Portugalos opens a second location

• Name + address: Portugalos, 2A-110 Bearbrook Rd.

• Diet: Meat, Seafood

• Appetizers: $9-$24.50

• Mains: $15.50-$60

• Wheelchair accessibility:Yes

• Website: www.portugalosrestaurant.ca

After arriving back in Ottawa, Portugalos was the first Portuguese restaurant I’d visited. It was on the Gatineau side and after a few successful visits, I made it a regular destination for lunch.

This went on for a year and then something changed. The food was just not as fresh or well prepared and I later learned that there’d been a change in the kitchen staff.  I continued to support the business but gave up after a while when the improvements didn’t come.

In November of 2024 Portugalos opened a second location in Blackburn Hamlet. It occupies the space that once was home to another Portuguese eatery, Olito’s Café which was in reality more of an old-world sports bar.

I was looking forward to a few classics of the Portuguese kitchen and imagined an elevated experience over my last visits to their Gatineau restaurant.

On this cold day I began with a caldo verde, a potato-based soup made with either kale or collard greens and filled with slices of Portuguese chourico and drizzled with olive oil. For all its simplicity, the soup is filling and a surprising flavour force. The kitchen at Portugalos was off to a strong start.

After rissóis de camarão, the other best known appetizer snack is known as pastéis de bacalhau. These are salt cod fritters made with potato mash, onions and parsley and have a shape like tiny footballs.

They are often made by food service companies but the Portugalos interpretation was made in-house as evidenced by the number of fish bones. They were hot, fluffy and delicious but caution is advised.

Having such success with the grilled calamari at Caravela, I wanted to know how they’d season theirs at Portugalos. 

The presentation was the same, but that’s where the similarities ended. The squid had been delivered tough with one end tasting in my opinion of freezer burn and I wondered if the thing hadn’t been cooked from a partially frozen state. 

While I found the calamari inedible, the bean salad on which it rested was a highlight of the meal. It was fresh with sweet beans nicely cooked and plenty of bright flavours courtesy of the onions, dressing and tomatoes. It’s not on the menu as a separate item but ask if they’ll sell you a side. 

I also ordered the piri piri chicken (picture not available) and it was a reasonable $20 for a half bird. It came with a side of very standard fries that became increasingly dry as they cooled and a decent enough side salad.

The chicken was properly cooked, hot and moist enough although there was a very familiar, almost commercial, taste to the meat. The kind of flavours I’ve experienced from grocery rotisserie chicken and I just didn’t feel that their supplier was delivering the best quality.

Their house-made piri piri sauce however did save the day with its slow-burn heat and evolving flavours and the good news is they will sell you a bottle to take home.

Perhaps it’s early days but Portugalos is a mixed bag and perhaps another trip across the river is warranted to revisit their original location to see how that kitchen fares.