What a find. Located between Hither Green and Blackheath (so, strictly speaking in Lee I guess), is…read moreVilla Moura. I've always liked the look of the restaurant whenever I've ambled past, but I ventured there for the first time last night with a bunch of Hither Green-based mates (we have decided to start exploring local eateries once a month).
Well, the restaurant was packed, the service was cheery and cheeky and the food was blimmin' delicious.
The menus are immense leather-bound pages of proud splendour, with one of our group comparing them to Michael Aspel's 'This Is Your Life' books. Fish is what they do best, and my do they do it well. I had fisherman's soup to start - a broth packed with so much flavour along with juicy prawns, succulent squid and perfectly-prepared mussels.
For my main I chose the rather exquisitely-named Neptune Symphony fish platter. Oh my - the tastiest plate of seafood I have ever had the pleasure of eating, along with a creamy Dry Martini & Orange sauce. There was salmon, there was monkfish, and more prawns (soooo sweet) and mussels. TASTY.
I didn't have dessert (I went for Cointreau...yeah, it was a bit like that) but the spoonfuls of others' I managed to nab were divine.
OK, this restaurant isn't cheap, and along with the copious amounts of 'Green Wine' (a Portuguese favourite) we mananged to quaff, it came to just over £40 a head. I have begrudgingly withheld the extra star for this, plus the fact that our mains arrived about an hour after our starters. But, you know what, we spent a rollicking good few hours in there, it was packed, we were well looked after and I'd go back in an instant. And, if the cost is an issue, they do set menus as well.