88 St. John Street, London, EC1M 4EH, 020 7253 6950, www.portalrestaurant.co.uk

I have to confess, I didn’t really know what Portuguese cuisine consisted of, bar sardines and bacalhau (salt cod). I thought maybe it might be a bit like Spanish, but then, isn’t that like saying Italian food is a bit like French? Sure, they share a border but so do many places with quite distinct cuisines. I do know that Portgal has always looked outwards rather than to its bigger neighbour. And it’s thanks to Vasco de Gama and his ilk that SE Asia and the Indian subcontinent have chilli, so it can’t be all bad.

Portal has had great word-of-mouth reviews and I suspected that the menu probably included bacalfau and sardines somewhere (gross stereotyping – moi?). (more…)