Solar dos Presuntos serves high-end Portuguese cuisine, rich with fish & seafood but with meat too, in a family-style setting.
Located in Lisbon, we had our first dinner here during our trip to Portugal.
Typical with restaurants in Portugal, as soon as you are seated they bring out platters of bread, cheeses, meats, and olives. You pay for what you eat, but you can tell them immediately to take it away if you don't want any. Only one thing really caught Keith's eye, so we kept the
small special combo plate of pata negra ham, paio (traditional smoked pork sausage, similar to chorizo) and cheese. I was skeptical at first, but Keith took the first bite and he proclaimed how fresh it all was so I tasted some, too. The meat was like butter, and the cheese was nice and salty. All of this paired perfectly with the bottle of red we randomly picked. The
2015 Ribafreixo, Gáudio Reserva Red from Alentejo, Portugal had a strongly spicy character and smooth fruit tannins. We really liked it.
Additionally, we wanted to order the codfish fritters, but our mispronunciation made us mistakenly order the
fried vegetable of the day instead. We think it was green beans. They were just OK - with a very pancake-like thick batter.
For our main dish, we shared the
Cuttlefish Black Rice that came with scallops, prawns, mushrooms and mussels. It was a large portion that could have easily served four people, and had incredibly rich and layered seafood flavor from the ink. This hearty rice dish was comforting and also married nicely with our wine.
Lastly, for dessert we shared the house special called
Luisa's Dessert that was a combination of tiramisu and tres leches. The chocolate custard was a sweet finish to our salty meal.
All in all we had a great first dinner in Lisbon. The location was an easy walk from our hotel, and we were able to make reservations easily online. The place is quite popular with locals, and filled up quickly after 8pm.
Total Rating:
4
Food: 4, Price: 4, Service: 4, Ambience: 3.5, Accessibility: 5
