3 /5 Allison Brown: I have been visiting La Casita for a number of years & have never been disappointed ; tonight (11/04) was the exception. The starters of cheese fries & chilli jam, calamari & garlic prawns were a mixed level of tastiness - the best were the prawns (lots of garlic butter which was great), the worst were the calamari (these were inedible & returned). The waiter did apologise & removed this item from the bill. We did order some pão caseiro bread (traditional Portuguese bread) after the starters were served - this was definitely NOT pão caseiro - very disappointing. The mains consisted of mixed fish skewer (espetada), baked salted cod (bacalhau ) & sirloin steak - all 3 were below par. The steak was NOT sirloin, it was a largish flat piece of beef with a fair amount of “flobby” fat smothered with peppercorn sauce. Half of the steak was edible & the fries & side salad were good. The bacalhau was overcooked, way too firm not soft & silky & dry to taste ; the accompanying vegetables were good. The worse was the espetada ; the tuna was hard & grey in colour, the calamari was the same as the starter, difficult to cut & “rubbery”, the prawns were near on impossible to peel as they were stuck to the shell, the salmon was hard & dry. Along with the vegetables, the whole skewer was burnt / extremely charred. Around 75% of the food was left on our plates. The waiter did ask if everything was ok when clearing our table, we did respond giving an overall opinion that everything was overcooked. Not too much conversation between us, he acknowledged & left. The bill didn’t reflect any other discount apart from the calamari starter.
Maybe an “off” night for the Chef but @ our detriment & £££ ; not good. No one goes out to have a bad / unsatisfactory meal but this was probably one of the worst meals we’ve had in a long time. NB the photo’s can & are deceiving - the food looks good but tasted the complete opposite.
