So this was the first meal I had when I arrived in Coimbra for an ill-fated short stop on our way from Porto to Lisbon a couple months ago... the whole trip was, in some ways, ill-fated, but in Coimbra, in particular, after coming here first and being extremely impressed, the other place nearby I'd intended to visit the next day for lunch was closed unexpectedly, and it was already late, so I had a choice - just go back here because it was good, or try a different, similar looking spot on a whim I hadn't vetted personally, but looked good too. I chose the latter, and I'm *pretty* sure that's how we ended up with food poisoning the next and final of only two full days in Coimbra, and missed the Roman ruins entirely. But even without that, the sandwiches here were also just way *better* than the other place I had the same style sandwich, not to mention wine the other place didn't, so I really wish I'd just gone here twice, I dunno what I was thinking!
While I was here, I had:
An excellent legume and meat soup. A whole bunch of it, delicious and filling, though I definitely could have used without there being a bunch of tiny bones in the meat to sift through.
A simple but extremely good pork sandwich. Rich, succulent, crispy pork, great fluffy bread, and that's basically it. (Also great, pretty spicy garlic hot sauce, if you like that sort of thing.)
Their chocolate mousse, because I couldn't resist. Great chocolate mousse, though it was... just mousse, and a *lot* of it. I didn't really need that much. It was very rich. Delicious, though. (Probably best shared with someone.)
A glass of the house wine - one thing I particularly loved in Portugal compared to the US, how much cheaper drink pairings were at restaurant, especially when it came to house wine. Pretty great wine, especially for how cheap it was.
A finishing digestivo from one of the several bottles of aguardiente they carry, which they also appeared to not have charged me for, intentionally. Another thing I love about Portugal - aguardiente *does* feel like it makes a good digestivo, much moreso in my opinion than any amaro. Not including the aguardiente, everything else, soup, sandwich, dessert and wine, came out to 16 euros. I should've just gone here twice in two days, lol.
It is clearly a very local spot - English was spoken, but... barely. Entirely enough to communicate, though. Only a handful of tables, but word clearly isn't out about Coimbra and how good some of the food is here yet, cause I was the only customer in the restaurant that afternoon, which is too bad for them, but was relaxing for me! To be fair, it was also the off-season and drizzling - I hope they get more customers in warmer months. read more