Dinner Experience #2 in Lisbon

Tonight for dinner we went in search of one of Portugal’s main specialty dishes – cod fish.  The guys who work at the hostel recommended a restaurant nearby, although they didn’t know the name (it seems most businesses here are referred to by location and not names).  Luckily it wasn’t hard to find because it was right beside a “peep show” you couldn’t miss due to its blazing neon lights.

The moment we sat down the waiter brought over a basket of bread, a plate of cold squid, and a plate of fish croquettes.  This was our first restaurant dining experience here, so this was a bit new to us.  Thankfully, we had read to be careful about extra charges for anything on the table, such as bread, so we left everything untouched until the waiter came back to explain what each item costs.

The squid was 3.50 euros (we passed because neither of us is crazy about squid) and the fish croquettes were 0.75 euros each (we ate these and they turned out to be quite good).  I watched the waiter take the squid back to the counter and later re-serve that exact plate to a new table!  Not something they do in North America - we’ve decided we won’t be eating any more of these little dishes…

For the main course, Paul ordered the fried cod and I, the grilled.  These came out looking delightful, but after two bites we found ourselves overwhelmed by the saltiness and oiliness of both dishes.  Both styles of fish seemed to involve an immense amount of olive oil forming a pool on the bottom of the plate.  The fish itself was so salty it would make McDonald’s french fries seem completely bland.  The salad was served with what tasted like it was dressed in only olive oil and the potatoes had no taste.  Both of us could only eat half of our plates before feeling queasy.  We passed on dessert

The meal came out to a reasonable 19.60 euros so I must say food here is fairly cheap, but when Visa converted that to $34 CAD, all I can think of is how good of a meal I can get in Vancouver for that much! Hopefully this isn’t really the best food in Portugal?