The square immediately in front of the Palace of Sintra has quite a few easily accessible restaurants. If you do not feel up to exercising your Portuguese, most of the restaurants have menus, with pictures, at the host/hostess station. Though, I did find enough English on several menus I skimmed to piece together what was included in each dish. Surprisingly, there were a lot of crepes and Italian dishes being advertised.
I found myself and a few others from the group wandering up the inclined streets, in search of a more regional, authentic lunch stop. I passed by several outdoor cafes and cozy looking bed and breakfasts on my way up. After a bit of aimless wandering, I ended up in front of a stone, cottage-like restaurant with a pebbled terrace and overgrown vines along the walls.
Inside, the homey, cottage feel continued. The cups and plates appeared to follow a similar theme; they were all mismatched. Porcelain dishes, heavy clay plates and mugs, painted garden flowers, and ocean blues with raised patterns. Even the utensils looked like a college student’s collection of orphaned forks, spoons, and knives. The seats were all sunken in the middle, like the springs had given out; I sat down in a chair and had the immediate impression that I was falling through to the floor. I thought I had picked a bad chair until I tested a few around me and realized all the chairs had a sunken feeling to them.
The place mats had amusing food related sayings, in English and Portuguese:
“A cada boca uma sopa” (To each mouth a soup)
“The neighbours chicken is always better than mine”
“e manha de Portugal: comer bem, beber bem, e dizer mal”
TIP: In most restaurants, you can pick your table if it is not too busy. So go ahead, get that table by the window!
Instead of telling the waiter my order, I was presented with a slip of paper with the lunch offerings, and a jar of pencils at the center of the table. The table collectively checked off the items we wanted and presented our handiwork to the waiter. At the time, it seemed organized enough, but this is where our later problem originated. I was with a small group, and what we thought we had ordered was a garlic prawns starter and varied sandwiches.
TIP: The wait staff will come by and place bread, olives, etc on the table when you sit down. These are NOT complimentary, and you will be charged for what you eat. But, if you do not want them, just leave them on the table or let your waiter know.
TIP: Water is likely to be bottled, not tap, and consequently an extra charge. This is a pretty common practice in Europe.
About 20 minutes after we ordered, the prawns came out. Checking our watches, we figured the sandwiches would be out shortly, giving us enough time to congregate back at the bus at our specified time. Unfortunately, that was not to be. Another 10 minutes went by.. The group started to get anxious, as if we could all hear the tick, tick, tick, tick of our tour clock. And our waiter was no where to be found. After another 10 minutes, we abandoned the idea of eating the sandwiches at the table and settled on getting them wrapped up for our flight back down the cobbled streets.
I found myself calculating how fast we could pay the check, collect our things, run down the cobbled, serpentine streets, and still make it to the bus; I did a few more mental calculations, adjusting for, and without, pedestrian traffic blocking our path, before our waiter reappeared.
“Could we get our sandwiches to go?” we asked. He stared blankly back at us. So we tried again, “the sandwiches we ordered, could we get them to go? We have a bus to catch.” He frowns at us, and then sighs in frustration, “Wait, you ordered sandwiches?” He pulls out the slip of paper with our orders, “Ah..”
After profuse apologies about the misunderstanding, we paid for the starter and dashed down the steep, cobbled streets.
In a last ditch attempt to find something to eat, I ducked into a bakery with sandwiches in the window front, along the route back to the bus. As calmly as I could, I ordered a couple of sandwiches; and with a wink from the shopkeeper, I was off again. I wondered if this happens often, he seemed rather amused.
A few moments later, I was on the bus with five minutes to spare, victory!
TIP: One recommendation from a fellow traveler I found to be very handy: ask for your check when you place your order if you are on a tight schedule. Unlike in the US, the waitstaff is not trying to hurry you out so they can turn over the table. They will leave you in peace, and sometimes disappear for long stretches.