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| - Well this was unexpected!
After passing by Cafe Zinho for years and years I finally hopped into a hidden Portuguese oasis. Who knew the little hole in the wall near my old hair salon had such good food?! My friends and I had known long about it, but last night we were in need of a BYOB ($5 corkage) and found much more than that.
We started with two appetizers. (A very good tip from a fellow yelper!) One friend is majorly allergic to gluten and our fabulous waiter MORE than accommodated her questions and requests with patience. We all shared some kind of rice stuffed pepper that was moist and exploding with flavor, I forget the name...but definitely a must-have. We also were excited to try the pan-sauteed (not fried) calamari. I'm not a huge fried calamari fan, but this was swimming in olive oil and fresh herbs...it was a lovely delight away from a typically americanized version.
We also ordered the tomato bisque and the soup of the day. These were insane! The best soups I've ever had out. The soup of the day was a roasted creamy mushroom soup and I almost licked my bowl clean. The flavors were outstanding and we all couldn't decide which soup was better. Make sure to definitely soak everything up with their delicious table bread that seemed to have just come out of the oven every time they replenished our basket!
Something worth passing is yes, the salads...they're just okay. But my friends raved about their pork and I will not forget the visual of my friend picking up the bone to lick it clean while our waiter just laughed at us! :)
Best part of the story? Well, the food takes a lonnggg time to come out, (warning, but probably because it is so fresh!) after finishing our bottle, our neighboring diners also took advantage of the BYOB but seemed to have left half of theirs when they were done! So after a silly little dare, we became the table of three that snuck 3 large pours of wine and placed it back on their table! Hey! Who was going to drink it anyways?! The little portuguese owner came over and was sincerely shocked at how the wine bottle was empty...she asked, "Did you three drink this?" We giggled and my friend's boyfriend said, "YES." She smiled, and let us have our moment.
We left a big tip. She obviously didn't mind. And it's places like this that make me miss home!
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