Casa Da Insua - Penalva do Castelo

Plush restaurant in an historic plush hotel, worth a booking to ensure a safe table reservation, this space does not cater to a crowd. Very attentive staff provided a menu in Portuguese and English with regional and seasonal dishes with a wine choices direct from their own winery. A small tasting bowl compliments of the chef arrived before bread and other chosen food courses. The veal and pork cheeks both our choice, came perfectly cooked and tender. The wine was tasty and moorish. The deserts local, fresh and tasty. The portions are more than adequate and you won’t be leaving hungry. This is a high end 5 star restaurant in a 5 star hotel, and a perfect end to a day relaxing and sightseeing with the perfect local views.

My wife and I had the gastro meal deal for dinner. The room is beautifully furnished and we were shown to our seats promptly. It was busy at 7.30pm and the front of house staff and kitchen staff struggled at times. Our courses were slightly too long in arriving, but they were working flat out. We were given a few free nibbles plus a wide choice of local breads; all delicious. My wife chose the beetroot salad and I had the cod confit, both excellent. The mains of squid ink pasta and octopus rice were fabulous. I finished with a 'thistle pudding ', a local type of bread pudding which was satisfactory. We chose the reserve house wine (they produce their own wine onsite). Overall a very good meal

We were tired and didn't want to drive, so we went down to the hotel dining room for dinner on a Saturday night. A mistake. Although the atmosphere is lovely, the food was sad. Bread was minimal and not good quality and the my pasta with vegetables was pathetic. Overcooked fusilli and barely any vegetables in a tomato sauce that tasted like it came out of a bottle. Also, we got to the restaurant about 45 minutes before it stopped serving. As we waited for our food and while we ate, servers noisily closed down other tables around us not a very pleasant environment. They weren't very attentive to us and seemed more interested in getting the room ready for breakfast the next day. Luckily the wine was good.

We had dinner here the first night we arrived at the hotel, but did not go back. The restaurant is in a modern extension tacked onto the side of the main house and is total lacking in atmosphere. It reminded me of a village hall or scout hut. The menu was not particularly inspiring and my wife and I both had some difficulty finding dishes that appealed. The wine list was heavily biased towards Casa da Insua wines which were very pricey. The cheapest was a young wine at €17, whilst the Reservas started at €30 and the Gran Reserva was €55. Our meal started off well with an amuse bouche which was very tasty. For our first course we both chose the beef carpaccio which was fine, although the cheese on it was in lumps rather than shavings, and we thought the portion size did not merit the €17 price tag. For or main courses I chose sea bream fillets which looked very pretty on the plate, but the fish was badly over cooked and dry whilst the skin left on the fish was soggy and inedible. The only decent thing on the plate were the few pieces of potato. My wife chose a prawn and monkfish rice dish (similar to a risotto). The dish was served in a bowl that was so hot that the fish continued to cook in the bowl it was almost as if the bowl had been heated up in a microwave. This was pointed out to the waiter who offered to change the dish, but by then it was too late. When my wife had finished all she was willing to eat the bottom of the bowl was still almost to hot to handle. To be fair, we were not charged for this dish. We did decide to risk a dessert but my citrus tart did not taste of much citrus, and the pastry was soggy as if it had been left ina a fridge for 2 or 3 days. When we arrived at the restaurant there was a large coach party in obviously having dinner with a wine tasting. When they left the staff cleared the table they had used and then proceeded to move the furniture about in a very noisy way whilst people were still trying to eat. This is not what I would expect. All told a disappointing experience.

Worst meal of our two week tour of paradors. Unusually for a parador the bread was good but that's it. Chestnut soup: mainly Cornelius. Trout done in an impenetrable batter .Duck with Orange: the Orange was all mushed up with a weird rice pudding. Wine so bad we left it unfinished !!!Waited to sign the bill so long that we walked out. Staff, dreadful attitude, alternating between fearful and arrogant probably realising that they won't have a job for long !