In Short
Portuguese restaurant in Hamburg: We spent New Year’s Eve at D. José. The Portuguese restaurant is huge and offers a wide selection of dishes. Unfortunately, there is not much choice for vegetarians and vegans. The dishes were tasty and the service was very nice, however, the food lacked a little authenticity for us. Nevertheless, we had a nice evening!
New Year’s Eve at D. José
Hm, where do I start? It was New Year’s Eve again and spontaneously we decided to spend the evening with four people in Hamburg. So we also had to find a restaurant. We wanted to go to the “Portugiesenviertel” and find a restaurant without an evening menu. In fact, we were able to get a table at D. José.
D. José was founded 30 years ago by José Sequeira with the aim of bringing Portuguese culture to Hamburg. The menu offers accordingly many Portuguese dishes and the fitting drinks. Also the staff is not German, on this evening we heard the service speak a lot of Spanish and Portuguese.
The Ambience of the Portuguese Restaurant
The restaurant is very large and winding. On this particular New Year’s Eve, you could reserve the tables for certain predefined time periods. We opted for 19:15-21:00. When we arrived, we were taken directly to our table. Already here we noticed the large number of tables, all relatively close to each other, filling the large restaurant. Although the individual groups of tables are somewhat separated by decorative walls, you can still see and hear the people around you.
The volume in particular was a big gripe for us. Our time slot was apparently completely booked and in our opinion, the ambiance suffered greatly. It was very loud and the air throughout the restaurant was very unpleasant. Since it was quite cold outside, you could not open the windows all the way and could only tilt small windows. However, this resulted in a large, stuffy, crowded room.
Want more nationality restaurants? Check out our reviews of Picasso (Spanish), Ti Breizh (French) and Tschebull (Austrian)!
Our Choice of Dishes
But back to the table. We were seated in a corner with other tables around us, so it was even a little difficult for the waiter to reach us. After a few minutes we got the menu and were able to order our drinks.
To celebrate, we all ordered sparkling wine and a large bottle of water. The menu offers a wide selection of many different (Portuguese) dishes. Especially fish lovers will get their money’s worth. However, meat dishes and some vegetarian dishes can also be found. Only vegan dishes come a little too short.
We decided on New Year’s Eve for:
- Appetizers plate (with Serrano ham, chorizo, various cheeses)
- Spanish tortilla
- Skewer with different kinds of meat (with fries and rice)
- Chicken in clay pot (with potatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes and peppers)
Appetizers
With our drinks also came a basket with bread and a delicious garlic dip. Although the restaurant was very crowded, the food came pretty quickly. After only about 10-15 minutes, we had our appetizers in front of us. The plates were very simple in design, and the presentation was not the greatest. Some of it actually looked a bit “thrown on top”. The taste was also okay, the Parma ham was very tasty, some other components of the plate tasted rather unspectacular. The small portion of tortilla was particularly tasty and also perfect as an appetizer for us.
Our Main Course
After a short break, our main courses arrived. Again, it must be mentioned that the service was very fast despite a full house. The presentation of the dishes was kept quite simple. The dishes also seemed very “simple”, maybe it was because there were so many guests on this New Year’s Eve and everything had to go a little faster.
The chicken in the clay pot tasted very delicious and is worth a recommendation. Here, you also had the feeling that it was an authentic Portuguese dish. Unfortunately, this was not the case with the other plates. In general, the meat in the dishes tasted high quality. All of the dishes were very tasty, but they lacked that certain something. If you are lacking sauces, herb butter or other garnishes, you have to pay about 2-3 € extra.
Summary
All in all, we have to say that we missed quite a bit about both the ambiance and the food itself. We cannot say that the restaurant took us on a trip to Portugal. It may be that it was because we were there on New Year’s Eve. However, perhaps just then, on such an occasion, the evening should be even better designed for the guests.
Overall Rating
Portuguese Restaurant in Hamburg: D. José – Click here to get to their website.
