Alma Frankfurt - Frankfurt am Main

I went based on a recommendation from a colleague who had been to Portugal many times. It was also listed as the top place for Portuguese food in a local magazine. So it must be good. How wrong. The restaurant is marketed as crossover food (fusion? . The menu was small…good sign as I expected each dish to be perfect. Starters …we had the mussels in a sauce with chorizo. Ok. The chorizo was a cute idea but it made the broth inedibly salty. A shame as the broth is usually my favourite part. The Handkase was strangely green and strangely chewy. Main course … the good first...lamb was incredibly tender, well seasoned and the quince gave the dish a nice sweet taste. It then went downhill. The cod dish. The cod was not seasoned (not even salt~gasp but the mash that it was sitting on had very salty olives in it. It was also accompanied by a strangely cold carrot salad. The octopus dish, octopus was beautifully braised with a good chewy tenderness and obviously good product but again the mash of chickpeas were strangely overwhelming in volume. It didn't soak up any of the sauce and stood there in its own lonesome crunchy self. The dish was also accompanied by a lukewarm spinach salad. This difference in temperatures in one dish was a bit offputting. What was most disappointing was the service. I admit that it was quite a full house that night (even though it was too cold for anyone to use the outside tables but it took an average of 2 hours to get our 2 courses. We would have loved to try the desserts (me being a complete nata fan and the fig tart also looked good, but with the meal taking so long we were a bit concerned with the timing. Overall, the idea of a fusion Portuguese cuisine is good. The produce were obviously of high quality, the techniques were all there (cannot fault how tender the main proteins were but the seasoning failed and the concept of cold salad with a warm dish in one plate, together, didn't really work. Maybe it was the Chef's night off?

Food: fresh prepared, good quality, nicely arranged on the plate, flexible kitchen, original portuguese flavor Drinks: nice wine selection, good selection of beer and soft drinks Service: super friendly, attentive and prompt

The restaurant has only 3 starters and 4 main courses that are changing every month. This by itself is a nice idea. Location is cosy. But the main courses has nothing to do with Portuguese cuisine, we had one main dish with steak and pepperoni (not particular at all; more similar to Asian food) and one with chicken and smashed potatoes (quite insignificant). Main courses are around 20€. Pastis de Nata were very nice.

Zum einen ist der Rahmen dieses kleinen Restaurants im Nordend sehr angenehm. Zum anderen ist erfreulich, dass es eine nur kleine - mithin übersichtliche - Speisekarte gibt. Und die Küche ist, wie man weiß wenn man dort einkehrt, eindeutig portugiesisch. Es gibt also allerhand Fisch (auch Bacalhao, der berühmte Trockenfisch), aber auch gute Gerichte mit Schweinefleisch.Die portugiesischen Weine sind achtbar und durchweg erschwinglich (auch wenn es nicht allzu viele Weine im Glas gibt).Besonders lobenswert ist der freundliche Service.Dass keine Kreditkarten oder EC-Karten akzeptiert werden, kann man als Manko ansehen.Interessant sind die Öffnungszeiten von Donnerstag bis Montag von 18 bis 23 Uhr, also Dienstag und Mittwoch geschlossen.

Wir haben ein tolles Essen genossen. Vorspeise Dalai mit Fisch und Handkäse. Hauptspeise einmal Fleisch und einmal Meeresfrüchte mit Reis im Topf. Das Essen und die dazu bestellten Weine waten super. Ebenso das Dessert, es erinnert an Lissabon.Der Service war perfekt.Fazit: sehr empfehlenswert