The food here was ok, though it seemed generally overpriced for what it was.
Experience run down:
1- Called for reservation, showed up 5 mins early, no table ready, ouch.
2- 10 mins later get a table
3- Menus are of the cheapest quality stapled in corner with inconsistent translations for dishes (some are Portuguese/English, others English/French and other are just Portuguese). I can understand wanting to use the traditional names for dishes, but some kind of explanation or description for fine dining is usually a nice touch for those unfamiliar with the cuisine.
4- Menu consists of Tapas or little taster plates of various items all priced 7-10$ each. There are 10-12 sea items and about 8-10 land items. Most of these can be ordered as a main course (hence a slightly bigger portion) with accompaniments (most likely veggies of some kind). Additionally there are taster menus that feature chef's choice of sea and land tapas for 35-45$ with soup/salad. Finally a conventional Table D'Hote (soup, salad/snails, entree, dessert & coffee) for 25-30$
5- I had a selection of 3 land tapas (chorico sausage, Brazilian Feijoada, Filet Mignon with Blue Cheese & Port sauce) as I was not much of fan of the sea based offerings. My girlfriend after asking some questions about the catch of the day and other items in the table d'hote settled for the grilled chicken as it was nigh impossible to figure out what the waiter was saying when explaining the dish, if he was explaining it at all really. Waiter made questionable remarks about not understanding my pronunciation of Portuguese items regardless that when he said them they were nearly the same.
6- Water was the drink du jour, unfortunately it could not be replenished fast enough to wash away the saltiness of the foods to come.
7- Bread served was good, though a little dry around the crust. Typical of this kind of bread when it has been sliced ahead of time, due to its airiness, it tends to dry out quickly.
8- Soup was carrot, decent though nothing really crazy or outstandingly Portuguese about. The chorizo on my end was delicious, however for 7$ there was very little of it. only 3/8 of an actual 8" sausage.
9- After about 25 mins, part 2 our meal showed up. My GF decided to be adventurous and try snails instead of salad. Let's just say it didn't suit her tastes, mine either really there was a kind of fishy garlicky taste to it all that just was not apetizing. My feijoada, a mix of black beans, beef and pork (which parts? no one knows) was interesting but really more of a salt-assault.
10- Finally the 'main course' so to speak as I had my 3rd tapas, the filet mignon, supposedly cooked to medium rare, though one would argue that what was served was really on the medium to medium well side of things. The Blue Cheese and Port sauce was tasty but got tiresome after two bites as it was simply far too rich. My GF's grilled chicken had a tasty coating but when one dug deeper to get to the meat, it had an odd sponginess to it with a fishy understated taste. Romado's has got Portuguese chicken down pat for way cheaper, so there is no reason to look elsewhere really. Her accompaniment was a mash of several veggies swimming in oil, not very appealing presentation wise nor all that tasty, oil too overpowering.
11- Dessert was brief with 1 pasteis de natas (custard pie) oddly accentuated with chocolate sauce, why? It was flaky and moist, but for the menu price of 6$ you can get way better at any of the surrounding bakeries for way less.
12- The confusion then began here. We paid with a deal we found online at a Groupon type site (20$ for 50$ worth of food) and it took about 15 minutes for our waiter and various staff to figure out the bill with this type of transaction. Add to this that the tip and taxes were paid in cash and we still needed to wait 10 mins to get 5$ in change, ridiculous if you ask me.
13- Overall, the food was ok, overpriced with a lousy and overstressed wait staff. I will visit any of Montreal's finer Portuguese fair before coming back
** out of *****