Porto Gomez

Always on the hunt to discover new cuisine, I was intrigued and excited to find out what Porto Gomez, a family run traditional Portuguese restaurant, in Mount Sorrel had to offer.  As it turns out, a rolla costa ride of an experience…..

The best way I can describe Porto Gomez is a restaurant of ‘extremes’.  The first ‘extreme’ is one of extreme confusion.  Trying to enter the restaurant is like a challenge out of the Krypton Factor.  On the front door there was a sign saying ‘restaurant this way’ with an arrow pointing to the left.  So, based on this instruction, and having looked through the window to see no sign of a restaurant, we wandered round to the side of the building.  Discovering there was only an alleyway and no door, we retraced our steps returned to the front of the building.  With no other option we tried our luck through the door (with the sign) and into what appeared to be a 1980s working men’s club. There were no tables or chairs, just a scruffy, bare room with a ‘roofed’ bar running alongside it, and a few empty bar stools.  There was however a barman, so with some trepidation, we made our way towards him to seek advice on the whereabouts of the Porto Gomez’s restaurant.  To my shock and surprise, in doing so, the dining room, slowly came into view.  Unfortunately, we had found the restaurant…it was at the back of ‘the working men’s club’!

When I eventually took my seat, I began to experience a few more extremes…..extreme cold and extreme pain!  The room was so bright and red it actually hurt my eyes.  It was as if I had looked directly into the sun!  I am sure it took at least 5 minutes for them to adjust enough for me to begin to read the menu.   

When I recovered from my temporary blindness, my surrounding eventually came into focus.  I rather wished they hadn’t.  The restaurant was an eclectic mix of all things old, cheap and tacky.  On the right hand wall hung a large oil painting in a dusty ornate gold frame, depicting England’s unspoilt countryside. This was randomly paired with photographs of modern cityscapes, images of (possibly) Mediterranean scenes and some strange nautical ornaments (anchors and the like.)  Oh, and interspersed between these carefully selected decorations, was the odd white blob of Pollyfiller.  The plastic flowers on the tables completed the look which was something similar to a tourist's gift shop in Benidorm.

Despite the restaurant being fairly busy, the somewhat dated interior, and the freezing temperature kind of killed the atmosphere and there was zero chance of any ambience being created. In an attempt to distract myself from the horrors of the room, I turned my attention to the menu.  Unbelievably, it looked promising.  In addition to Porto Gomes’ ‘famous Chicken Piri Piri,’ there was an inviting selection of beef, pork, lamb, seafood and vegetarian dishes available.  I was seeking as authentic a Portuguese eating experience as possible, so I selected the Risoes De Carne/Atun De Carne for my starter (£2.99) and Arroz De Marisco (£22.99 based on 2 people sharing) for my main.  Now, these may sound like exciting, exotic dishes; but believe me, they are not.  My starter translated as ‘Hand Made Meat with salad and dressing’.  I couldn’t help wonder how someone could ‘hand make’ meat? Having tried the starter, I am still no wiser.  God knows what was inside the 2 little deep fried half moon pastries on my plate - a lot of salt and mashed up unidentified…stuff!  Maybe it was meat, maybe not?   They looked and tasted a bit like a Findus Crispy Pancakes.  1970’s food to go with the 1970’s decor!  The Seafood rice dish was equally disappointing.  It was rather one dimensional, in short, a huge bowl of wet, fishy rice.

However, returning to the theme of extremes, my fellow diners experienced something altogether different.  The ‘Sardinha,’ (£4.99) consisted of 2 impressive, plump sardines, grilled to perfection and finished with lots of garlic.  They made an ideal starter.  The Portuguese Chicken "Piri- Piri" style, represented good value for money at £7.99 with 2 pieces of marinated Char Grilled chicken,  served with hand cut chips or rice and side salad. The best dish of all though, was Carne De Porca Alentejana (£10.99).  Chunks of seasoned Pork, with a generous portion of clams, all served with cubed roast potatoes and ‘chefs special’ sauce. Despite it sitting in about half an inch of oil, the dish looked and tasted fantastic!  It was brought to the table in a big rustic welcoming round terracotta dish, and it successfully captured all the rich, deep, smooth flavours of the Mediterranean.

By the time we got round to sampling the deserts we were back to ‘extremely’ bad again. The 3 choices were: homemade chocolate cake, caramel pudding and fruit of the forest cake (I think).  The chocolate cake was heavy and didn’t appear to be made with actual chocolate (anyone for Scottbloc)?   The caramel pudding was pretty bland, and the Forest Cake was straight out of a box, quite possibly Sara Lee’s?

 

So, all in all Porto Gomez was a fairly surreal experience.  To be fair to the restaurant, it did keep its promise of the ‘most authentic Portuguese dining experience possible.’  However, they fail to point out that this experience is based in the 1980’s or earlier!  Having been on a few family holidays around the Mediterranean, I have dined in very similar restaurants to this. The problem is, this particular family restaurant hasn’t travelled well!  In England, it looks dated, tacky and out of touch.  Even being chatted up by the friendly and flirtatious owner at the end of the night had something of the sitcom about it!  So, it is with a heavy heart, that I am unable to score the restaurant highly due to it being uncomfortable in every way possible and inconsistencies with the quality of food.  Therefore, Porto Gomez scores only 10.5/20.

 

Restaurant 1/5
Food 3/5
Service 3.5/5
Value for money 3/5

Total 10.5/20

 

1573 Bar and Grill

This month I’ve been out and about to see what ‘1573 Bar and Grill’ in Leicester city centre has to offer. Located in the grade II listed Old Grammar School at the Highcross, 1573 is a relatively new restaurant which specialises in steak and seafood.

 

Going out for dinner always fills me with delight, but as I walked towards the restaurant on this dark, autumn evening, I felt an extra little flutter of excitement stir inside me.   There is a lovely buzz around the Highcross where the restaurants cluster together. The twinkling silver lights that hang above the streets, and the decorated orange autumnal trees, look so pretty and add a little romance about the place.

 

1573 is situated in a opening at the end of one of the streets leading away from the centre.  Like the area, it too, has real charm and appeal.  The building is solid and handsome, but the warm glow from the windows also makes it soft and inviting.  This theme continues inside. 1573 has been sympathetically refurbished. It makes the most of its natural attributes combining the old with the new with some success. The exposed sandstone walls, and elegant glass stairway helps to create an authentic but contemporary dining space.

 

Staff welcomed us in as we came through the door, and we were shown to our table. Unfortunately, this was the table situated nearest to the door.  However, with no other tables available and the upstairs diners submerge in almost complete darkness from the extremely low level lighting, we stayed put and settled in. Several staff then came in quick succession to take our drinks order.  Just as we were about to place our food order, it became apparent that we had in fact been given the wrong menu.  This was hastily replaced, and we started the ordering process again.

 

After examining the menu, I found myself in familiar territory for a ‘fussy foodie’ trying to decide on what to have for my dinner.  Choosing was proving to be a tricky business.  I was in the mood for the Grilled Curry Marinated Scottish Salmon (£14.95) but I felt compelled to sample what I imaged to be their signature dish - the naturally raised, 21-28 day aged Scottish or Irish Beef Steak. Unable to make up my mind, I sought some advice from a waitress. Unfortunately, she was unable to assist because she “hadn’t tried the dish” herself.  Strange, but I persevered and asked instead for a description of what the dish looked like and what it comprised of. “Fish with a red sauce on it,” was the reply. It was not quite the answer I was looking for. No further forward, I played it safe and ordered the steak.

 

As it turns out, I may have been better off with the salmon. The steak was rather disappointing. The 8oz Ribeye (£14.95), described as ‘juicy, tender, with more marbling and intense flavour’ was not quite any of those things.  The beef itself didn’t really taste of anything except the ‘char’ from the char grill.  The mushroom was bland, the chips were average and the salad came ‘naked’ with no dressing. Flavour did find its way onto the plate in the form of a parmesan and herb crust served on the top of the grilled tomato. The tastiest part of the dish however, was the ‘surf’ on top of the ‘turf’.  The three skewered Cajun king prawns brought some much needed spice and flare to what had been a fairly ordinary steak and chips.  Oh, but this addition will cost you an extra £3.95.

 

The starters we had eaten earlier in the evening were a similar story...nice but fairly uneventful. I had ordered the King Prawns cooked in Garlic, White Wine and Parsley (£5.95). This comprised of four large juicy prawns, served on a slice of toast, with a garnish of salad. Tasty, but I think at nearly £6 they could have been more generous with the portion size.   As with the main, there was a high point to this dish...two of the cutest tomatoes I have ever seen!  Both were about the size of a garden pea….very sweet in every way, shape and form.

 

The desserts are priced at much more than I am willing to pay (£5.25) so our food journey at 1573 ended there.  All in all, it was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some highlights to each course, but also some low lights, (or no lights at all in the case of the diners seated upstairs!)  But what really disappointed, was the level of service we received. As well as the aforementioned mix up with the menus, and the staff’s lack of food knowledge, the drinks were slow to arrive and the waitress didn’t take our food order properly.  This meant that we ended up with two medium rare steaks, instead of one medium rare and one medium.  Additionally, no one person seemed to be responsible for our table all night. As a result we were inundated with staff at the start of the evening, but then completely forgotten about at the end. There was a delay clearing our table, and no one came to issue our bill or take payment.

 

So, despite the charms of the restaurant itself, the service was poor, the food average and so overall, it did not represent good value for money. I had had a steak at the Narborough Arms a few weeks before, which was a third of the price and equally as satisfying.  This was because it was the steak itself, not the accompaniments that was the star of the show. With a score of 13 out of 20, ‘1573 Bar and Grill’ is somewhere I may visit again (if a friend really wanted to go), but is not a restaurant I would either choose or recommend.

 

Restaurant                          4/5

Food                                      3/5
Service                                 3/5
Value for money              3/5
 
Total                                      13/20