Author: burssupuddplop1979

This small restaurant seems to be very popular with the locals, and we decided to try to a different Portuguese restaurant in Hamilton than our favourite. This was possibly the slowest kitchen and the most inattentive service we've encountered in a very long time. We...were seated fairly promptly, and after 20 minutes our order was taken. We then waited about 30 minutes for some bread and olives to be delivered. 50 minutes after our order was taken, I caught the waiter's eye, and he assured me the meal would be coming very soon. He then brought our salad (but no bowls or plates) and the calamari we ordered as an appetizer. That was actually quite good, but the calamari was on the chewy side. Despite the assurance our meals were coming soon, we waited another 35 minutes before those arrived (it was in total one hour and 55 minutes from the time we came into the restaurant to the time our entrees were served). To say the entrees were awful would be too kind. I ordered fried bacalhau (salt cod) a big favourite of mine from when we were in Portugal. However, this was by far the saltiest meal I've ever eaten. I doubt they could have soaked that cod in more than one change of water... unbearable (as in 2-3 large bags of chips salty). I expect that bacalhau will be slightly salty, I ate a lot of it in Portugal and it's totally charming, but this was atrocious. My son had the special of the day, Pork Chops, and these looked and cut like they'd been put in the oven many hours before. It was a real effort to cut and chew these. He was too kind to complain, but I could see he was disappointed. My wife had fried sole, which we were assured were just dipped in a beaten egg and dredged in flour. How they came out a uniform fairly dark grey rather than golden, I can't imagine. My wife peeled off the coating and ate some of the fish. We all rapidly lost our appetites. To be as fair as possible, about the only things that weren't awful were the salad (uninspired white vinegar dressing with little oil, large pieces of lettuce the size of half an envelope), the calamari and the potatoes (like thick potato chips) were actually quite nice. I suspect the chef has long ago lost any interest in cooking, as the quality of the offerings we tried were not just inedible, they were seriously unappetizing to look at. To be fair, perhaps the other patrons were enjoying what they were having, but after eating some of that salty bacalhau, my blood pressure went up so high I could hear a fizzing/pounding sound in my ears (and I don't have a blood pressure problem). It was ridiculously expensive for that kind of quality ($90 after taxes and tip, one of us had one beer ro alcohol cost was not a factor). By the time we got our food, the restaurant was within 20 minutes of closing for the evening, so there would be no value in sending the food back, they didn't have another almost 2 hours, but sorry, this place won't get another dime out of me, ever.