Portuguese Cuisine in Taipa Village

One side of the wall of O Santos has a naval theme; the other is football!

For lunch yesterday in Macau, we wandered along Food Street in Taipa Village and saw a mob of people wandering around eating snack foods like egg tarts and pork chop buns.

To avoid the crowds, we soon found a Portuguese restaurant called O Santos Comida Portuguesa and walked in.

There were tables of Macanese tucking into their favourite dishes with red wine, some Portuguese tourists, and a few locals.

Delicious bacalhau that were a bit small, but very good

On one wall were decorations that had a naval theme, while the other was all football -- red towels with players' numbers and names, and giant red banners with "Portugal" on it. There was even a small picture of the owner, chef Santos with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger.

The menu is full of pictures to point to and we soon made our decision -- a garden salad, bacalhau or deep-fried codfish balls, and a curious dish -- clams in a lamb stew.

As we waited for the food to arrive, we munched on a small plate of olives, and then the salad arrived -- a basic one of chopped cabbage, slices of tomato and onion that we dressed with olive oil and vinegar.

Next came a small plate -- the same size as the one holding the olives, but this one had the three pieces of bacalhau. I didn't remember them being this small...

Our intriguing clam and lamb stew was the highlight

Nevertheless, they were delicious, hardly oily with a crunchy crust while inside the filling had a ratio of more codfish than potato. We could have each eaten at least two, but we weren't ravenously hungry.

Finally our intriguing dish of clams in a lamb stew arrived. There were chunks of braised lamb that had its pungent natural flavour, and the meat was very tender, falling off the bone. The clams, garnished with coriander and some minced garlic were fantastic, with hardly any sand in them.

We were soon using our bread to soak up the sauce inside the small ceramic pot. Oh and we also ordered a plate of fries too that were also good dipped in the sauce.

Including soft drinks and a coffee the bill came to under HK$400. Delish.

O Santos Comida Portuguesa
Rua do Cunhu, no. 20
Taipa, Macau