Sr. Fado de Alfama em Lisboa

Unser Hotel konnte uns glücklicherweise einen Tisch im Sr. Fado reservieren. Leider brachte uns unser Taxi zum Club do Fado - Sprachprobleme ... Zu Fuß waren wir rechtzeitig zum Beginn des Essens da. Die Vorspeise war gut. Neben leckerem Käse und luftgetrocknetem Schinken gab es leckere Oliven und zweierlei Humus. Der Zwischengang war fad und hätten wir nicht gebraucht. Das Huhn war trocken und die Nudeln in Sahnesoße einfach fad. Das geht besser. Der Hauptgang war Bacalhau, Muscheln und Gambas. Allesamt war frisch und lecker. Das Lokal ist nett eingrichtet, urig und die Bedienungen sind sehr freundlich und schnell. Der Fado war ausgezeichnet. Emotional. Insgesamt ein toller Abend.

There are many places in Lisbon to enjoy Fado, whilst we checked this restaurant out on TA we probably should have paid more attention to the comments about the food. We arrived just after the requested time of 7.30. The restaurant is small, only 30 covers, the staff incredibly friendly. We were shown to a lovely table with a great view of the 2 chairs to be used for Fado. At €58 euros per person, it is good value, 4 courses, water, half a litre of wine per person and a shot to finish. Whilst the value of food is generous, the quality really let the restaurant down. When we arrived there was a charcuterie board on each table: ham, olives, cheese, mixed pepper salad, bread and pate type spread, ample portion but a little dry as if it had been sitting around for a while. Our next course was a little odd and didn’t fit with the evening: a small bowl of chicken in a teriyaki style sauce and pasta topped with cheese. For our main we chose the seafood option (the alternative was pork with cockles, not to our taste), it was nicely presented with muscles, white fish (think it was skate as it was quite bony), cockles and whole large prawns, it had the potential to be delicious, however it was bland and very ordinary. Our dessert was a small slice of chocolate and coconut cake with 2 bowls of fruit in some sort of sauce, the cake was dry, the fruit a little odd. To finish a sweet tasting shot and then a final shot of what we could only describe as fire water. However the Fado was fabulous as was the interaction. The lady singer gave us a thorough overview of the history of Fado. Her singing was excellent and so engaging, you were captured with each and every word. The 2 musicians were outstanding and the voice of one of the gentleman was strong, powerful and even though we didn’t understand the words we fully felt engaged with the sentiment. It felt a very personal experience, after the main course, the curtains are drawn over the doors, the lights dimmed and then the magic starts. You could get better food elsewhere, however it would really take something special to provide better entertainment.