Casa do Frango

When I mentioned I was going to Casa do Frango to a few different people, I received a identical response.

While I am one to find uniformity easier to process, when it relates in the same way to a particular activity, you have to wonder if they are on to something.  I’ll let you know the message in the end, so that it doesn’t colour your thoughts as you look through this review.

When I entered, I liked the dining room.

Industrial chic.  Exposed brickwork, high ceilings, industrial beams.

Plants and trees spread around.

Table ware unremarkable.  Although that might be seen as negative, unexciting is good sometimes as they avoided setting the wrong impression.  I have previously been served food on the branded predecessor silver wear.  Guess that place got a good deal when they were moving in.

Starters

Chilli garlic prawns, wild Atlantic tiger prawns fried in olive oil, garlic, chilli.  Decently large specimens.  Great to look at (although they might have wanted to trim the feelers), in taste they were ok but in texture a bit overcooked.

Bacalhau a bras, Portuguese dish of cod, egg, olives, matchstick potatoes.  A bit of a strange dish.  The cod was fairly unremarkable, it had the consistency of mush and felt like that too.  The matchstick potatoes didn’t really taste of much.  Taken all together, it was like eating mash potatoes with some texture.

Mains

Grilled seabass fillet served with lemon butter and chives.  I should have read this more carefully.  This was a (singular) fillet.  Not particularly well done.  Could get this at the supermarket for £2.  So the 1000% markup was a little unwelcome.  As per the discussion, it tasted like it had  been grilled, and then served with a lemon on the side.  I couldn’t see the chives though.

Crispy pork belly ribs, slow-roasted Hampshire x Duroc free range pork, served with lemon and garlic glaze.  If there is one thing I find more irritating then use the word “literally” when it is anything but overuse of the letter “x”.  What does “Hampshire x Duroc” mean?  Does it mean, in another annoying word, a collab (a collaboration)?  Hampshire pork raised in Duroc (I don’t know what that means).  Some cross breeding of pigs?  Or perhaps, it is showing lack of imagination or that the writer couldn’t figure out what to say next.  In that same way that the name confused me, the food was that too.  As it couldn’t seem to make up its mind of whether it was to be an unabashed fatty and juicy slab of meat or a more crisp one as depending on the side you ate, it could be both.

Casa rice, their signature rice cooked with smoky chorizo, crispy chicken skin, peas and fried plantain.  This was probably the highlight of the meal.  The grains were nicely separate (as opposed to mush), the chorizo tasteful, the chicken skin crispy and flavourful and the plantain soft and with a sweet aftertaste.

Casa slaw, carrot, cabbage, fresh herbs.  I get this is their way of saying that this is the “house salad” as casa = house.  In which case, it was as mundane as the title suggests.

Tender stem broccoli.  Grilled but nothing to knock it out of the park, or perhaps I should say plate.

Starting with the sandwich method of feedback.  It was a great venue.  The service was friendly and prompt.  The location was excellent.  As for the middle of the sandwich, most of the dishes were not “bad” if you define bad as leaving you running for the toilet.  However, they weren’t “good” if you define that as wanting to come back.  Instead it was as several people warned before I arrived, it’s like an upmarket Nandos.  On that, I think collective crowdsourcing of thoughts is right.  Although the venue was nice.

Score

A quieteating 6/10.

Lunch (2 course equivalent) was GBP40 excluding drinks and service.

Casa do Frango

32 Southwark St,
London SE1 1TU