If you think that a simple bitoque doesn’t have science, you’re dead wrong! There’s a lot of it. A true bitoque isn’t just a steak with a horse egg, fries and rice to go with it… the sauce and the quality of the ingredients all have to play a part, and in the new Bitoque à Portuguesa that we’ve just tasted at A Padaria Portuguesa, not all of these components fully satisfied us.
Bitoque à Portuguesa from A Padaria Portuguesa
Recently, A Padaria Portuguesa reinforced its lunch offer with the introduction of a national classic, Bitoque à Portuguesa, which they say is freshly prepared.
The well-known dish, much loved by the Portuguese at any time of the day, consists of rump steak, fried organic egg, fries and rice, and is available for €9.99, which includes a dish and a drink, offering all the chain’s customers a quick option on a daily basis, and is available from Monday to Friday, from 12 noon to 3pm, in all stores except A Padaria Portuguesa 24.
Until the end of October, as a launch campaign for this new product, A Padaria Portuguesa is offering a €5 discount on this menu, all you have to do is register on the website with your email address. You will then receive a code via email, which you must enter at the checkout to get the discount.
The Secret Lisbon experience
And that’s exactly what we did! We took advantage of the discount, very simply and quickly. Now let’s tell you how our tasting of this bitoque went.
As you’d expect from a place where food is always coming out onto the tables, and which doesn’t specialize in any particular dish, don’t expect to find here one of those bitoques that only tascas know how to make.
The Bitoque à Portuguesa from A Padaria Portuguesa, while not fitting into one of our future guides to the best bitoques in Lisbon, is a dish that fits very well into our list of restaurants in Lisbon with meals up to €10.
The Bitoque à Portuguesa from A Padaria Portuguesa has some interesting points, and others that we think could be improved a lot.
Let’s break this down into parts, starting with the best and ending with the worst:
- The meat is a rump steak that surprised us on the upside. For the price, we confess that we were expecting a “tough” steak, but we found a tender and flavorful meat, thanks to the garlic and bay leaf sauce that accompanied it;
- The rice reminded us of the rice served at the H3 restaurant chain, but although it wasn’t as aromatic as this one, it was still very satisfying and went very well with the garlic sauce;
- The fries are the so-called “plastic” fries, brittle sticks with no fun or flavor, but which even so “the city folk” have become accustomed to digesting as a lesser evil in restaurants with rainy day menus;
- The organic egg is simply a shame because, for me, it is one of the fundamental elements of this traditional Portuguese dish, where the white should be juicy and the yolk should “burst” over the steak, enveloping all the components of this dish; instead, we have an egg with no life or soul, which is only there to decorate.
All in all, I can’t say it was a bad experience. Obviously, we already knew more or less what we were in for and weren’t expecting much more than what was on offer, which, on the whole, wasn ‘t bad, thanks to the tender steak and the garlic sauce with bay leaves and pickles.
However, given the quality of the fries and the egg, which for us are two of the great stars of this famous dish, putting the price 1 or 2 euros lower would be a much better fit for our experience which, remember, until October 31, you can also do for just €4.99.
Even so, we think fried an egg seconds before the final plating would be the best option to keep this final price of €9.99. Because we’re more or less used to these fries, but with fried eggs like this, not so much!
Address: all A Padaria Portuguesa stores, except A Padaria Portuguesa 24
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, from 12 noon to 3 p.m.
Prices: €9.99 (dish + drink); €5 discount until October 31st (upon registration on the website)
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