Restaurants / Reviews
The Portuguese Tavern – restaurant review
Prosciutto is ready to carve on the counter at The Portuguese Tavern. It smells good.
Immediately helpful, staff are warm and friendly. The traditional matching brown crockery with this new restaurant’s name written on are neatly laid on green, red and orange placemats. It all comes from Portugal, as do all the ingredients.
The menu has a range of Portuguese and also Spanish dishes to choose from, including Piri Piri chicken, pork loins and salted cod. Generous portions of main dishes cost between £12 to £15, with sides of potatoes or chips being an extra £3.50. They cater for vegetarians, though options are very limited.
Today’s special is salted cod cakes with rice and beans, one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes. Displayed in the shape of a flower, the cod cakes are delicious. The juices the rice stews in makes it wonderfully moist, countering the saltiness. The salt is a big part of the meal though, as the fish is preserved in it, just as it typically is in Portugal.
The amount of oil, salt and spice used can be a bit much for some. Owner Bruno Mendes explains he found it strange when he moved to the UK nine years ago and first tried Yorkshire Puddings and fish and chips. It will take a while for people to learn to like the Portuguese palette, he says, “but I’m trying”.
The Compal mango juice is a sweet accompaniment to the salty dish, though the carton counters the idea – repeated to me several times – that everything here is made fresh.
With all of their ingredients and traditional crockery coming from Portugal, and Bruno’s clear passion for sharing the food of his home, there is a strong feeling of authenticity.
Bruno says he wants the restaurant to be 100 per cent authentic yet there’s a TV on in the corner of the restaurant that he changes from a Portuguese news station to British pop music when I walk in. When I ask him about it, he says he always changes it depending on where the customer is from. He wouldn’t want them to feel uncomfortable.
This authenticity does come at a price. Though the distance means that some ingredients haven’t arrived yet, and the famous Portuguese custard tarts have not yet been made. Instead for pudding, it is suggested that I try the rice pudding. When I say I’m not a fan of English rice pudding, he says this is different. I can try it and if I don’t like it, I can have my money back. I try it. It’s very sweet, and different to the English version, but I still don’t like the rough texture.
Bruno generously offers me another dessert from the fridge. From the cookie cake, Molotov, and mousses, I go for a caramel mousse. Made from egg whites and condensed milk, you need to mix it up before you eat, like a Nesquik milkshake. Though it has no sugar in it, it’s incredibly sweet, almost sickly so. A spoonful is enough, a small bowlful too much.
Regardless of taste, the recently opened restaurant is not without its teething problems. It only takes cash, with the closest cash machine charging £1.85 for withdrawal. However the plan for the near future is to install a card machine.
They have only been here a few weeks so are still finding their feet- and finding out about the limits of the English palette. The rich flavours may be too much for some. But, as Bruno says: “If every kitchen was the same: here, Spain, and in Portugal, then there would be no point.”
The Portuguese Tavern, 90 West Street, Old Market, Bristol, BS2 0BW
0117 401 7292
Read more: Barrika – bar review