Posts Tagged ‘takeaway’
Restaurant Review – Pizzaria Atlantis, Cabanas
Pizzaria Atlantis was recommended to us by several friends as the next in our series of Portuguese restaurants to review. Situated on the riverfront in the pretty village of Cabanas, it has a large indoor area as well as a number of tables outside for lovely balmy Portuguese summer evenings.
We’ve tried a range of dishes and certainly haven’t been disappointed. The pizza is delicious and the thin crust makes a nice change from the deep-pan pizzas that seem to be ubiquitous in this area. There is a good range of choices on the menu and (purely in the spirit of undertaking a full review of course), we have worked our way through a fair number of them. Toppings are generous and I particularly liked the anchovy and capers combination.
The restaurant will also happily make up a pizza of your choice from their range of ingredients. When we asked for a chicken and pineapple pizza with chilli on, the result was a fabulously hot, spicy pizza, which was refreshing given the general aversion in Portugal to making really spicy dishes.
Good though the pizzas are, the real star of the show is Atlantis’ pastas. My personal favourite is the cheese ravioli, which is simple and delicious – very fresh and homemade tasting. The black spaghetti with seafood is also wonderful, full of flavour and packed with a generous helping of seafood.
The starters/sides that we have tried include a lovely, olive-topped bruschetta and a thin-crust garlic bread with rosemary. I’ve been racking my brains to find something to criticise about this place in order to give a balanced review, but the best I can come up with is that on occasion the garlic is unevenly distributed across the bread!
Despite it being relatively early in the summer for the tourist village of Cabanas, Pizzaria Atlantis is already packed most evenings, which is testament to the great food, friendly and efficient service and reasonable prices. Still, if you can’t get a seat the takeaway service is the perfect alternative.
The wine list offers a good selection. We tried a bottle of Mestro Franco red with our last pizza, which was the perfect accompaniment. There is also a varied selection of non-pizza and pasta dishes and, while we have yet to try everything on the menu, the salmon does deserve a mention.
Pizzaria Atlantis is an essential part of the local dining scene in Cabanas, offering fabulous food at affordable prices – very highly recommended.
Posted in Restaurants, snacks | 
Tags: pasta, pizza, Portuguese restaurants, red wine, takeaway | 
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Takeaway Review – O Tacho
When we lived in London, we could have pretty much any food we could imagine delivered to our door in under an hour. There wasn’t any certainty it would be any good, but it was an option. I would estimate we had at least 50 places which delivered to our door – Chinese, Indian, Italian, Turkish. Coming to think of it, by driving a couple of miles we could also have something approximating Portuguese if we went to Nandos!
You certainly don’t have that choice here in Portugal – we only have 1 Chinese and 2 Indian places that do takeaway here in Tavira. None of them deliver.
What we do have now though, is the wonderful thing that is the “Pronto a Comer” (ready-to-eat.) Here in Portugal they have takeaways serving fantastic local food, with a menu that changes daily.
Dinner from O Tacho
O Tacho is a very popular Pronto a Comer, which often has big queues at the weekend. It is open most days for lunch and dinner and has a changing list of specials as well as items available every day, a chiller of salads and desserts and a selection of drinks and cakes. It is amazing really, that with all the takeaway options we had back in England, no one thought to come up with this concept.
The food on offer is good, plentiful and cheap. Typically (for Portugal) excellent grilled chicken, served with rice and chips (half a chicken is under four euros,) bacalhau a bras (salt cod with potatoes, onions and scrambled eggs,) and grilled fish are just some of the things available daily. There are also turkey escalopes in a cream sauce with mushrooms, which we particularly like. When ordering from the specials menu, we have had everything from stuffed quail (delicious,) to a ribs and bean stew (tasted delicious, smelled…..unusual!) and chicken cooked in beer.
Good local food, a daily changing menu, published online for your convenience, generous portions, and ludicrously inexpensive, I am happy to swap this for the fifty menus I had in my kitchen in London!
O Tacho have a website at www.otacho.com
Posted in Restaurants | Tags: nandos, o tacho, piri-piri, pronto a comer, restaurant review, takeaway, takeaway review | 3 Comments »
