questions as we had about each of them. Which we absolutely did have a bunch of, every course being both elaborate, all intentionally hyper-local, and just... *extremely* cool. They absolutely deserve to be packed 24/7, but selfishly, I was glad they weren't. The specifics of the courses, it sounds like, change frequently, as it focuses on local, seasonal ingredients, but everything we tried was absolutely wonderful. Obviously yes, they were all plated extremely artistically and creatively, which is fun, but that doesn't matter nearly as much as how good the food was (extremely!) A particular standout, funny enough, was the second course, just labeled "bread", served with a small portion of the local stew, chanfana, for dipping, that we very much wished had been larger. It was very much not just "bread". I would personally recommend *not* paying for the 50 euro a person drinks supplement, though - I'm sure it would have been excellent as well, but there's absolutely no reason to, given, at least at the time, they had an astoundingly cheap 14 euro full bottle of locally-made cider, that lasted both of us through the entire meal, and paired brilliantly with everything. (I was sad, everywhere *else* we went in Portugal, cider meant Somersby, being only a small step up from Angry Orchard. This was the only restaurant we went that had a proper craft dry cider, brewed locally, and it was *phenomenal*.) That said, if you're a spirits nerd like I am, I *would* highly recommend paying the extra 25 euros for the "spirits supplement" - it was unclear from the menu, what that meant. What it means is: with the final dessert course, a small tasting pour each of 3 absolutely wonderful locally produced, super-extra-aged aguardientes. One of many of my favorite things about Portugal was definitely the prevalence of having an aged brandy as the final digestivo course, and how affordable they generally are, for how good they always are. This was obviously more expensive than typical, but that's because they were extremely small batch, with the youngest having been aged 20 years. They paired perfectly with the dessert, and were absolutely some of the best aged spirits I've had (and I've had a lot of expensive aged spirits). They also had a small list of surprisingly affordable local craft beers (which I didn't try, the cider having lasted us through all of the savory courses), and a small list of surprisingly affordable dessert wines (not just port! I did also pair one of the dessert courses with a late harvest semillon, which was also excellent.) I only had two minor complaints: first, that we learned when they brought out the final dessert course, that there were two versions of it, each of them being 3 small bites (so not very good for sharing), and they brought me one set and my wife the other set without asking us which we'd prefer? All of the other courses were two identical plates, this was the only one that they should really have asked us for our preference instead of choosing arbitrarily? Secondly, that while, for how relatively affordable everything else was, I wasn't complaining overmuch, we only learned when we settled the check at the end of the night, that the water we had been drinking was bottled, and they'd been charging us 3 euros silently every time a new bottle was opened in the back, so we ended up with an extra 12 euro total charge we weren't expecting. Again, not remotely the end of the world, just funny we ended up paying almost as much for water as for the cider (they should just have told us they were doing that.) read more
More info about Restaurante O Palco
Av. Dom Afonso Henriques 55
3000-011 Coimbra
Portugal
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938 451 205
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http://o-palco.pt
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