We love coming here for some good comfort Portuguese food. The place is a little run down, it does…read moreneed a little upgrade but the food is phenomenal. Parking is also a struggle bc it's very limited at the parking lot across the street unless you're lucky and find something on the street. The waitresses are usually really sweet and they start remembering who you are and treat you like friends. It can get a bit loud if you choose to stay and eat in the bar are which is usually the more popular area for everyone to be in. But they do have the restaraunt side which is quieter and the tables can hold bigger parties. I will also say their bathrooms are very very tight, there's only 1 bathroom per gender and not always the cleanest.

Food was delicious, especially the octopus! Parking seemed difficult but when you look, there is a…read morelot across the street.

This place is awesome. Easily some of the best (if not THE best) seafood in the greater Danbury…read morearea. The menu is a tad pricey, but as I always say, you get what you pay for. This restaurant has become one of my fast favorites. The services is top notch. Karen, is far and away the best server we have had at any local restaurant. She's wildly knowledgeable about all items on the menu and is a top-notch mixologist. And while I never frequented this space prior to its renovation, I understand that the upgrade is a massive one. I can say that the dining room and bar area are clean, pleasant, and very well conceived. If you haven't been here, seriously, try this spot out. Neither me nor anyone in my family have been served an item we don't absolutely love.

*under new management* Updating my review as there has been…read moresome changes. The place got a makeover! Which is very nice but I wish it had more of theme. It's just generic decor. It's not bad, just not memorable. The menu changed a lot too. It's much smaller but the prices went up! So keep that in mind. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the new menu. I ordered one of the steaks and didn't realize it would come like pictured. It was tasty, but the menu lacks detail. I had a few questions about other items too. All the food we got was good! Anyways, I wish them luck! But just be aware there's a lot of changes if you haven't been in a while.

The food atmosphere People…read more Atmosphere The building is clean. Beautiful for Weddings and events

Last month, on a Saturday, my husband and I were craving Portuguese food. Our all-time favorite…read morePortuguese restaurant, which was located in Waterbury, is now permanently closed. We decided to drive to Danbury for dinner after reviewing the Portuguese Cultural Center's menu online. We arrived shortly after 7 pm and were the only ones there. A few more people arrived later on. The place is very big and has no ambiance or charm whatsoever. It lacked the warm hospitality and welcoming staff we've always found at other Portuguese restaurants we've visited over the years. The food was good. As soon as we sat down, we were given a bowl of marinated olives - they were delicious- and Portuguese bread. I ordered "Bife a Portuguesa". My husband ordered some kind of cod fish. We both liked the food. The flan I ordered for dessert was acceptable but the caramel sauce was unusually watery and it had an overwhelming cinnamon flavor. The service was adequate. The place was very clean and spacious. We will go back, not because we loved it but because we like Portuguese cuisine.

Aldeia is a one-of-a-kind experience. It's hidden inside the Portuguese Cultural Center, a building…read morethat seems equal parts municipal office and YMCA. As Dana mentioned, when you walk in the building, you will need to turn left and walk past the lively bar (where there will likely be a round football game on TV), before you arrive at Aldeia. Far more subdued than its neighbor on our weekend visit, with well spaced tables draped with white tablecloths, the overall effect is of eating at your avó's after Sunday mass, when important company has been invited over: homey, but special occasiony. Aldeia features simple, straightforward Portuguese standards. There are a lot of grilled options and seafood options, a whole section for bacalhau preparations. (Menu here: https://www.portugueseculturalcenter.org/restaurantmenu) For those who are unused to the practice in Portugal and many other parts of Europe, be aware that there is a couvert -- bread and olives brought out automatically at the start of the meal, for which there is an extra charge. You can refuse it as we did at first. (I hate when our littles fill up on bread and butter and eat nothing else during the meal.) But when the appetizers we ordered (e.g. chouriço) came without the described bread, we relented and asked for the couvert. I was mildly irked at being strong armed into oredering it at first, but those slightly spicy black olives were good enough that I couldn't stay mad for long. We shared a few appetizers: - Chouriço assado - chouriço flambe ("chouriço served on fire with bread") -- Flames are always a hit with the littles and they enjoyed the fat, snappy-skinned, smokey sausage, broiled to taste. The chouriço was chunkier than many commercial versions, conceivably house made. (We've had similar from Erika Nakamura and Jocelyn Guest.) - Frango à passarinho ("fried chicken") -- Undersalted by our standards, not noticeably seasoned, but the chicken was admirably moist, quickly fried at high heat. We are more accustomed to the Brazilian version of this dish and missed the accompaniment of lime and cilantro. - Caldo verde -- a version where a small amount of potato or other starch had been completely pureed into the soup with a small amount of kale and a few bits of chopped chouriço. This was a little too much like Knorr's for my tastes. I personally prefer versions where potato and kale have a less wimpy presence. - Salada de polvo ("octopus, onions, peppers and herbs") -- I am a sucker for this dish (no pun intended) and loved the roughly chopped versions I had at humble seaside cafes in the Azores especially. This version was a elevated version with finely minced onions and peppers, a good amount of olive oil, and delicate slivers of slippery-skinned polvo playing hide and seek in this suspension. - Robalo escalado (grelhado, alho e azeite, vegetais e batatas cozidas) -- The fish was on the smaller side, but fresh and impeccably grilled. Vegetables -- a few broccoli florets, batons of carrot, and potatoes -- were served boiled. It's not my favorite treatment, but they were made far more palatable with the dressing of minced garlic still pale from a quick sautee in oil. - Frango grelhado ("grilled chicken, rice and fries OR small salad and vegetables of the season") -- The Pardner's good angel didn't stand a chance against the prospect of rice AND fries, but sadly, when I tasted it, the rice was a bit hard and the fries soggy, undersalted, and -- oh cardinal sin! -- not served with ketchup. :) The chicken preparation again demonstrated some admirable culinary skills: it was wonderfully moist despite being sliced thin and grilled. But again, the preparation was underseasoned and undersalted for our personal tastes. Another note on authenticity: The service is very....... relaxed, as it is in the Azores and the homeland. We were the only diners in the establishment for some time, but there were long, long lags in service. I have to speculate that our server may have been working the bar room as well given how hard it was to flag him down. (He was quite nice whenever we succeeded in doing so.) It's a shame that I'm an impatient New Yorker. I try to relax into the wait, but I'm not sure I can entirely embrace that in this lifetime.

Food , the service and the friendly ambiance Clean, the food…read moreis tasty and cooked to perfection And everyone makes you feel that we are part of the family Thank you Aldeia

Really not clean , really loud. You have to shovel the snow out the ground after it falls. There's…read moreonly street parking and way too many cars on the road. I can't drive to get to school and work in the morning.

I haven't been so impressed by a restaurant for a long time! We went in on a whim looking for…read moreBrazilian/Portugese in Bridgeport and was immediately greeted by a friendly server. The a la carte menu is in Portugese and it looks like most patrons eating there do speak the language so it's probably authentic? The buffet had an assortment of delicacies and you can pick and choose whatever you want (priced per plate, not totally sure the full pricing structure but the small to go box was $10 and I think the medium was $14?), so we got to try some tasty pork bean stew with bacon & tripe, ribs, etc. Regret not trying the chicken dishes too as they look great. Staff was friendly, welcoming and very helpful when we asked what was in each dish. Would most definitely come back again!

Best food ever!!! Ambiance was so clean and the service its grate also... I really recommend this…read moreplace

So I read so many good reviews I decided to try the Avenue bar and Grill on Sunday. For an…read moreappetizer, we ordered the shrimp and garlic sauce it was delicious I could order that again. It took 40 minutes for our entrée. I ordered the Avenue style steak which came with a egg which was overcooked also came with shrimp that was dry and overcooked as well and the potato slices were not seasoned at all . My partner ordered the Picanha Grelhada the steak was very fatty hard to cut the rice and beans were good . We were not offered dessert or coffee just wasn't a very good experience. The atmosphere is old and dated also it was very dark in the bar area. We will try it again. Every cook has a bad day.

Favorite place to eat in all of CT. This is a casual Brazilian deli where you pick your own food…read morefrom a salad and hot bar and request meat from the meat carving station afterwards. This is an extremely popular blue collar spot in Danbury that became really special to me as a undergrad student and has remained an amazing place. The Pao de queijo is amazing with the right balance of chewiness with a nice crust on the outside. Picanha and beef ribs are also outstanding-- the ribs are incredibly rich, tender and flavorful. The beans are also seasoned to perfection. Hot bar is also really nice and overall you can make a really satisfying, personalized meal for yourself at a reasonable cost. I recommend coming before 9 PM because they start running out of stuff and hot bar looks rough at night. Also definitely give the complimentary spicy peppers in oil a try-- super spicy but delicious.

There is always a long line. But that's because they're that good. Is the line worth it. YES!!…read more The steak is great. We always take it home. My tip: order rare, so when it gets home it isn't overcooked. We have ordered delivery but the steak comes overcooked so it's better to actually go there. Also, when you order via door dash they don't give options for the pork and pineapple. If you haven't, give this place a try. Worth it.

Nice location and staff but spotty food…read more Came here on recommendation by a friend. Made the trek out to try some authentic Portuguese food. They were prepping for a big event when we came, so they were a bit distracted when we came in. They offered us seating at the patio or the bar and we opted for outside. Our server for the nice was very nice but clearly stretched thin. She tried to check in frequently but ended up only really dropping by a few times through the night. We get a gambit of items. The garlic steak bites, the mussels with chorizo, the picaha and get the saffron rice and salad as our sides. Food comes out quickly, along with some bread for the table. Very crunchy bread, butter was cold but easy enough to massage to make spreadable. The steak bites and mussels came out first. The mussels were cooked, but the dish was really lacking flavor. You got chicken stock, the smokiness of the chorizo, and the veggies. That's all the flavor you got though, no real seasoning and very basic flavors. It really needed salt. The steak bites were pretty good. Kind of a little open faced Philly cheesesteak crostini, but with untoasted bread. Flavors were solid but also lacking seasoning. Then we got our entree, and the thought was there but it was very much lacking. Meat was unseasoned, overcooked (probably because they threw a cooked steak onto a sizzle plate which took it right over the edge of done) but it did have a wonderful charcoal bitterness which was a welcome choice. Instead of asking for a new one (steak was tender, just well done) we asked for a sauce. They took 5 minutes to make a scratch sauce for us. A mushroom type gravy, which was the highlight of the meal. All the flavor that was missing from the other dishes brought to the forefront, with a strong emphasis on salt and acid to really pop the flavors of the meat. I really enjoyed the sauce. It showed that the kitchen can put out good food, it just was too focused on the event to put up a good showing. It was a shame, but it's good enough to try again some day. Pricing was reasonable for the quality, it's possible to get a good meal here, but your experience can vary.

This was our group's annual trip to celebrate end of school year and our favorite Portuguese…read morefriend's birthday. A few disappointments including no clams or calamari for seafood mix or clam and sausage appetizer. The two soups were the highlight as well as our beloved chorizo. The mussels were not as flavorful as I recall although portion was ample. Overall, a predictable meal with no culinary surprises. O