PUBS = bad food + noise. That is the equation that usually applies at many pubs around the SAR, but, on both counts, the Portucale Restaurant and Pub in Causeway Bay can count itself among the minority.
For a start, the restaurant offers a more exciting selection than boring bangers and mash or steak and kidney pie. With a name like Portucale, it is not a far stretch of the imagination to conclude that it offers Portuguese fare.
But we could not help doing a double-take when we discovered how good the food was.
The second impressive thing about the place is how quiet it is compared with a lot of other restaurants in Hong Kong (let's not even go into noise levels at pubs).
Granted, it was a Tuesday when we visited, and there weren't many diners there, but even the background music sounded just that - far in the background.
The Portucale - which has another branch in Lockhart Road, Wan Chai - is clean and cosy, with a wooden decor that makes it look like a hunting lodge.
